Question
A co-worker has been trying to get rid of kittens that she cannot keep. She has not been able to find people to adopt them, which is understandable since there are so many kittens being given away in the area all the time.
I assume this is a common situation for pet owners and animal lovers that find themselves with a litter of kittens.
I read that animal shelters are overrun with cats so millions of kittens brought into shelters each year are put down.
So when this co-worker said that she planned on releasing these kittens into the wild, it didn't sound like a bad idea in her situation, hence my curiosity:
Can kittens, under any circumstances, at the proper age, be released into a temperate forest and have a better chance of survival than being dropped off at a shelter?
Answer
Kittens in the Shelter
The ASPCA states
Of the cats entering shelters, approximately 37% are adopted, 41% are euthanized, and less than 5% of cats who came in as strays are returned to their owners.
However, I couldn't find statistics about the fate of kittens (versus adult cats). Generally, kittens are considered more adoptable. Adult cats who are found in shelters sometimes have behavioral or health problems that makes them more difficult to adopt.
I expect that kittens would be euthanized at a lower rate than the general cat population.
Feral Kittens
For kittens who were raised by a feral mother, a study available on the AMVA website reports:
Survival data were available for 169 kittens. Overall, 127 of the 169 (75%) kittens died (n = 87) or disappeared (40) before 6 months of age. ...Eighty-one of the 169 (48%) kittens died or disappeared before they were 100 days old.
Causes of death were determined for 41 of the 87 (47%) kittens reported to have died. Thirty-seven of the 41 (90%) died as a result of trauma, with attacks by stray and owned dogs (n = 18) and motor vehicle accident (10) being the most common types of trauma. Other types of trauma that resulted in > 1 death included falls from haylofts (n = 2), being stepped on by horses or people (3), and a suspected episode of infanticide (3).
Cause of death was not determined for 46 of the 87 (53%) kittens reported to have died, but many reportedly had signs of disease, including upper respiratory tract disease and diarrhea, prior to death.
The kittens who disappeared could have moved on to different territory, but it's also likely that they were eaten by predatory animals (so their corpses could not be recovered) and/or they were ill and found a quiet place to hide while they died (which made their corpses difficult to find).
Tame Kittens Released
I couldn't find any data on the fate of tame kittens who are released (often called "dumping"). These kittens may fare better than feral kittens (because they have several weeks of good food/care before having to forage for themselves) but may also lack important skills (such as where to look for food and how to hunt).
They are likely subject to the same sources of trauma as the feral kittens in the study, but may have different rates of disease.
Summary
We know that kittens placed at a shelter will be protected from other animals and from car strikes. We know that kittens who become ill at a shelter will be given veterinary treatment. We know that kittens who are placed at a shelter will be given enough food. We don't know any of these things about kittens who are released, and have good evidence to believe that many of these things do happen to released kittens.
It's hard to draw conclusions about which situation is more deadly, but it's clear which situation is more humane. Even when a shelter cat is put to sleep, it's done without pain or suffering.
Answered By - Zaralynda