Feral Cat Statistics - Chicago

• Estimated 0.7 owned cats per household (note: 2000 census, Chicago >1,000,000 households), and 0.5 FERALS per household, thus >700,000 owned Chicago cats and 500,000 ferals in Chicago.

• Owned cats are spayed/neutered 82-91% of the time.  But the early fertility of cats can lead to many "oops" litters prior to sterilization. Feral cats are estimated to be spayed/neutered 2% of the time.

• 50-60% of owned cats are allowed to roam freely outdoors, despite many risks to health and life.

• Peak pregnancies in feral cats are in February and March (immediately preceding our surge in kitten intake). 

• Ferals have an average of 1.4 litters per year, with an average 3.5 live births. Kitten mortality at three months is already 48%.   Six months it is 67%. Two-thirds die prior to reproduction.

• Example: let say there are 50,000 ferals in Chicago, not 500,000 -- half female=25,000.
  25,000 females having 1.4 litters a year is 35,000 litters.
  These 35,000 litters with 3.5 live births each=122,500 live births.
  Two-thirds die by six months= 82,000 deaths (or if you think the estimate is 500,000 ferals multiply by 10).

Feral kittens are the single largest population of dying or killed animals in Chicago.