Adopting a Cat vs Buying a Cat

Animal Rescue (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When choosing to bring a cat into your household, there are a lot of potential questions to consider. Are you financially able to care for your cat? Will a cat interact well with your other pets? Is anyone in your household allergic to cats? However, before you address these issues, you have to make the choice of where you will begin looking for your future feline companion. In general, you will have two choices: adopting a cat from an animal shelter, and purchasing one of the cats for sale at a pet store or breeder. There are both positive and negative factors associated with each of these choices, which should influence your decision. 


Buying a Cat
Positive Aspects: When you purchase a cat, you will most likely be buying it from a pet store. If you are looking for a specific breed of cat, you may begin your search at a breeder that specializes in the breed you are searching for. When buying from a breeder, you will often get certification stating that your cat is purebred, which may make your cat eligible to participate in cat shows. Many cat shows require proof that a cat is purebred.
Negative Aspects: When purchasing a cat, you are supporting the “pet mills” that produce the animals that you see at many pet stores. In addition to this, thousands of cats are abandoned each year, and are in need of a loving home. Many of the animals in shelters will be euthanized, and by purchasing a cat, you are instead supporting the further breeding of more commercial cats. In addition to this, purchased cats may have genetic defects resulting from inbreeding or poor nutrition, which is common at many pet stores.


Adopting a Cat
Positive Aspects: When you choose to adopt a cat from an animal shelter, you are providing a loving, caring home for an animal that truly needs your love. Many cats in animal shelters are already litter-box trained, and are desperate for human attention. In addition to this, many animal shelters provide spaying/neutering, vaccinations and basic medical care for cats in their care for no extra charge. By adopting a cat from a shelter, you are saving it from being one of the thousands of cats that are euthanized at animal shelters each year.
Negative Aspects: If you do not adopt a cat from a reputable shelter, you may have to deal with improper medical care that occurred during a cat’s shelter care. Some cats from shelters may have been extensively abused, and may require extra care before they are able to interact with humans on a normal level.


Conclusion
In general, there are more benefits associated with adopting a cat from an animal shelter than from purchasing a cat from a breeder or pet store. Due to overcrowding in animal shelters, thousands of cats are killed each year simply because shelters do not have enough room. Adopting a cat from an animal shelter is less expensive as well, since many common medical care procedures are included in the small adoption fee from most shelters.