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Research and Benchmark
Every number cited in Felines — in the app itself, the README, and this wiki — traces back to a real, named, verifiable source. This page is the canonical reference: where each figure came from, and why it matters to the product's positioning.
| Data | Source |
|---|---|
| 10M stray cats in Brazil | WHO / WSPA |
| 480M stray cats worldwide | World Animal Foundation (2021) |
| 30M domestic cats in Brazil | Instituto Pet Brasil (2024) |
| 41.6M cats projected in Brazil by 2030 | FGV / SINDAN |
| Northeast Brazil: 23.6% of households have cats | IBGE — Agricultural Census |
| Brazil is the 3rd country with the most domestic cats | Instituto Pet Brasil (2023) |
| Data | Source |
|---|---|
| 185,000 animals in NGOs — at full capacity | Instituto Pet Brasil (2023) |
| Abandonment grew from 3.9M (2018) to 8.8M (2020) | Instituto Pet Brasil |
| 82.9% of abandonments happen in urban centers | Cobasi Cuida (2025) |
| 32% of abandoned animals are cats | Cobasi Cuida (2025) |
| Only ~7,400 of 10M cats are in formal shelters | Índice de Abandono Animal |
| The pandemic worsened abandonment: +61% in 2021 | ANDA Agência de Notícias |
| Data | Source |
|---|---|
| ~40% of Brazilians have had a neighbor conflict involving animals | IBGE |
| 71% of animal abusers also commit crimes against humans ("The Link") | Brazilian Ministry of the Environment |
| 24% of condos have pets, but under 1% have dedicated areas for them | Censo Condominial (2024) |
| Stray-cat conflict is the 2nd-largest source of building-management complaints | ABADI (2023) |
| Data | Source |
|---|---|
| WHO recommends TNR as the most effective population-control method | WHO — Guidelines for dog population management |
| The vacuum effect: removing cats opens space for new cats to move in | Alley Cat Allies |
| TNR reduces population by 47% over 5 years in controlled areas | Levy, Gale & Gale (2003), Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association |
| TNR reduces territorial fighting, noise complaints, and calls | Alley Cat Allies |
| Colonies with regular feeding have lower rates of infectious disease | Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery |
Why this matters to the product: the vacuum effect is the single most important fact Felines needs a reader to internalize — it's the fact that converts "The Conflicted" persona (see User Personas) from wanting cats removed to understanding why castration, not removal, actually resolves their problem.
| Law | Content |
|---|---|
| Lei 9.605/98 — Environmental Crimes Law | Art. 32: animal mistreatment, penalty of 3 months to 1 year + fine |
| Lei Sansão — 14.064/2020 | Aggravated penalties for mistreating dogs and cats: 2 to 5 years imprisonment |
| Lei 15.046/2024 | National Registry of Domestic Animals (CNAD) |
| Decreto 24.645/1934 | Establishes animal-protection measures — still in force |
These are the specific legal resources cited in the emergency help flow — the product never says "seek legal help," it names the exact law and the exact number to call.
Field research planned for late June wasn't completed due to weather and low cat visibility that week. In its place:
- Manual curation of 14 real, verified animal-protection contacts in Natal/RN
- Direct verification with each organization by phone and social media
- Real colonies registered manually ahead of submission
Verified contacts include: Hospital Veterinário Anclivepa (24h), Hospital Amigo Bicho (24h), ASPAN, Instituto Hope RN, Patamada ONG, DEPREMA, CCZ Natal, Disque Denúncia (181), IBAMA Linha Verde (0800 618 080) — full directory and phone numbers in Content Strategy and seeded via 0071_seed_natal_contacts.sql.
Six products were evaluated against Felines to confirm the gap the product targets is real, not assumed.
| Product | Audience | Languages | Educational | Everyday citizen | Collaborative map |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CatColony.org | Caretakers/NGOs | EN | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ partial |
| Meow Metrics | Municipal guardians | EN/ES | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Whisker Tracker | Caretakers/photographers | EN | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| The Stray App | Lost pets | EN | ❌ | Partial | ❌ |
| Alley Cat Allies | Activists/professionals | EN | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Lost & Found Pets | Pet owners | EN | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Felines | Everyday citizen | PT/EN | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
CatColony.org — does what it does well (colony mapping, individual cat records) but has no on-ramp for someone who isn't already a caretaker, no educational content, and is English-only with a dated interface.
Meow Metrics — modern editorial design and a genuinely elegant map (an actual visual influence on Felines' alternating-section design), but built for municipal guardians and European deployments — top-down, not bottom-up, with no community mobilization layer.
Whisker Tracker — strong at facial recognition and individual cat history, but not a community product at all — no education, no report/emergency support. Too niche to scale to the everyday citizen.
The Stray App — solves "I found a lost pet," not "there's a colony on my street I don't understand." No education, no caretaker community.
Alley Cat Allies — the best educational content of any competitor, and the TNR/vacuum-effect research cited throughout Felines' own guide comes from their public resources. But it's an NGO's information site, not an interactive product with a local map, community, or Brazilian-Portuguese content.
EDUCATIONAL
↑
|
Alley Cat | FELINES ★
Allies | (citizen + education
| + map + PT/EN)
CAT-PERSON ←───────────────────────────────→ EVERYDAY CITIZEN
CatColony |
Meow Metrics |
Whisker |
Tracker |
↓
NOT EDUCATIONAL
Conclusion: no existing product speaks to someone who isn't already a cat person, combines education with a collaborative map and emergency support, exists in Portuguese for the Brazilian context, and has an explicit strategy for converting the averse. Felines closes all four gaps at once — see Product Vision for how that shapes the product's positioning.