Nine Lives, One Calling: How the ASPCA Has Shaped Care for Cats
Throughout 2026, the ASPCA is sharing highlights from our organization’s rich and sometimes unexpected 160-year history.
Few animals have woven themselves into human life as seamlessly as cats. Today, a third of U.S. households include at least one feline, and worldwide, more than 600 million cats live among us.
That connection carries into shelters. The ASPCA and humane organizations nationwide celebrate Adopt a Shelter Cat month each June. In 2025, cats accounted for 2.2 million of the 4.2 million pet adoptions in the United States — outnumbering dogs, according to Shelter Animals Count, a program of the ASPCA. For all their familiarity, cats remain something of an enigma. Unlike dogs, selectively bred into wildly varied forms and functions, cats have changed little over time — retaining their size, instincts and independence. As the English author Margaret Benson famously wrote, “Dogs have masters, cats have staff.”
The Cat-Human Timeline
In 2004, archaeologists working on the island of Cyprus unearthed the remains of a 9,500-year-old burial plot containing an adult human and a cat. This discovery suggested that residents of the Fertile Crescent kept cats as pets long before the ancient Egyptians.
The Egyptians also revered cats, burying them alongside pharaohs. Centuries later, the fate of felines reversed in Medieval Europe, where they were cast as symbols of witchcraft and evil. But colonists recognized cats’ practical value and brought them to America to protect crops from rodents.
As cities expanded, cats stayed on the job — keeping homes and businesses free of pests — while their small, non-threatening presence eventually made them welcome companions.
To the Rescue
In 2024, we shared the story of a kitten rescued from New York City subway tracks. The ASPCA archives are filled with images of ambulance crews, agents and first responders rescuing cats and kittens from high perches, like trees and utility poles, and from deep below ground in subway tunnels and under manhole covers.
The earliest documented ASPCA cat rescue was carried out by none other than our founder, Henry Bergh. As he passed a new building rising east of Broadway, he heard a faint, telltale mewing. Picking his way through the half-finished structure, he realized a cat was sealed inside the building front, and workmen admitted as much. Bergh tracked down the builder and insisted the cat be rescued, “even if the whole front of the building has to come down.”
Stationing himself across the street, Bergh waited — for four hours, arms folded — as reluctant workers and an incredulous builder, under threat of arrest, dismantled the marble building front. At last, a scrawny, emaciated cat emerged. Bergh scooped up the frail creature and made for his shelter. Behind him, New Yorkers shrugged and chuckled, and the workmen picked up where they left off.
Inspiring Compassion Through Cats
Though views on cats often shifted, their nurturing instincts were widely admired. Art celebrating this helped shape a domestic culture of compassion that informed the humane movement.
Beginning in the 1920s, the ASPCA and other humane groups engaged children through art contests and projects, encouraging them to create pieces promoting kindness to animals that were then hung in schools, shelters and veterinary offices. Humane education brought young people into the cause, serving as a powerful influence outside the home and marking a pivotal moment in changing how Americans felt about cats.
The 1940s: Cats Stay Grounded, but Kitty Litter Takes Flight
After WWII, Europe faced food shortages — made worse by rats helping themselves to leftover supplies. An eyebrow-raising idea called the “Cat Draft” proposed to ship 1 million American cats to guard the grain, even dropping them in by parachute. In a newspaper article, ASPCA executive vice president Sydney Coleman “strongly urged” that the plan be “vigorously opposed.” The plan “is one that no society for the prevention of cruelty to animals would care to sanction,” he added.
In 1947, a young man named Edward Lowe, working at his father’s construction supply business in South Bend, Indiana, suggested to a friend that she use a clay product he had on hand to fill her cat’s litter box. The difference was immediate — better absorption than sand, less odor and cleaner paws. Marketed as Kitty Litter, the pebbly clay revolutionized the litter box and persuaded Americans to bring cats indoors, elevating them to beloved family members alongside dogs.
Spotlight on Cats
The ASPCA’s early shelters — modeled after horse stables — housed dogs in pens and cats in cages. In the last five months of 1895, one year after assuming New York City’s animal care contract in 1894, the ASPCA reported taking in more than 24,000 cats and 21,000 dogs.
A 1954 edition of the ASPCA’s member magazine, Animal Protection, estimated there were 25 million cats in the U.S., “riding on a tremendous surge of popularity.” In a note to readers, outgoing ASPCA president Hugh E. Paine outlined the organization’s new approach to promoting cats.
“Too many humane societies give cats a back seat,” Paine wrote, adding that the ASPCA was no exception. After seeing a persistent decline in cat adoptions and closely analyzing the issue, Paine said, ASPCA staff realized the problem lay in how cats were presented. Kept in individual cages, they weren’t showcased effectively.
In response, our Manhattan shelter introduced a colony-style cat adoptions ward: three enclosures with trees for climbing, shelves and other fixtures. Paine proudly noted that cat adoptions rose immediately, topping the previous year by more than 30%.
Investing in Lifesaving Work
Over the years, the ASPCA has continued to improve and expand our shelter capacity and low- and no-cost veterinary services to give more cats a second chance.
- In 2006, we renovated 12,000 square feet of our Adoption Center in Manhattan to include community cat rooms and more than 100 individual cat habitats, creating a less stressful environment for cats and a more inviting space for visitors.
- In 2014, the ASPCA opened a dedicated Kitten Nursery in New York City, primarily for kittens relinquished to Animal Care Centers of NYC. That same year, the ASPCA invested $25M to assist at-risk animals in Los Angeles, opening a fully subsidized spay/neuter facility and launching a kitten foster program. Combined, the programs have helped save over 25,000 kittens to date.
- Since launching our Animal Relocation program, we’ve moved 300,000 cats and dogs to adoption-ready communities from 2014 to 2025. These include 32,000 cats and kittens transported from our LA program and over 19,000 cats from LA County shelters.
More Avenues for Adoption
Mobile adoptions have benefited cats since the ASPCA unveiled our first adoption vehicle. Called the “Arkmobile,” it drew more than 500 children to an event in 1968, and at Madison Square Garden’s Empire Cat Show in 1974, 23 cats were adopted.
Since 2022, nearly 10% of ASPCA cat adoptions have taken place on customized vehicles designed primarily for cats. Recently, Catherine’s Butterfly Party honored the memory of six-year-old Catherine Violet Hubbard — an animal lover whose life was tragically cut short in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting — at an adoption event held at her namesake sanctuary where cats (and dogs) from the ASPCA and other organizations found homes.
The ASPCA also sponsors fee-waived adoptions, including the third annual California Adopt a Pet Day held on June 6 this year, when cats and dogs from 150 shelters found homes. In August, the ASPCA will launch The Rescue Effect campaign for the third consecutive year, partnering with hundreds of shelters nationwide and providing grant funds to help 200 of those shelters waive adoption fees, giving cats a chance to find homes.
By removing barriers to adoption, the ASPCA is helping more cats find homes than ever before.
This summer, we’re partnering with ARM & HAMMER Cat Litter™ once again to find 325 cats and kittens across our programs the loving homes they deserve! See how you can help us reach our goal and learn more at aspca.org/meow.
Related stories in this ASPCA 160 series:
160 Years On, Our Founder’s Mission Still Stands Strong
Championing Spay/Neuter Helped Define ASPCA in the 20th Century and Beyond
Then and Now: How the ASPCA Protects Pets from Toxic Dangers
The Law That Launched a Movement for Animals
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