Cats have surpassed dogs as the most popular pet in the United States with 38.4 million households owning an estimated 88.3 million cats.  Despite this popularity, less than 2% of cats entering animal shelters nationally are ever reclaimed by their owners.  In two recent studies, among a cohort of owners searching for their lost cats and dogs, only 18% of cats had some form of identification compared to 48% of dogs.  This lack of identification of cats and the inability of shelters to locate owners results in serious welfare concerns for cats and often leads to euthanasia due to overcrowding.  We will study the success of three different types of collars for pet cats over a six-month period. We will also implant identification microchips and test their readability six months later.  We hypothesize that cats can successfully wear all three types of collars, that the majority of cats will still be wearing a collar six months after placement, and that close to 100% of cats will have a functioning readable microchip six months after implantation.

This study is a multi-institutional collaboration between veterinary colleges at the University of Florida, Ohio State University, Cornell University, and Texas A&M University and is funded by the Humane Society of the United States. The UF component is being conducted by Maddie’s® Shelter Medicine Research Fellow Lauren Unger.