Whether or not to castrate a gravid cat in an animal shelter - an analysis of the outcome

Abstract

A flow chart was used to estimate the number of rehomable cats per 100 queens that enter a shelter in two different situations. In the first situation a fictive shelter spayed all their female cats, in the second situation a fictive shelter never knowingly spayed a gravid cat. Information from literature about the number of survivors per step in the chart was used to calculate the final numbers. When assuming a 100 percent effectivity of gravidity diagnostics the number of rehomable cats per 100 queens was 100 and 140 respectively.