In a way it does save lives by preventing unwanted lives from coming into being in the first place. If the only place to get a kitten or a cat is from a shelter or from breeders who only breed when there is enough demand for kittens, then eventually shelters will no longer be as needed and all may be able to become no kill. Cats will no longer be put down by the millions because the only ones born will be ones bred when people want them.
In the US, only 3% of cat owners report getting their cat "from a breeder." Note that the 3% figure refers to cats coming from any breeder, including backyard breeders and commercial breeders... so the number of cats coming from hobby breeders is just a small percentage of that! Most people do not get a cat from any type of breeder... 31% of owned cats came from a shelter or rescue, 28% from a friend or relative, 27% were found as a stray.
It seems some of the figures are different here. I lumped some categories together in my post, but the exact percentages they list here are:
The definition of "breeder" is probably not rigorous
"Overpopulation" of animals is very easily solved by killing the excess animals. But people who like animals find this unacceptable. If the point were to solve societal problems caused by animal overpopulation, killing more animals would be the solution (as has been used heavily in the past, and is the point of old-fashioned animal control agencies). So if a community is using spay/neuter instead of killing, the only point is to save animals' lives, and to not anger people who like animals.
Yes, the feral/stray population is the biggest issue, I think. The majority of ferals aren't fixed, so TNR and "working cat" relocation programs are a very important part of solving the problem. The majority of owned cats in the US are already fixed; for those that aren't yet fixed, the most common reason cited by owners is cost, so easily accessible low-cost spay/neuter programs are really important, too.Our weather can be more extreme in the winter like in the northern US, so I am guessing that helps keep the feral/stray population down. They also claim in the report that 96% of all cats are fixed, so that seems very encouraging
I concur. This is how I view it.
Yes yes! This is why so many of us here are doing TnR or working with rescues to foster. I love when Barn cats get adopted out. We don't have many here as we are too urban but still, sometimes a rescue will find someone a little out of the way to take in a few barn cats. It's harder to find but doable.
