Introduction – May 21, 2022: I am revisiting this page almost 7 years after I first wrote it in 2015. It’s a good thing to revisit pages especially when the topic is like this one. The proposal was that all indoor cats should wear an orange collar with a name tag. Should they escape their home anybody in the neighbourhood who is participating in the project would know that the cat has escaped and that they are full-time indoor cats. They can then return the cat to the owner. The result: less lost cats.
Kitty Convict Project
It is called The Kitty Convict Project and it is still going seven years after it was proposed and created. The person who created this project, Matthew Inman, correctly states that 26% of lost dogs are reported and returned home but for cats it is less than 5% and the reasons, he states, are (1) more dogs than cats have ID collars, (2) cats are better at hiding and (3) when a dog is running around loose outside, people assume that he or she is lost but when they see a cat loose in the neighbourhood, they assume that they are an outdoor cat and don’t take any notice. So, the motivation for a wearable marker that a cat should be at home is a very good one.
Click this for a printable promo.
In 2015 I was sceptical about it as you can see below. The Kitty Convict project website has a link to Amazon where you can buy brightly coloured collars but they are not orange, they are pink.
I don’t know how popular it became. I don’t have any reports on it. Their website is still live but I don’t see any records or reports of what is happening on the ground concerning the project.
Ironically, since the project was commenced somebody devised a brightly coloured cat collar not for the reasons stated above but to stop cats preying on birds. The bright colour gives a bird forewarning that a cat is coming.
Birdbesafe collar – a different purpose
It seems to me that the Kitty Convict Project might be able to tie up with the anti-predation project and use the same sort of collar. It would be a dual-purpose collar, one to stop the cat preying on birds and another to allow neighbours to return the cat to their owner should they become lost.
Original article written in 2015
USA – December 3, 2015: The creator, Matthew Inman, of a sicko computer game (for me) called “Exploding Kittens” (I have been unkind but the name is horrible) has come up with an idea that merits a mention and hopefully some discussion. He wants to make things right with cats. It seems that even though I have not played the game he realises that it is exploitative of the domestic cat population. But that is irrelevant, I guess, in this discussion.
“It’s our form of cat atonement. Catonement,” said Inman
Matthew’s idea is that all indoor domestic cats should wear orange collars so that people can easily identify the cat as being owned and an indoor cat if he/she escapes and is roaming outside. You can then report the matter and try and catch him to reunite him with his owner.
That’s it. The reason why the collar should be orange is because it brands the cat as a “convict”. I suppose this is a reference to indoor cats being imprisoned in the family home and when outside they are said to have escaped like a convict from prison.
We know that many lost cats are not reunited with their owner and a good percentage find their way to a shelter where they can be euthanised as unwanted. Anything to minimise that scenario should be welcome.
I wonder though whether Matthew Inman is being serious – the idea looks a bit tongue-in-cheek. Nearly all full-time indoor cats are successfully kept indoors. I don’t believe there are many escapees. The problem with lost cats comes from indoor/outdoor cats who go walkabout and don’t return. That’s the way I see it.
In fact, many cats who have spent their whole lives indoors don’t walk through open doors to the outside because it is the unknown. They are conditioned to live inside.
Also, a lot of cat owners don’t like collars because they are unnatural and they can be dangerous unless they are quick release. This will be a barrier to the idea being taken up.
That said the suggestion is that the cat can wear any orange item, it need not be a collar – but what?
My gut feeling is that the idea is quite interesting but it does not tackle the problem of lost cats square on and it is also unworkable. I hope I am not being too negative on this.
See the cat convict page.
Below are some pages on lost cats.
Who is Woody? The special collar for indoor cats so that they’re identifiable if they escape seems like a good idea, but if your cat is orange (ginger to Brits) an orange collar may not be clearly discernable especially for the near-sighted like me. My boy has escaped over a dozen times in the last 12 years. He’s always comes back, on his own or via a neighbor. He’s sneaky. He gets around behind me. I usually don’t know he’s got out. He used to beat up all the neighbors’ cats (embarrassing!), and still comes back with fleas (expensive).
Thanks for sharing your point of view.
You are wrong. I have had several indoor cats in my life, and inevitably, one of them decides to try his luck and slip out with the dog. Or rip a screen and escape, ect… It happens about once a year or so, and the little furry b*stard is usually gone several hours before we know to even look for him. While I am not a fan of this game, I do think this is an excellent idea. Having just gone through this when furbutt slipped out of the house two nights ago and was out there during the tornado that ran through Dallas.
Thank you, Everycat. This news makes me very happy.
He’s also been booted off a site rub by an organisation endeavouring to save the critically endangered Scottish Wild Cat.