International Cat Day is celebrated every year on August 8. It was celebrated for the first time in 2002 by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), an animal welfare organisation, one of the largest in the world, based out of Canada.
International Cat Day is celebrated to help raise public awareness about cats, to learn about ways to keep and protect them. Many countries also celebrate national cat days to raise awareness about feline adoption.
Canada and the US also celebrate national cat day in their countries on August 8 and October 29, respectively. Japan marks national cat day on February 22 and Russia on March 1.
In 2020, the custodianship of International Cat Day passed on from IFAW to British non-profit International Cat Care, a charity founded in 1958 by feline lovers working to spread information about cat health and welfare.
The organisation states their “Aim is to enable and inspire people to understand cats’ individual needs and perspective, and to act in the interests of each cat’s welfare. We do this by creating and sharing knowledge, insights, skills and current best practice so people can feel confident in their ability to help cats and to challenge ignorance and misconceptions.”
International Cat Care has decided on the campaign ‘Be cat curious’ to celebrate this year’s International Cat Day. The campaign encourages cat owners to spend quality time with their pets and learn more about them.
The organisation says 95% of cat owners want more advice on training their cats, with at least half saying they struggled to get their cat into the cat carrier. Hence, this year’s International Cat Day will be celebrated to encourage training for cats and their owners. Cat owners have also been invited to share their experiences of training their pets.
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