How many feral cats are there in Alachua County, FL?
A recent study estimated that there are approximately 36,000 feral and stray cats in Alachua County that were being fed by 12% of households. No one knows how many other homeless cats are not being fed. At the same time, there are an estimated 45,000 household pet cats in the county. This suggests that at least 44% of cats in Alachua County are homeless. The study also found that 90% of pet cats were spayed or neutered, as opposed to only 11% of the feral and stray cats. Taken together, these findings suggest that homeless cats are the most significant source of cat overpopulation. The result is that more than 4,000 cats each year end up at the Animal Services shelter. The continued imbalance between the number of cats and the number of homes leads to the euthanasia of 69% of all cats that enter the shelter, giving Alachua County one of the highest euthanasia rates in the nation (26 per 1000 residents).
