Feline renal transplantation is performed in some countries to treat end-stage kidney disease, raising profound welfare and ethical questions about donor cat management.
Feline kidney transplantation involves performing major abdominal surgery on a healthy donor cat — a direct welfare harm to a non-consenting animal for the benefit of another. The donor experiences surgical pain, recovery, and lifelong monitoring with only one kidney. Institutions offering transplants require mandatory donor adoption, ensuring ongoing welfare monitoring and preventing anonymous use of donor animals. The recipient's welfare benefit is real: transplantation can provide years of good-quality life with functioning renal capacity. Ethicists debate whether subjecting a healthy cat to surgery is ever justified for another animal's benefit. IMHA-related complications and immunosuppressive medication side effects in recipients add further welfare complexity. This procedure represents one of the most ethically contested interventions in veterinary medicine.