Animal Welfare Professionals

Hello Everyone,

Our shelter has been adopting out FIV positive cats to homes with negative cats with adoption counseling and information for at least 10 years.  Recently, someone came in to adopt a negative cat who have a positive at home and, under new leadership, it was determined that we would not do the adoption.  This, needless to say, created a lot of problems within the team and outside of the team.  We are wanting to create a new, documented FIV policy for our shelter for future use and eliminate this confusion, but our leadership team is not in agreement on what to do.  We do agree that it would be unethical to be willing to adopt out fiv positive cats to homes with negative cats if we would not be willing to do vice versa.

I would love to get any information you have on why we should or should not do these adoptions and would love to hear who is doing them and who is not doing them and why.  Ideally, I would like to know what non-municipal shelters in the Southeast are doing, in particular, but I am interested in everyone's input.  I have a lot of resources from the leading national groups on this, but I would also be interested in collecting any information that is geared predominantly at veterinarians

I do have the amazing Update on FIV video from Maddie's Fund already.  I am trying to put together a bunch of information for the team members that they can read through quickly and will help us come to a consensus. 

Thank you in advance.

Hi Anon! 

Just to clarify, in your message you mentioned a scenario involving an FIV-positive cat and a negative cat-did you perhaps mean FeLV? I ask because sometimes the two get mixed up, and they have very different implications when it comes to cohabitation and transmission risks.

At our shelter in Buffalo, NY, Ten Lives Club, we've adopted out FIV-positive cats into homes with FIV-negative cats for many many years, through adoption counseling. We align with the current veterinary consensus that FIV is not easily spread among cats unless there are serious, deep-bite wounds-typically more of a concern with unsocialized ferals than in a typical household setting. As long as the cats are properly introduced and not prone to aggression, there is very little risk. 

I'd be happy to share some of the materials we use for adopter education and team training if that would be helpful. We also strongly believe in reducing stigma around FIV-positive cats so they have the same opportunities for loving homes as any other feline. Truly  FIV just weakens a cat's immune system over time. I stress to people all the time that yes, it may make your cat more susceptible to infections, but many FIV-positive cats live long, healthy, and happy lives-especially when kept indoors and given proper vet care.

Please let me know how I can help or contribute to the materials you're pulling together! Id love to see more FIV adoptions happen worldwide. 

Your friends, 

Ten Lives Club

We have the same policy as Sallie. We just educate the potential adopters about FIV and how it is spread and also emphasize proper vet care. FIV+ cats can live with negative cats as long as they are not aggressive and getting into fights. We will add FIV+ cats to our community cat rooms too as long as they can peacefully co-exist with the other cats in there. 

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Erin Robinson
Foster Coordinator
Licking County Humane Society
OH
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