This Shelter Just Gave Cats a Voice and It’s Powered by AI
Artificial intelligence has officially entered the shelter medicine chat, and cats in New York City are already benefiting. Sylvester.ai, a Calgary based pet tech company specializing in feline pain detection, has partnered with Animal Care Centers of NYC (ACC), the largest animal shelter system in New York City, to bring AI powered pain detection to cats awaiting adoption. The collaboration gives ACC free access to Sylvester.ai’s proprietary technology, allowing shelter staff and veterinary teams to assess feline pain quickly and consistently using nothing more than a smartphone photo. For veterinary professionals working in shelter medicine, this partnership highlights how AI can be leveraged not as a replacement for clinical judgment, but as a powerful decision support tool in high volume, high stress environments.
Why feline pain detection needs a tech upgrade
Cats are famously subtle when it comes to showing pain. In shelter settings, this challenge is amplified by fear, stress, and limited handling time. Traditional observational assessments can miss early or low grade pain, especially when staff are balancing intake exams, treatment rounds, and behavior evaluations. Sylvester.ai’s technology analyzes key facial indicators associated with pain, including ear position, muzzle tension, whisker placement, and head posture. With a single photo, the system delivers pain detection results with reported precision of 89 percent. To date, more than 350,000 cat photos have been assessed across thousands of users in North America, Europe, and the Middle East. For millennial veterinarians who grew up alongside smartphones and data driven tools, this kind of rapid, visual assessment feels intuitive rather than disruptive.
At ACC, Sylvester.ai is being used during intake and medical assessments to flag potential pain in real time. This allows veterinary teams to prioritize diagnostics, analgesia, and monitoring earlier in the cat’s shelter stay. Dr. Robin Brennen, Senior Vice President of Animal Health and Welfare at NYC ACC, sees the technology as a practical addition to shelter medicine.
Cats naturally hide pain, which makes early detection critical, especially in a shelter environment where traditional observation can miss subtle indicators, particularly in cats experiencing fear and stress, says Brennen. Sylvester.ai's technology gives us another layer of insight into feline health, helping us ensure every cat has the best chance at a long, healthy life in their forever home. For veterinarians, that extra layer of insight can mean faster interventions, clearer medical records, and improved welfare outcomes in a population that often arrives with unknown histories.
One of the most compelling aspects of the partnership is continuity of care. Adopting families receive access to the same Sylvester.ai tool through the consumer app, allowing ongoing health monitoring after adoption. This shared language between shelter staff, adopters, and veterinarians helps reduce post adoption surprises and returns. It also encourages earlier veterinary visits when subtle pain indicators are detected at home. From a population health perspective, this model aligns well with preventive care goals and supports better long term outcomes for cats who historically fall out of routine veterinary care.
Closing the feline care gap
The ACC collaboration represents a major shelter integration for Sylvester.ai and signals growing momentum in the veterinary tech space. The platform has already been integrated with systems like CoVet, Nova Vet Family, and Fear Free certified practices, making adoption easier for clinics already navigating complex software ecosystems. Susan Groeneveld, CEO and founder of Sylvester.ai, views the partnership as validation at scale. ACC's commitment to innovation in animal welfare, combined with their medical data from tens of thousands of cases, accelerates our ability to advance curated, AI driven feline health globally, says Groeneveld. We're not just deploying technology, we're building a collaborative model that benefits shelters, vets, adopters, and cats.
The roots of Sylvester.ai trace back to a persistent issue in North American veterinary medicine. While cats live in roughly one in three US households, fewer than half receive regular veterinary care. Groeneveld identified this gap early in her career in animal pharmaceuticals, noting that cats receive less medical attention and research investment compared to dogs. Her background spans ranching, nonprofit leadership with Cat Healthy, and co founding a marketing agency focused on animal health and agriculture. That blend of clinical insight and systems thinking shows up clearly in Sylvester.ai’s approach.
For veterinary professionals, the ACC partnership offers a glimpse of how AI can support feline focused care at scale. It is practical, fast, and designed to work in the real world where time, staffing, and stress are constant variables. As shelters and clinics look for ways to do more with less, AI powered tools like this may help ensure that cats finally get the attention their faces have been trying to ask for all along.
