Cats experience significant stress in shelter environments that threatens their welfare and adoption success. Evidence-based shelter management significantly improves cat welfare outcomes.
Cat welfare in shelters requires specific attention to feline territorial and stress vulnerability that differs significantly from dog welfare management. The most immediately impactful welfare improvement for sheltered cats is provision of hiding spaces in every housing unit, enabling cats to retreat from visual exposure that causes continuous stress in open-faced housing. This simple intervention has been shown to reduce illness rates, shorten length of stay, and improve adoption outcomes, making it one of the most cost-effective welfare investments available to shelters. Foster programmes that remove cats from the shelter environment entirely are particularly valuable for cats with long stays, those with chronic stress-related illness, and those whose welfare needs cannot be adequately met in any shelter environment.