7 Places Around The World That Are Absolutely Overrun With Cats

Published February 10, 2021
Updated October 20, 2022

Taiwan’s Houtong Cat Village

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A humble village in Taiwan managed to become a go-to tourist destination with just a little rebranding — and showing off its massive population of feral cats. As of 2019, there were an estimated 286 cats living in the village of Houtong.

In the 1920s, Houtong was a thriving coal-mining town, which was then under Japanese colonial rule. It was home to 6,000 residents and workers. But the community began to shrink after the mine was shut down in 1990.

As residents began to move away in search of better jobs, Houtong's human population shrank to about 100 residents. The number of stray cats that inhabited the town, meanwhile, grew until it was overrun.

In 2008, a local blogger and cat person named Jian Peiling began snapping photographs of the village's growing feline population. She also coordinated with volunteers to help care for the cats and make sure that they were properly vaccinated.

News of the curious cat village spread online and it became a tourist attraction now known as Houtong Cat Village.

The cats of Houtong are cared for by villagers with help from donations and volunteers.

The Taiwanese government rebranded the town as a cat lover's paradise and retrofitted many of the city's services. They built an award-winning pedestrian "cat bridge" as well as an educational center that features elevated cat walkways.

Houtong, which is only a 40-minute train ride away from the country's capital Taipei, is now full of cat-themed shops and restaurants. In 2010, the village attracted about 500 annual visitors. That number rose to nearly one million annual visitors in just six years.

While the Houtong Cat Village has become a wonderful home for cats, reports suggest that the town has inadvertently become a dumping ground for pet owners, too. Zhan Biyun, a 65-year-old resident who has been caring for the town's cats over the years, adopted two cats of her own. She found them as kittens abandoned by a cliff near her house.

"There are people who adopt cats without thinking seriously about it, and abandon them as soon as they don't want them anymore," Zhan said. Volunteers said that the majority of original cat occupants had been neutered, so any kittens likely came from outside the village.

The local government has enacted a fine of $5,119 for anyone who abandons their cat inside the town. Hopefully, such policies combined with increased educational efforts will prevent people from acting irresponsibly.

author
Natasha Ishak
author
A former staff writer for All That's Interesting, Natasha Ishak holds a Master's in journalism from Emerson College and her work has appeared in VICE, Insider, Vox, and Harvard's Nieman Lab.
editor
Leah Silverman
editor
A former associate editor for All That's Interesting, Leah Silverman holds a Master's in Fine Arts from Columbia University's Creative Writing Program and her work has appeared in Catapult, Town & Country, Women's Health, and Publishers Weekly.