The Crisis
This is not
a welfare problem.
It is a mathematics
problem.
Across the Mediterranean, millions of stray cats and dogs live and die on the street. Most people who see them feel something — concern, sadness, helplessness. Most look away and move on.
The instinct to look away is understandable. The mathematics of doing nothing is not.
This page presents the facts — sourced, honest, and free of exaggeration.
We believe you deserve the truth, not a sales pitch.
01 — The Scale
A crisis that compounds invisibly, every day.
A single unsterilized female cat, together with her offspring, produces approximately 100 descendants over seven years — once realistic kitten mortality rates are applied. This is the verified, peer-reviewed figure. We use this number because accuracy is the foundation of trust.
But 100 lives of suffering, beginning from one animal, in one colony, in one harbor, in one island — multiplied across hundreds of thousands of unmanaged colonies across the Mediterranean — is not a small number. It is the mechanism by which the crisis sustains and grows itself, invisibly, continuously, regardless of how many animals are rescued or rehomed.
Rescue is noble. But rescue does not break the cycle. A shelter that takes in twenty cats this month will have twenty new cats to replace them next month, because the colony that produced them is still intact and still reproducing. The problem does not shrink. It only moves.
Countries most affected
Greece
2–3M
Estimated stray cats. No national sterilization policy. Municipal management varies widely by island and region.
Turkey
4M+
The largest stray cat population in Europe. Istanbul alone is home to an estimated one million street cats.
Romania
500K+
A long history of controversial culling programs with no population effect. TNR adoption remains limited but growing.
Cyprus
300K+
One of the highest stray-to-human ratios in Europe. Active NGO community but chronic underfunding.
Spain
2M+
Coastal regions and island municipalities face particular pressure. 2023 animal welfare law strengthened legal protections.
Italy
1.5M+
Italy has had a national TNR mandate since 1991 — yet implementation remains inconsistent and underfunded across southern regions.
Every unsterilized animal on the street today is not one problem. It is hundreds of thousands of future problems.
— Artemis founding brief, February 2026
02 — Why Existing Responses Fail
Three approaches. Three dead ends.
The Mediterranean stray crisis has been “managed” for decades with methods that are expensive, often inhumane, and provably ineffective at reducing populations long-term. Understanding why these approaches fail is essential to understanding why TNR is not merely one option — it is the only option supported by evidence.
Culling & impoundment
The most common municipal response across southern Europe: capture and euthanize, or impound indefinitely. Studies across Romania, Cyprus, and parts of Greece have demonstrated zero long-term population reduction. When an established colony is removed, new animals rapidly fill the ecological vacuum. Culling costs €200–400 per animal, must be repeated continuously, and generates significant public opposition. It does not solve the problem. It creates the appearance of action while the mathematics continue underneath.
Rescue & rehoming
Rescue organizations do life-saving work. Shelters matter. Individual animals matter. But as a population management strategy, rescue alone cannot scale to meet the reproduction rate. For every animal rehomed, the unmanaged colony produces several more. In the absence of sterilization, rescue organizations are effectively running on a treadmill — expending enormous resources and compassion to manage a number that grows faster than it can be reduced.
Relocation
Moving animals from one location to another — another neighbourhood, another island, another country — transfers the problem rather than solving it. It also disrupts established territorial behaviour, which leads to increased conflict, disease transmission, and stress mortality. Relocation feels like action. It is not.
03 — The Solution
What TNR actually does, and why it works.
TNR — Trap, Neuter, Return — is the only population management method with a documented track record of measurable, sustained reduction in stray animal populations. The process is exactly what its name describes: a cat or dog is humanely trapped, brought to a licensed veterinarian, sterilized, ear-tipped for permanent identification, and returned to its colony.
The returning animal matters as much as the surgery. Sterilized animals continue to hold their territory, which prevents new animals from moving in to fill the space. The colony gradually ages and shrinks — naturally, humanely, permanently — rather than being vacuumed out only to regenerate.
One sterilization prevents approximately 100 lives of suffering over seven years. Not theoretically. Biologically. Verifiably. This is why we call it an investment, not a donation.
You may have encountered the claim that one unsterilized female cat produces 370,000 descendants in seven years. This number has been widely circulated — and widely debunked. Accounting for realistic kitten mortality rates, the accurate figure is closer to 100 descendants. We use the correct number. We believe an educated sponsor who Googles this deserves to find that we told the truth before they bought anything. Our credibility is our product.
Ear-tipping — the removal of approximately 1cm from the tip of one ear under anaesthesia — is the universal standard for identifying sterilized feral cats. It is painless, permanent, and eliminates the risk of a cat being re-trapped unnecessarily. Every animal sterilized through an Artemis-funded program is ear-tipped and GPS-logged in our colony database.
04 — The Evidence
What peer-reviewed research actually shows.
These are not claims. They are documented outcomes.
66%
Population reduction — University of Central Florida
An 11-year study of a managed campus cat colony found a 66% reduction in population through TNR alone. No new kittens were born after the fourth year of the program.
30–50%
Visible population reduction — typical 3-year outcome
Across multiple studies and programs, sustained TNR reduces the visible stray population in a managed area by 30–50% within three years, without replacement pressure from new animals.
€45–80
Cost per sterilization vs. €200–400 per culling operation
TNR costs a fraction of impoundment and culling per animal — with a permanent result versus a temporary one. Municipal governments that switch to TNR reduce long-term costs significantly.
05 — The Human Dimension
This affects people, too.
The stray animal crisis is not only an animal welfare issue. It has measurable consequences for public health, municipal budgets, and tourism economies across the Mediterranean.
Unmanaged colonies are vectors for rabies, toxoplasmosis, and other zoonotic diseases in regions with limited veterinary infrastructure. Road accidents involving strays cost municipalities insurance and infrastructure expenditure. And perhaps most consequentially for local economies: stray animals are consistently among the top negative mentions in TripAdvisor and Google reviews of Mediterranean hotels and resorts.
A hotel on a Greek island that cannot control its stray population is not experiencing an animal welfare problem. It is experiencing a revenue problem — one that a documented TNR program can solve, verifiably, for a fraction of the annual marketing budget.
This is why Artemis works with municipalities and hotel associations as well as individual sponsors. The problem has multiple stakeholders. The solution benefits all of them.
Behind every active TNR colony in Greece, there is almost always one person: a volunteer, often a woman, often running her program alongside a full-time job, often paying vet bills out of her own pocket, often working at midnight because there is no other time.
Mediterranean NGOs doing TNR work are not lacking in passion, knowledge, or commitment. They are lacking in one thing: the financial infrastructure to turn their work into something scalable and sustained.
That is the gap Artemis was built to close. Not to replace these organizations. To fund them.
The problem is solvable.
Not eventually. Now. For €49.
You’ve read this far. You understand the mathematics. The method is proven, the documentation is real, and the cost of one sterilization is less than dinner for two. One permanent intervention. One animal who will never reproduce. One colony that will, over time, quietly shrink.
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