Wednesday, April 1, 2009

CATalyst Names Its 2009 Top 10 Cat Friendly Cities

The CATalyst Council, an association of the veterinary community, academia, nonprofit organizations, and animal welfare organizations, announced their 2009 top 10 most cat friendly cities, according to a Fox Business report. In no particular order, the aforementioned top 10 cat friendly cities are: Tampa, Phoenix, San Francisco, Portland (Ore.), Denver, Boston, Seattle, San Diego, Atlanta and Minneapolis.

The CATalyst criteria for a city's inclusion in their top 10, included cat ownership per capita, level of veterinary care, microchipping and cat-friendly local ordinances. For the 2010 list, the CATalyst Council plans to include shelter data as an additional inclusion criteria.

According to the Fox business report, despite dogs being called "man's best friend," cats are in reality America's number one companion, outnumbering dogs by 10 million nationwide among the pet owning public. It is this fact that motivates CATalyst to applaud and honor cities whose feline friendly policies and attitudes recognize the importance of felines in American lives.

The CATalyst Council hopes that bringing felines to the forefront in this manner will also help in their efforts to advocate for the proper care and attention that these intelligent and sensitive creatures deserve. Despite being America's number one pet, care of cats lags behind that of the dog, with significantly less cats receiving regular veterinary care compared to dogs, and animal shelters generally seeing more cats given up than dogs. This naming of the top 10 cat friendly cities is but one step in the CATalyst Council's campaign to raise feline welfare awareness, which is to include to government, animal welfare organizations, shelters, and the general public, according to CATalyst director Dr. Jane E Brunt. For more information, please visit their link below:

http://www.catalystcouncil.org

I must say, I was quite pleased to learn that Tampa, a prominent city in my home state of Florida, made the list.

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