Where do all the missing cats go?

[RichardOsmanTheSecond]

Another poster for a missing cat has been added to my garden fence (people dont realise it's private property but for the most part I dont mind too much).

There are a lot of cats in the area and my local Facebook group is full of "have you seen my cat?".

Occasionally there will be a spate of anti-freeze (that happened recently) and sometimes the police will put out a notice that people are lamping for dog fights. Apparently dog and cock fights are big underground activities in my city which is wtf.

Im guessing a large number are hit by cars but then either the driver would take it to the vet or someone would see the cat on the road. We do get occasional "dead cat on high street" posts. We dont see road sweepers really.

A small proportion I guess are "adopted" or mistaken for strays so are taken to rescue centres etc

But what about all the others? They cant all be hit by cars and never found?

A lot of them will just be wandering, it happens a lot in the summer, then the owner won't bother to take the poster down when they return. Also probably more than you think are adopted by 'kindly' idiots who fail to check them for chips at the vet.

A high ranking Dr I knew used to load up his car with neighbouring dcats and drop them off in woods far away.
To keep them out of his garden.
Utter twat.

People steal cats all the time but don't class it as stealing

You'll find there's a good portion of people who's cats "found them", who have a cat that they didn't buy, adopt etc themselves but randomly turned up. People start feeding them etc, and sometimes make surface efforts to find their original home but keep them

Road fatalities, but also just general cat injuries are high. They live a fairly high risk lifestyle of road running, under car sleeping, scrapping, roof jumping and exploring dangerous areas. Other animals will eat cats (if dead) etc, and ill cats will often leave home, or hide. There's a good chance that lots of them will have died in quiet places, bushes, abandoned ground etc.

I remember there being a petition because roadsweepers, and railway workers were just disposing of deceased cats without checking chips etc

Nobody is obliged to take a cat to the vets if their car hits them - unfortunately. I wish this would change.

It took us 3 days to find our cat who'd been hit by a car and we had searched for him. I think the postman said he'd seen a body. Whoever hit him obviously didn't stop.

We have occasionally lost other cats for a couple of days when I think they have got locked in somewhere

There was a dreadful time many years ago when some were being taken for the fur trade but I think that has stopped

I don't know the answer. We are very particular about getting ours in by a certain time at night and trying to keep them in in the morning to avoid the morning rush, it also gives the wildlife a sporting chance😀

The local council should have a phone number you can ring to report a dead animal, and someone will pick it up. They usually keep a record of cats and dogs, so if your pet is missing that's one place you should ask if they've seen it.
Locally, people were encouraged to shave a strip down their cats back as there was such a problem with them being taken for the fur trade, that seems to have stopped as its now a specific criminal offence to steal a pet (Pet Abduction Act 2024).
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2024/16/contents

Thats interesting about the shaved thing.
A while ago there were lots of posts by people saying they had seen so many cats with a shaved bit, why is somebody abusing them etc. I wonder whether it was actually owners just trying to keep them safe?

PILs ‘stole’ cats over the years, just by feeding them and the cats chose to stay with them, they were free roaming.

Road accidents- it can be very hard to identify a cat corpse, the bodies are fed on as carrion or disposed of by street cleaners.

'Adoption'- our cat was 'adopted' by a woman who started feeding her and then decided she should be 'indoors' so she couldn't come home anymore. After a few months cat got mildly ill, and the woman decided she didn't fancy paying the vets bill so traced the chip and returned her to us.
Similarly, someone I know 'adopted' a neighbour's cat because it was 'too thin'. Again, same tactic, started with feeding and then stopped it leaving for it's home by making it indoors only. Eventually, neighbours distraught daughter reclaimed it.
People seem to have very skewed views of what a healthy weight is for a cat. Facebook posts on the community forum often feature cats who are perfectly normal or even a bit podgy being described as 'clearly malnourished'.

Some might be taken for lamping (although it's much easier to get hold of unwanted kittens than it is puppies for this purpose). Some do genuinely wander off and can't find their way back- lifespans for feral cats are quite low I think.

Im guessing a large number are hit by cars but then either the driver would take it to the vet or someone would see the cat on the road.

Not necessarily. I hit a cat several years ago on the outskirts of my village, travelling ~30mph in darkness. It darted out of the hedge and straight under the wheels, no chance of stopping or avoiding it. I emergency stopped, turned round, stuck the headlights on full beam and there was nothing there. No sign of anything at all. I went home, got a torch and DH, we both searched for ages, and couldn't find it. I assume the cat was alive and mobile enough to have gone back into the hedge/ditch, and then there was no chance of us finding it. We went back in daylight and still couldn't find any sign of it. I expect it died overnight, but without a clear view of it I couldn't tell you what colour it was, never mind identify it well enough to reply to a missing cat poster.

I've wondered this myself. Apparently some cats (and dogs) are stolen to train fighting dogs on (is this what you mean by "lamping"? Where I am, lamping means hunting hares, deer etc by night with greyhounds or lurchers, using powerful lamps shining across fields to locate prey (as their eyes reflect the light)).

But anyway - what happens to the corpses of all these cats and dogs used in dog fighting? They are evidence of a crime committed, so presumanly can't be disposed of in bins, and since these activities seem to take place in towns, there isn't much space to bury them without arousing suspicion. And you wouldn't think people would want to put them in their cars to take them elsewhere...so what happens to them?

I think they all move to my area. My local FB pages are full of the opposite posts - 'I found this cat' with picture of obviously healthy cat, wearing a collar, clearly been out minding it's own business, and been scooped up and whisked away by a random person.

One of ours went missing shortly after a house move - turned up in a nearby forest 2 years later!! A woman living in a cottage in the grounds had been feeding her but grew concerned as winter began that she could actually be a homeless cat. Cats Protection volunteers were able to trap her and scan her chip - most bizarre Saturday evening of my life when they rang and told me they’d found DCat..! We were all totally convinced that she was long gone after no traces or sightings for years and to be perfectly honest I didn’t think she’d still be living.

I think a large proportion get “adopted”

any found cat post on social media and the comments are all aw you have a cat now, he’s chosen you, it’s the cat distribution system at work.

it seems acceptable to just keep a cat that wanders in your direction.

i hate the “cat distribution system”. It’s just condoning theft/catnapping.

at least make some sort of half arsed effort to find an owner.

I see those posts too. When the cat is clearly well fed and has a collar FFS leave it alone to go home.

I wonder this too! My cat went missing 3 years ago - it’s a long story but we never got him back but I spent a lot of time on the local lost pet facebook group! Yes some find their way back but many don’t!

I cat proofed my garden when I got 2 new rescues! There are just too many horrible things happen to cat!

Yes, we get a lot of posts that are along the lines of "look at this perfectly healthy looking cat that keeps coming into my garden. It meowed at me so I gave it some ham and now it keeps coming back. It must be hungry because it always eats everything I put out. I thinks it's a stray".

Luckily we dont get many cat distribution replies. Most people point out the reasons why it doesnt look like a stray and why they need to stop feeding it.

Round here the most recent posters say 'not chipped' 😡 and 'doesn't respond to name' and 'very shy'. Responsible ownership starts with chipping. I really hope the new rules on chipping will stop that from occuring.

In the country I'm from, council/road workers have to check chips on dead cats/pets, and keep the body in storage (frozen) for 2 weeks. I think it's pretty shit that that isn't basic here. There is no obligation to microchip, but most people do because they know they'll get their pet back, and it's only €40 or so.

Something similar happened to us. Our cat was being looked after by my grandad when she escaped and ended up living wild for two years. Fortunately for her, she got lost in a quiet cul-de-sac full of kind, well-off elderly ladies who clearly took turns feeding her and letting her nap in their houses. One family even tried to adopt her—until they discovered how badly she shed her winter coat. Miraculously, they took her to the vet, who scanned her microchip and got in touch with us. I was convinced she’d died, so it was quite a shock. By then, we’d already adopted a puppy and were expecting our first baby!

Most of them are at my dad’s 😉. He is a magnet for other people’s cats. Went around the other week and there were 5 either in the house or garden. None of them his. They just like it there!

I’ve lost 2 on the road and the bastards that hit them just left them to die. I think most that go missing long term are dead sadly.

I chose my current house specifically for my cats to try and keep them safe and they are territorial little buggers so no waifs and strays come here. But in the past we have rehomed many a stray, it’s true that cats won’t stay where they aren’t happy.

There’s such a large number that aren’t chipped (legal requirement) and go missing. If they get picked up by a rescue they will get rehomed as no proof of ownerships if they get in a rta I know my council hold unchipped cats for a week and chipped for a month before they dispose of them. Also a lot of people don’t keep chip info up to date so again most likely will go into rescue

If dog fighting is an issue in your area that could absolutely be why. Cats are often used as bait, to get the dogs aggressive. It’s awful and a reason mine won’t go out and roam)that, traffic, and people stealing cats who have a home).

The cat redistribution system does its job most of the time, I think.

Small animal road kill often doesn’t last that long. Between scavengers and being run over multiple times, the remains get dispersed.

round here a lot of dead cats get eaten by birds, circle of life

Killed on the road, taken in by someone else, turn feral, end up in a rescue.