As Battersea celebrates its 140th anniversary of helping cats, the charity has today announced a new collaboration that will significantly improve the welfare of millions of cats worldwide.
World-renowned charity International Cat Care (iCatCare) has developed the Cat Friendly Homing (CFH) programme, which will aim to fundamentally improve the welfare of cats around the world by shifting current approaches to rehoming in the sector towards a more proactive and strategic way of working, and in turn improve cat population management on a long-term, global scale.
The programme, funded by a three-year grant from Battersea, includes plans to support the rescue sector to become more professional and sustainable, deliver veterinary training around key subjects including neutering and shelter medicine, and bring together experts and organisations to tackle cat population management together more effectively.
Vicky Halls, Head of Unowned Cats at International Cat Care, said: “Currently, we have not one crisis but a perfect storm of challenges, including the impact of a global pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis, impacting severely on an already overstretched sector. Now is the time for us to adapt, stop the never-ending cycle of reactivity and make a change for cat welfare. Cat Friendly Homing, an iCatCare initiative, represents a shift to a more proactive way of working that will not only tackle the problem at a population level, but also help more unowned pet cats to achieve the outcome that best suits their needs.”
Battersea’s longstanding mission to be ‘here for every dog and cat’ does not only apply to the animals at its centres. Through the charity’s Global Programmes strategy, Battersea works with organisations across the UK and internationally to help improve animal welfare on a global scale. As part of this work, last year Battersea awarded twenty grants to rescues and other organisations across six countries, benefiting almost 350,000 dogs and cats.
Roxanne Nazir, Head of Grants and Programmes at Battersea, said; “At Battersea we believe it is our responsibility to help not only the animals that are brought to our centres in need of our care, but to help millions more by working with organisations like iCatCare towards a shared goal of improving the lives of dogs and cats around the world. We are proud to support such an ambitious programme and as we mark our 140th anniversary of helping cats, there couldn’t be a better time to announce this collaboration. We cannot wait to see the impact this work begins to have on feline welfare and the rehoming sector over the next three years and beyond.”
For more information about iCatCare’s Cat Friendly Homing Programme, visit https://icatcare.org/unowned-cats/cat-friendly-homing/. To find out more information about Battersea’s Global Programmes work, visit the Battersea website.
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A selection of images can be viewed and downloaded here. For further information or interviews please contact Nikki Cummins, Media & PR Manager at Battersea, n.cummins@battersea.org.uk or Ellen Marcinkiewicz, Communications Manager at International Cat Care ellen.marcinkiewicz@icatcare.org.
Notes to editors
About Battersea
At Battersea we offer our love and expert care to dogs and cats who need us by rescuing, rehabilitating and rehoming animals at our centres, and by sharing our knowledge and resources with rescue organisations around the world. We do this because we want to help every dog and cat, everywhere.
In 2022 Battersea directly cared for 2,278 dogs and 2,253 cats at our three centres. We also helped thousands more through our campaigning work, supporting other rescue centres and animal welfare advocates, and sharing knowledge and advice with pet owners.
To find out more visit our website or follow Battersea on Twitter @battersea_, Instagram @battersea or facebook.com/Battersea.
About International Cat Care (iCatCare)
International Cat Care is a pioneering cat welfare charity that challenges cruelty, ignorance and misunderstanding by inspiring and enabling people to understand cats and make positive changes to their lives. Our vision is for a cat friendly world.
The International Cat Care vision: A cat friendly world where each cat, owned and unowned, is treated with respect, compassion and understanding.
The International Cat Care mission: To enable more people to act in a cat friendly way to improve cat welfare.
For more information, please visit https://icatcare.org/ or follow International Cat Care on social media @icatcare.