Cat Cafes Could Help Solve Pet Overpopulation, Advocates Say

From the side of a salmon-colored house in downtown Berkeley Springs, a large mural of a cat smiles at passing drivers. It makes it easy to guess what lies inside: dozens of cats lounging atop sunny windowsills or nestling between the cushions of a couch.

For many felines passing through the doors of Give Purrs A Chance, the space is something of a sanctuary. Owner and Founder George Farnham said many of them are strays from southern West Virginia.

The West Virginia Federation of Humane Organizations estimates that roughly 118,000 cats across the state are unhoused. The vast majority are not spayed or neutered, which means they can birth new litters that will likely also end up as strays.

In 2017, Farnham said the desire to help cats like these find a home motivated him to open Give Purrs A Chance, the first cat cafe in West Virginia.

“I thought it would be perfect for Berkeley Springs, and it’s worked out great,” he said.

As a cat cafe, Give Purrs A Chance differs from your typical pet adoption agency. It is located inside a house where visitors can pay to meet adoptable felines living in a semi-open floor plan.

Farnham heard of the concept after a cat cafe opened in California in 2016. But the movement began almost two decades before and more than 10,000 miles away.

In 1998, Taiwan welcomed the world’s first cat cafe, where patrons could sip a cappuccino and bond with a cute animal at the same time. The business model quickly spread across cities in East Asia, where pet ownership was often not allowed in urban apartment spaces.

More recently, the phenomenon has reached Europe and North America. But instead of being a long-term home for a small group of cats, many cat cafes in the United States cycle adoptable pets into the cafe with the goal of introducing them to prospective owners.

While “cat cafe” might be a catchy name, health code restrictions mean that many locations, like the one in Berkeley Springs, cannot actually serve food, Farnham said. Still, the base concept of an open floor plan where people and cats can mingle has remained.

According to Farnham, it is a more comfortable environment for everyone.

“It’s really the new wave of how cat adoptions will be handled, where they can live in a cage-free environment, instead of being in a cage, where you’d see them at the pet store or at a shelter,” he said. “It’s really hard to get to know their true personalities in those circumstances.”

Visitors to Give Purrs A Chance pay $10 to explore the multi-floor facility, where cats are separated into different rooms based on space and their individual needs. And the turnout is quite impressive.

Up to 200 visitors stop by each week, Farnham said. The cat cafe also averages one adoption per day, which means it has helped several thousand cats find their forever homes since opening.

Marlena Woods, another staff member at Give Purrs A Chance, said successful adoptions have been the best part of her three years on the job.

“It’s nice to see them all get their homes,” she said.

Jerod Vannatter is president and clinic manager at Help For Animals, a spay and neuter facility in Cabell County. He said cat overpopulation in the state largely comes down to cats roaming freely outdoors and having litters with minimal oversight.

According to Vannatter, increasing spay and neuter procedures is a big part of the effort to reduce overpopulation and give cats better lives.

“That population has the potential to explode if it’s not checked,” he said. “Being a rural county or rural state and rural area that we live in, spay and neuter has usually been the second thought for generations, generations before us.”

But creative adoption methods like cat cafes could play a role in reducing overpopulation too, he said.

“Having a good marketing scheme to draw in the clients to adopt is a big part of the adoption program, getting the word out there and educating those that are adopting,” he said.

All the cats that come to Give Purrs A Chance are spayed or neutered to make sure overpopulation doesn’t continue. They also get medical exams and a microchip to make sure they’re ready for adoption.

Recently, the cat cafe movement has gained traction in other parts of West Virginia. Last fall, a cat cafe opened in Fairmont, and plans for another have been announced in Charleston.

Farnham said as long as his cats continue to find homes, he has a good reason to keep the cat cafe up and running.

“The cats are always an inspiration,” he said. “So that’s the fun side of the job, is having so many cats that have gone to their forever homes.”

For more information on pet spay and neuter resources in the state, visit the West Virginia Spay and Neuter Assistance Program’s website.