Cats & Humans

Cats are common pets in Europe and North America, and their worldwide population exceeds 500 million.[9 ] Although cat guardianship has commonly been associated with women,[196 ] a 2007 Gallup poll reported that men and women were equally likely to own a cat.[197 ]

According to the Humane Society of the United States, as well as being kept as pets, cats are also used in the international fur trade,[198 ] for making coats, gloves, hats, shoes, blankets and stuffed toys. About 24 cats are needed to make a cat fur coat.[199 ] This use has now been outlawed in several countries, including the United States, Australia and the European Union.[200 ] However, some cat furs are still made into blankets in Switzerland as folk remedies that are believed to help rheumatism.[201 ]

Census
There are approximately 220 million domestic cats in the world, according to the International Federation for Animal Health Europe (IFAH).[202 ]

A few attempts to build a cat census have been made over the years, both through associations or national and international organization (such as the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies's one[203 ] ) and over the net,[204 ] [205 ] but such a task does not seem so simple to achieve