about us
The mission of Cowboy Cat Ranch is to improve the quality of life of cats
We try to accomplish this mission by
conducting high quality, ethical scientific research,
promoting environmental enrichment,
providing a forever home for cats in need (we are not a shelter), and
restoring and conserving habitat of local wildlife, including bobcats and mountain lions.
We are a nonprofit organization with its roots in California and Texas. Cowboy Cat Ranch was founded in 2016 by Sebastiaan Bol with the help of his wife Evelien Bunnik.
The organization was named after a cat, whose name was Cowboy. When Sebastiaan was doing research with shelter cats in California, Cowboy was often the first one to greet him and he loved being cuddled. Cowboy was old and sick, and while Sebastiaan and Evelien considered adopting him prior to moving from California to Texas, they felt the long drive to Texas would be too stressful for him. Shortly after moving to the Hill Country in Texas, where Sebastiaan and Evelien bought a ranch-style house on 10 acres of land for the local wildlife, they learned Cowboy passed away. The house and nonprofit organization were named in memory of cat Cowboy.
our values
We believe that all vertebrae animals are sentient and empathic beings (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) and that they should be treated as such. Cowboy Cat Ranch does not use laboratory animals. We will never conduct experiments with cats or other animals that will result in significant discomfort, stress, pain or death, and will never collaborate with scientists who do.
We will never allow any conflict of interest. We carefully screen our people to assure they are not employed by or have any financial interest in companies in industries related to our fields of interest, for example veterinary medicine or environmental enrichment. We will never accept money from companies. Our research will never have a commercial interest or motive. We will never accept money, free products or discounts when promoting products for cats on social media or our website.
We believe academic publishing in its current form is broken (1,2) and are highly supportive of reform. We believe more credit should be given to scientists who produce high quality review-reports. We support double-blind transparent peer-review, where review reports are published together with the article. Results from our studies will always be published in open access journals. In 2024 we made the decision to exclusively publish in journals from not-for-profit publishers.
In the interest of the cat, we believe all domestic cats should be kept indoors only. This is also of enormous importance to birds and reptiles. We believe all domestic cats should be sterilized at an early age, because an overpopulation of domestic cats is bad for the cats as well as local wildlife. Cowboy Cat Ranch supports trap-neuter-return programs for feral cats who cannot be kept indoors. When keeping cats indoors, it is important to make sure their indoor environment meets all their needs. This can be achieved by environmental enrichment. The cats at Cowboy Cat Ranch can enjoy the outdoors in large outdoor enclosures.
Hundreds of thousands of healthy cats (and dogs) are euthanized in shelters every year in the USA alone because there is no space for them. When looking for a cat (or dog), please adopt, don't shop. With so many cats and dogs desperately looking for a home, please reconsider purchasing a pet from a breeders. While kittens are cute as a button and lots of fun, older cats make fantastic companions too. When possible, please consider adopting a bonded pair.
Cowboy Cat Ranch encourages people to not eat animals and not consume their milk (products). Sebastiaan and Evelien have been vegetarian since their teenage years and eat little to no dairy. We promote eating plant(-based) food because it prevents needless suffering of non-human animals, and it benefits our planet and human health. The cats at Cowboy Cat Ranch however do eat meat, because for them there is no healthy alternative available.