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Animal shelters are inundated with kittens during the warmer months of “kitten season,” when unspayed cats give birth to multiple litters.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Temma Martin<\/p>\n
A former animal control officer is so passionate about the need to spay and neuter cats that he\u2019s found a creative way to literally draw attention to it.<\/p>\n
The \u201cCattoo Challenge\u201d happened by chance, according to Daniel Ettinger, an instructor for animal welfare professionals and host of the \u201cKeep It Humane\u201d podcast. Back in December of 2023, Ettinger was teaching a course about how animal welfare is connected to human health and welfare at the Military Police School in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Attendees included miliary police officers, veterinarians, veterinary technicians and social workers.<\/p>\n
In the session on hoarding, Ettinger grabbed a dry-erase marker and scrawled a picture of two cats on the whiteboard. The idea was for attendees to calculate how many kittens the cats would have without spay\/neuter surgeries to prevent reproduction \u2014 which would illustrate how quickly a caregiver could become overwhelmed by an influx of kittens.<\/p>\n
Daniel Ettinger drew two cats on a whiteboard as part of an exercise to highlight how quickly intact cats can multiply.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Daniel Ettinger<\/p>\n
\u201cI go over to the whiteboard, and I just draw two cats on the board \u2014 stick figure drawings \u2014 and then we start doing the exercise,\u201d he recalled. \u201cOne of the students just happened to say, \u2018I\u2019m going to get your cats as a tattoo.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Ettinger smiled at the nice sentiment but was surprised the next day when he was flying home to Southern California and got a text from the student. Sure enough, he and another student had taken a photo of Ettinger\u2019s drawing of the two cats and had them tattooed on their legs.<\/p>\n
After attending Daniel Ettinger\u2019s course about animal welfare on December 12, 2023, two students had his drawing of two cats tattooed on their legs.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Daniel Ettinger<\/p>\n
Another student wanted to follow suit. So a couple of months later when he was teaching another course, Ettinger went along to get ink of his own. While they were getting matching tattoos of the original cats, Ettinger wondered aloud about what would happen if he came back and someone else wanted to get the tattoo together.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe student was brilliant,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was like, \u2018Since you\u2019re teaching about spay and neutering and hoarding and all that kind of stuff, why wouldn\u2019t you just have the person draw a kitten and you can add the kitten to your leg to help tell the story on why it\u2019s so important to spay and neuter?\u2019 And that\u2019s how it was born.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel Ettinger gets a kitten tattoo as part of the Cattoo Challenge.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Daniel EttingerThe Cattoo Challenge<\/p>\n
The Cattoo Challenge is simple. Whenever someone gets a tattoo \u2014 aka cattoo \u2014 of the original two cats, they send Ettinger photo proof and a drawing of a kitten, and he gets it tattooed on his left leg. So far, 27 people have gotten the cattoos, so Ettinger\u2019s left leg offers a permanent testament to the importance of spaying and neutering pets.<\/p>\n
Daniel Ettinger\u2019s leg is filling up with tattoos of kittens as part of the Cattoo Challenge. <\/p>\n
Courtesy of Daniel Ettinger<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to get involved, since he posted a photo of the original cat drawings on his website at: keepithumane.com\/cattoo<\/a>. Most people scribble a photo of a kitten, but in an instance where a participant didn\u2019t want to draw their own, one of Ettinger\u2019s daughters drew a kitten that now adorns his leg.<\/p>\n He thinks it\u2019s cool that so many people have already accepted the Cattoo Challenge and hopes others will get involved because spaying and neutering pets is so critical to addressing pet overpopulation and reducing intake at animal shelters. <\/p>\n \u201cI would say spay and neuter is the heart and everything else are the arteries and the veins,\u201d he said. \u201cThat’s how I think is the best way to look at it.\u201d<\/p>\n He noted that female kittens typically reach sexual maturity when they\u2019re just 4-6 months old, so one litter of kittens can lead to exponentially more. In 2025, 58% of the 3 million cats who entered U.S. animal shelters were 5 months old or younger<\/a>, according to Shelters Animals Count, a program of the ASPCA. Additionally, only 23% of cats<\/a> entered shelters spayed or neutered last year.<\/p>\n Daniel Ettinger (right), smiles with animal control officers who accepted the Cattoo Challenge.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Daniel Ettinger<\/p>\n Spaying and neutering cats and dogs also provides health benefits, Ettinger added. For instance, spaying prevents uterine infections<\/a> and decreases the incidence of breast tumors, while neutering prevents testicular cancer and some prostate problems, according to the ASPCA. <\/p>\n People who want to help support spay\/neuter efforts but aren\u2019t ready to get a tattoo can still support the Cattoo Challenge by donating to the Bissell Pet Foundation\u2019s \u201cFix the Future<\/a>\u201d program to support spay\/neuter clinics, Ettinger noted.<\/p>\n A Cattoo Challenge Participant<\/p>\n Temma Martin, founder of the Utah nonprofit Operation Pawpulation<\/a>, which offers low-cost spay and neuter surgeries for dogs and cats, is a proud participant in the Cattoo Challenge. When there was a \u201cflash tattoo\u201d fundraiser in the summer of 2024 for the nonprofit Angel Paws Utah, she felt it was the perfect opportunity to simultaneously support two good causes.<\/p>\n After having the original cat drawings tattooed on her right forearm, she drew a picture of her family\u2019s rescue kitten, Flash, for Ettinger to add to his leg.<\/p>\n Flash, Temma Martin\u2019s rescue kitten, inspired a drawing as part of the Cattoo Challenge.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Temma Martin<\/p>\n \u201cIf anybody says, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s cute,\u2019 I start a conversation. \u2018Let me tell you what it means,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cAnd sometimes it leads to something meaningful like, \u2018My neighbors have a pet that needs to be spayed or neutered.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n She\u2019s grateful that Ettinger found such a special way to help raise awareness of the importance of spaying and neutering pets.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel strongly that it is time to bring spay\/neuter back into the forefront of the animal welfare conversation,\u201d she said. \u201cSpay\/neuter is the key to lifesaving. It\u2019s prevention, and it allows shelters and rescues and individuals and fosters to focus very limited resources on the animals that are already here.\u201d<\/p>\n Only 23% of cats entered U.S. shelters spayed or neutered in 2025. <\/p>\n Courtesy of Temma Martin<\/p>\n Operation Pawpulation recently celebrated its first anniversary, and has spayed and neutered over 1,800 cats and dogs. Martin has already been shocked this \u201ckitten season<\/a>\u201d by how many cats \u2014 both pets and unowned \u201ccommunity\u201d cats living outside \u2014 have been pregnant. <\/p>\n \u201cIn the last month, every female community cat has come into our clinic pregnant, lactating or in heat. Some days every female cat was pregnant,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re also seeing owned cats coming in pregnant. Some who go outside clearly met up with intact males, but many people who \u2018rescue\u2019 a couple of sibling kittens from someone giving them away, or keep a mama cat and son from a litter, find themselves with a female impregnated by a relative. Clearly cats don\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n