Caged Cats of America
by Michael
(London, UK)
This is about the caged cats of America. It is news to me and news generally (in one indirect way) in that I was prompted to look into it by a story I read regarding dogs. The director of Iowa Voters for Companion Animals, Mary LaHay, was explaining the poor conditions under which dogs are breed by puppy mill owners in the USA during a meeting at the Humane Society of North Iowa. She was heckled by dog breeders.
On the Iowa Voters for Companion Animals website, there is reference to the laws and regulations regarding minimum standards of husbandry in the USA under federal companion animal welfare law, the Animal Welfare Act and Animal Welfare Regulations, which are the requirements that USDA commercial dog breeders are required to apply.
It got me thinking, “what about cats?”. There are kitten mills too. What are the minimum standards in respect of the cages that a cat breeder selling 25 or more cats per year, which were born and raised on his or her premises or who maintains a total of four or more breeding female cats, has to apply? These are the cat enclosures (outdoors a lot of the time) where cats live.
The picture below shows the minimum space requirement of a cage under these regulations:
In words:
Prior to February 15, 1994 each cat housed in any primary enclosure shall be provided a minimum of 21/2 square feet of floor space;(ii) On and after February 15, 1994:(A) Each primary enclosure housing cats must be at least 24 in. high (60.96cm);
Cats that are over 8.8 lbs in weight have more ceiling space as I read the regulations but the floor space remains the same (wrong? – please leave a comment). Actually the regulations in places are badly worded I think so are not as clear as they might be.
The full regulations are here. They cover all aspects.
So what do I think? Horror basically. Is this the USA in the 21st century or Asia last century(sorry Asia but your record of animal husbandry is not good)? Caged Cats of America is an apt description if breeders of large numbers of cats stick to the minimum standards. This is the kind of cruelty perpetrated by the cat declawing veterinarians.
From Caged Cats of America to Cat News
Photo of cat inside cage: published under a creative commons license – Attribution 2.0 Generic – photo by sasha {fujin}