Cat ownership and Proximity to Significant Ecological Areas Influence Attitudes Towards Cat Impacts and Management Practices

Bassett, Imogen E.; McNaughton, Ellery J.; Plank, Gemma D.; Stanley, Margaret C.

doi:10.1007/s00267-020-01289-2

Cited by 15 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Human-wildlife interactions differ between areas (Finkler et al, 2011a;Soulsbury and White, 2015) and proximity to stray cat populations could be influential in acceptance for management scenarios as Wilken suggests (2012). Endemic biodiversity and proximity to significant ecological areas was also found an important factor for acceptance of management scenarios (Bassett et al, 2020;Hall et al, 2016;Mameno et al, 2017). Although stray cats are sometimes perceived themselves as pests, depending on the habitat, stray cats can serve as pest control themselves in different areas (Bonacic et al, 2019;Mahlaba et al, 2017;Parsons et al, 2018).…”

Section: Predicting Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public opinions on seven different stray cat population management scenarios in Flanders, Belgium

Ruyver

Abatih

Villa³

et al. 2021

Research in Veterinary Science

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Stray cat population management is an important worldwide issue. Understanding citizen attitudes towards stray cat control options is vital to the success of controlling stray cat numbers, as public perception affects the acceptance of, support for and collaboration in stray cat management policies. Audience segmentation, as to enable each group to be engaged in the stray cat management policy, is important for the success of the interventions. Therefore a web-based survey was conducted among Flemish citizens in order to examine differences in acceptance towards seven management scenarios: household cat neutering with financial support for the owner, household cat neutering without financial support for the owner, encouraging responsible household cat ownership, trapping stray cats and taking them to a shelter, trapping and neutering stray cats for release into a managed "cat colony" (composed by so called "community cats"), trapping and killing of stray cats, and undertaking no action. A total of 4059 valid responses were collected and the proportions of agreement were compared across the different management scenarios using the two-sample z-test. Interactions among factors that influenced each management scenario were investigated using the CHAID (Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detection) analysis and visualized on a tree.Our results showed that fostering responsible household cat ownership (89.9%) and conversion of stray cats to "community cats" (76.3%) were most supported by respondents in our sample (which consisted mainly of females, cat-lovers, and families without children). Least supported were the killing of stray cats (7.7%) and undertaking no action (3.3%). The demographic analyses revealed that for the acceptance of management scenarios there were three important factors (attitude towards cats, area of residence, and gender), two weaker factors (education and having children) and two which had almost no impact (age and cat ownership). We propose that future studies should focus on the effect of 'area of residence', 'having children' and 'education'.In conclusion, our research confirms that management of and communication on stray cat strategies should not be developed with a one-size-fits-all approach. Efforts should be tailored to each audience segment, thus adapted to the area of residence and human characteristics.

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Section: Predicting Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public opinions on seven different stray cat population management scenarios in Flanders, Belgium

Ruyver

Abatih

Villa³

et al. 2021

Research in Veterinary Science

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“…There is nuance in the extent to which people find it acceptable to use compulsory microchipping as a cat management tool. One study found that the majority of respondents indicated that they thought it was acceptable to use compulsory microchipping to distinguish owned cats from stray or feral cats in areas where there were high levels of biodiversity in Auckland; however, residents living near these areas were more likely to find this practice unacceptable than residents of other areas of Auckland [80]. Consistent with other studies demonstrating that cat owners are less accepting of management practices, cat owners found this use of microchipping less acceptable than non-owners [80].…”

Section: Attitudes Towards Identificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Collar use, however, does not appear to be a popular management technique, with studies reporting collars being worn by only approximately 1/3 of all owned cats in New Zealand (27.1%, [27]; 35.9%, [81]). Reasons for not using collars include cat intolerance of collars, repeated collar loss, and concern over collar safety [80].…”

Section: Attitudes Towards Identificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Differences between cat owners and non-owners in terms of support for regulations that restrict a cat's physical space are well documented. Cat owners are consistently less accepting of strict cat management practices, such as either night-time or full confinement, when compared to desexing [15,80,[91][92][93][94], vaccination [92], and limiting the number of cats a person can keep [80]. Woolley and Hartley (2019) found that almost double the proportion of non-owners compared to owners agreed that local governments should enforce stricter regulations on ownership and that cat-free zones were a good solution for cat predation [95].…”

Section: Attitudes Towards Regulating Cat's Physical Spacementioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is some evidence that proximity to areas containing high ecological value influences cat owners' views on their cats roaming. Bassett et al (2020) found that people who lived closer to sensitive ecological areas were more likely to perceive the impacts of cats on wildlife as important than those who lived further from these areas and were more likely to consider the strictest forms of cat management as acceptable [80]. However, only 13% of these respondents reported keeping cats in at night and 10% reported keeping cats in during the daytime as best practice.…”

Section: Attitudes Towards Regulating Cat's Physical Spacementioning

confidence: 99%

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The Implications of Policies on the Welfare of Free-Roaming Cats in New Zealand

Sumner

Walker

Dale

2022

Animals

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A lack of national legislation for cat management in New Zealand poses challenges for ensuring that practices are consistently humane and effective. In this paper, we review the current cat management policies in New Zealand and the implications they have on the welfare of free-roaming cats (from here on, referred to as ‘cats’). Our review demonstrates that there are multiple policy mechanisms used to manage cats in New Zealand for a variety of reasons, including animal welfare, pest management, and nuisance, and that these different policies have both positive and negative implications for cat welfare. We provide context pertaining to New Zealanders’ acceptance of current or future laws and regulations and compare the New Zealand policy landscape with other countries, with a particular emphasis on Australia, to identify potential directions and outcomes of increased regulation. We discuss the future of the regulatory environment in New Zealand, including the need to better understand the impact of policies on cats, people, and other animals in urban, rural, and wild spaces. We further discuss the need to better understand the cat–human relationship for future policy decisions and offer a solution based on national cat legislation.

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‘I want you to want me’: How owners value cats' choices has implications for cat containment

Ovenden,

Bassett,

Sumner

2024

People and Nature

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Globally, cats are a common companion animal. Allowing companion cats to roam away from home can have negative impacts on native wildlife and cat welfare. A more contained cat lifestyle can limit the detrimental impacts of roaming; however, this continues to be an uncommon choice for cat owners in many countries. Communication strategies that focus on welfare benefits for cats have successfully motivated some owners to prevent their cats from roaming. However, little is known about other factors influencing owners' decisions about roaming, such as the owner–cat relationship and their cat's membership in the local community. We conducted five focus groups with 31 cat owners in Aotearoa New Zealand to understand these factors. Using thematic analysis, we identified three major themes that describe how owners view the impacts of cat containment on their relationship with their cat/s. First, finding a balance between enabling and restricting choices to ensure the cat's welfare is at the heart of the owner–cat relationship. Critically, the cat's choice to repeatedly return home reaffirms the owner–cat relationship. Second, striking the right balance in the provision of choice and ensuring welfare are contingent on the cat's characteristics. Owners providing their cat/s with the choice to leave home are perceived to be positively associated with enabling their freedom, independence and curiosity. Third, owners perceived cats to belong in many spaces occupied by humans outside of their property, despite most participants living near populations of significant threatened species. The choice to allow a cat to roam from home impacts cat welfare, the owner–cat relationship and membership in the local cat, human and wildlife community. Efforts to facilitate the shift to a contained cat lifestyle need to help owners provide choices for their cats that will meet their welfare needs and foster the owner–cat relationship. Locally relevant strategies that consider the owners' views as members of their community will likely be more successful. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

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Cat ownership and Proximity to Significant Ecological Areas Influence Attitudes Towards Cat Impacts and Management Practices

Cited by 15 publications

References 37 publications

Public opinions on seven different stray cat population management scenarios in Flanders, Belgium

Public opinions on seven different stray cat population management scenarios in Flanders, Belgium

The Implications of Policies on the Welfare of Free-Roaming Cats in New Zealand

‘I want you to want me’: How owners value cats' choices has implications for cat containment

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