In fact, our recent studies show unowned cats have significantly shorter lives than pet cats, with less than half surviving their first year. Like their feral counterparts, unowned cats are a public health threat, they can fight with or transmit diseases to pet cats, and they kill native wildlife.Īnd, of course, they themselves suffer poor welfare. Feral cats, on the other hand, live in the wild and can survive without relying on people for food. Unowned stray cats rely heavily on human settlements for food and shelter and breed freely. Unowned cats are sometimes called “stray” or “semi-feral”: they, or their parents, were once owned by humans but are now abandoned or lost.
Australia is home to hordes of unowned cats, with an estimated 700,000 living without appropriate care in urban areas, around rubbish dumps or on farms. Odds are, if you’ve seen a cat prowling around your neighbourhood, it doesn’t have an owner.
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