Care for Cats is a long-term project aimed at increasing the value of owned, homeless and feral cats in Canada. Care for Cats in 2011 was CFC’s first Canada-wide campaign that addressed the issue of cat overpopulation and recognizes that people, not cats, are the problem. YOC focused awareness on three messages: spay/neuter, routine veterinary care, identification and registration of felines. This campaign resulted in an increased understanding of the most popular pet in Canada – the cat. YOC saw the fruits of collaborating as an industry 16,995 cats were registered and 22,489 cat recoveries.
All sectors of the Canadian pet industry have and will present a powerful and unified message about responsible cat ownership by:
- encouraging community collaboration across all industry sectors;
- providing accurate resources;
- creating community spay/neuter and vet care assistance programs;
- developing and sharing effective methods of delivering spay/neuter financial assistance programs;
- improving existing Trap/Neuter/Return programs and introducing TNR to new communities;
- creating a national time-line of events such as adopt-a-thons and an identification week; and,
- collecting and evaluating national metrics to measure success.
2012 Focusing on Preventive Healthcare for Cats
The Canadian Veterinary Medical Association and Ontario Veterinary Medical Association are working with Care for Cats to increase the reach and scope of the project. This year’s focus will be on the message of the need for preventative healthcare for cats. The success of the campaign is largely due to the fact that these messages will be delivered by all sectors of the pet industry and the pet family will hear a unified voice throughout the communities.
