For Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Purina ran the "Cat Nap for a Cause" campaign. You pledge to cuddle up with your cat for a nap sometime in October, and they'll donate $2 — $1 for you and $1 for your cat — up to $150,000 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure for breast cancer research.

While breast cancer in women is an important issue, medical sociologist, Gayle Sulik, points out that a cat cuddling campaign excels "at helping us to forget reality. [These campaigns] use the cause of breast cancer to capitalize on emotions and good intentions." It simply doesn't make sense.

It makes a lot more sense for a cat food company to support cancer awareness for cats. Mammary cancer is the third most common cancer in felines. While mammary tumors in dogs are malignant about 50 percent of the time in dogs, it's closer to 90 percent, with a tendency to spread rapidly, in cats.

The best way to prevent mammary cancer in both dogs and cats is with early spaying. And, as with any cancer in any species, your best bet at treatment is early detection. The most common way people find lumps and bumps on their pet is when cuddling.

Cat Nap for the Cause would be the perfect campaign to make a real difference in feline health.

Susan G. Komen for the Cure does not have the Council on Humane Giving's Humane Charity Seal of Approval, because they still support animal testing for breast cancer research. Cats are subjects of human breast cancer research because there are some similar features between feline mammary cancer and human breast cancer, and because the cancer is so common in cats.

On the other hand, organizations like the Morris Animal Foundation fund humane research to cure cancer in dogs and cats -- the #1 disease-related killer of pets. The Blue Buffalo pet food company recently helped raise over $800,000 to help stop pet cancer.

If Purina is going to appeal to cat-lovers to highlight a $150,000 donation to beat cancer, why aren't they trying to beat cancer that's killing cats? Instead of jumping on the pink-ribboned bandwagon of feel-good breast cancer awareness, Purina should Cat Nap for the Cause of helping prevent cancer in cats.

Photo credit: gillespaveau