Adopt a cat in Santa Cruz de Tenerife

We have 3 shelters and rescues located in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, with what is known about each one: where it is, how to phone and its website. Below them, the cat associations in the Canary Islands and the search sites for cats up for adoption.

Shelters and rescues in Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Phone before you go: many only open by appointment and do not always have cats (in spring and summer, with the litters, they usually have many more). Those marked “Cats only” work exclusively with cats.

Locations come from OpenStreetMap, © its contributors, under the ODbL licence · downloaded on 23 September 2026. We have removed the pounds and shelters that only take in dogs, and the linked websites lead, where there is one, to their cat section. Phone numbers and websites that OSM does not have are taken from each organisation’s own website or from its town council’s, so if anything has changed, go by what their website says. Is one missing or is something wrong? “Suggest a correction” fixes it on the map, and it will show up here in the next update.

Cat associations in the Canary Islands

They work only with cats, almost always through foster homes: their cats are socialised in a home, and they can tell you what each one is really like.

SOS FelinaA cat rescue that helps the street cats of Tenerife and finds them homes. TenerifeCats only

Search sites: start here

They bring together the listings of hundreds of rescues. Each link takes you straight to the cat section, where you can filter by province, age and sex. The sites are in Spanish, but your browser’s translate option copes well with the listings.

MiwukiThe longest-running adoption search site in Spain, with cats listed by province and town. Bambú DifundeCats for adoption from rescues all over the country, with a page for each province. Save One AnimalA national platform that brings together the listings of over a thousand organisations, with a filter for cats. Dejan HuellaDetailed profiles of cats and dogs, with a section for each region. Kiwoko AdoptaSearch across nearly five hundred partner rescues, many of them cat-only associations. MundimascotaAdoption listings for cats and kittens, by province. WallamascotasA noticeboard of cats for adoption from private owners and associations.

Other provinces in the Canary Islands

Las Palmas 4

Adopting a cat in Santa Cruz de Tenerife: what is worth knowing

For several of them we have the location but not the full postal address, so the map is the most reliable way to find them. For most of them we do not have a direct phone number: you reach them through their website or through the town council. For 1 we know the visiting hours, but phone anyway before you go: rescues run on volunteers and many cats are not at the shelter but in foster homes.

The search sites on this page filter by Santa Cruz de Tenerife and show the cats available right now, but not everything is there: kittens are what gets published most, and adults, seniors and cats with special needs rarely make the front page. If you are looking for one of those, writing directly to the rescue works much better than trawling through listings. And if you cannot find yours in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, many associations in the Canary Islands rehome to other provinces, with transport arranged between volunteers.

Before you adopt: what the law requires in the Canary Islands

Spain’s animal welfare law, Law 7/2023, sets the common minimum for the whole country; each region also has its own law and register, and each town council its own bylaws.

The national law requires every cat to be identified with a microchip and neutered before six months of age, except those registered as breeding animals with a registered breeder (art. 26). It bans the sale of cats in pet shops: only registered breeders may sell them (art. 27), and it does not allow a pet to be left unsupervised for more than three days in a row. Public centres must hand animals over for adoption identified, with a contract, and neutered or with a commitment to have it done (art. 23). In the Canary Islands, Law 8/1991 on animal protection, of 30 April, also applies, and the microchip is recorded in the Canary Islands animal identification register (ZOOCAN). Its 1991 law only required dogs to be identified, and veterinary associations estimate that very few cats in the Canaries are chipped. Since Law 7/2023 it is compulsory for all of them. If the cat you adopt comes from a rescue, they or your vet will usually take care of transferring the microchip registration into your name. What each Spanish region requires (Spanish) →

Other sources

Third-party directories, in case you want to compare (in Spanish). These do take you away from Michipedia.

FAADA · Santa Cruz de Tenerife ↗ Protectoras.es · The Canary Islands ↗
Every link in this guide was checked one by one on 17 October 2026, and the rescues were also checked to confirm that they really have cats for adoption. They are external websites with no connection to this project: rescues change websites and close down, so if you find a broken link, let us know. Always check that the organisation is registered, and be wary of anyone who hands over a kitten without a contract, without a microchip or “without papers” in exchange for money.

← Back to the Canary Islands All regions