Diverse perspectives of cat owners indicate barriers to and opportunities for managing cat predation of wildlife

Crowley, Sarah L.; Cecchetti, Martina; McDonald, Robbie A.

doi:10.1002/fee.2254

Cited by 42 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Domestic animals such as cats and dogs remain substantial threats to wildlife (Lepczyk et al 2004;Longcore et al 2009;Loss and Marra 2017), and projects aiming to remove them from the wild can be an important management strategy (Lohr and Lepczyk 2014;Mameno et al 2017). This link, alongside the ability of these animals to capture donations means there is a potential opportunity to be explored by conservationists, although further research is needed to explore the complex interplay between pet ownership and interest in biodiversity conservation (Crowley et al 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What determines the success and failure of environmental crowdfunding?

Kubo

Veríssimo

Uryu

et al. 2021

Ambio

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Online crowdfunding can help address the perennial financial shortfalls in environmental conservation and management. Although many online crowdfunding campaigns fail to collect any funds due to not achieving their targets, little is known about what drives success. To address this knowledge gap, we applied a mixed-methods approach to data from 473 successful and failed campaigns hosted on the online crowdfunding platform Readyfor. We found that fundraising performance varied by topic, with campaigns on pet animal management outperforming those focussed on landscape management and sustainable use. We also found that marketing strategies associated with online findability and increased reach through social networks, increased fundraising success. However, the existence of other environmental campaigns running simultaneously, reduced the chance of success, which implies that the selecting popular topics does not always increase the likelihood of success due to increased competition. Wider applications of marketing could enhance the ability of environmental crowdfunding campaigns to raise funds.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What determines the success and failure of environmental crowdfunding?

Kubo

Veríssimo

Uryu

et al. 2021

Ambio

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“…Irrespective of their successes in reducing killing, inhibitory devices may not prevent indirect effects on prey populations. Moreover, cat owners seem reluctant to use inhibitory measures to reduce hunting, especially when conservation benefits do not accord with their priorities for cat welfare (Hall et al 2016, Harrod et al 2016, Crowley et al 2019, 2020b.…”

Section: Inhibitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Owners can eliminate or reduce hunting opportunity by restricting cats' access to the outdoors, by keeping them indoors at night or at dawn and dusk when birds are most active (Table 2). Owners variously see confinement as beneficial in reducing the risk of fighting, theft and road accidents or as detrimental to cat welfare or to pest control functions, if nocturnal confinement reduces capture of target rodents or non-native species (Crowley et al 2019, 2020b, Linklater et al 2019. Other available options for controlling cat outdoor access are exclusion fencing, cat patios ('catios', e.g.…”

Section: Access Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drivers and facilitators of hunting behaviour in domestic cats and options for management

2020

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1. Domestic cats Felis catus are distinct from other domesticated animals because their phenotype and genotype are relatively unchanged. While they live with people as pets or pest controllers, they retain capacity for survival independent of human support and readily persist as feral animals. Most cats retain some propensity to express hunting behaviours, even if hunting is not required for nutrition. In some settings, depredation by cats is a threat to biodiversity conservation, leading to attempts to mitigate their impacts. 2. We characterise drivers and facilitators of the hunting behaviour of domestic cats: evolutionary origins, diet, life history, personality and environment.Hunting is driven particularly by evolutionary constraints and associated physiological and nutritional requirements. Proximate causes of variation in hunting behaviours relate to prey availability, husbandry and degree of domestication, while early life history and personality play further roles. 3. We review cat management approaches in terms of effectiveness, feasibility and welfare. Amongst lethal, large-scale methods of population control, poisoning is most frequently used in cat eradications from islands. Because poisoning is challenged on welfare grounds, euthanasia is used at smaller scales and in inhabited, mainland settings. Non-lethal approaches, primarily surgical sterilisation, are favoured by cat advocates but entail challenging logistics and scale. In attempts to inhibit predation of wild species by pet cats, owners restrict outdoor access and use collar-mounted devices, including bells, sonic devices, collar covers and bibs. Other individual-level interventions, such as dietary and behavioural enrichment, some of which may improve cat welfare, have potential, but effects on hunting remain untested. 4. Understanding and managing the hunting behaviour of cats are complex challenges. We highlight drivers and facilitators of this behaviour, representing starting points for formulating solutions that might be acceptable to cat owners and wider groups of people who value cat welfare, while also being effective for wildlife conservation. RIASSUNTO IN ITALIANO1. I gatti domestici Felis catus si distinguono dagli altri animali domestici poiché i loro fenotipo e genotipo sono rimasti relativamente invariati. Nonostante vivano con le persone come animali domestici o vengano impiegati per il controllo dei roditori infestanti, i gatti domestici hanno mantenuto la capacità Mammal Review ISSN 0305-1838 Parole chiave ecologia degli animali da compagnia, gatto domestico, Felis catus, gatto ferale, gestione, pedazione, conservazione della fauna selvatica bs_bs_banner 308

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“…Otherwise, there would inevitably be an accelerated decline in the population of common short-haired pet cats. Owners who do not have their cats neutered are labeled as irresponsible by animal rights activists and by people who think there are too many cats in a given area (e.g., bird watchers, conservation advocates, or hunters) [ 59 ]. However, if neutering were to become an obligatory standard, this viewpoint would change: these same people would be providers of kittens, which (due to regulations) would become scarce commodities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Cohabitation of Humans and Urban Cats in the Anthropocene: The Clash of Welfare Concepts

Jaroš

2021

Animals

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Urban environments are inhabited by several types of feline populations, which we can differentiate as feral cats, free-roaming pets, and confined pets. Due to a shift in the cultural representation of cats from pest controllers to companion animals, cats living semi-independently of humans are perceived increasingly negatively, while the pet population has become the object of intense care. A regulative approach converges with a concern for welfare in the operation and educational campaigns of municipal shelters, which through their implementation of neutering policies have proven to be key players in the contemporary relation of urban cats and humans. The generally widespread notion of cat welfare associated with a secure life comes into tension with the fact that the psychobiological needs of feral cats are significantly different than those of pets. It becomes apparent that individual interactions between humans and cats in urban environments in the Anthropocene are increasingly influenced by the intervention of institutions that can be characterized as seeking to administer the wild.

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Diverse perspectives of cat owners indicate barriers to and opportunities for managing cat predation of wildlife

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 42 publications

References 25 publications

What determines the success and failure of environmental crowdfunding?

What determines the success and failure of environmental crowdfunding?

Drivers and facilitators of hunting behaviour in domestic cats and options for management

The Cohabitation of Humans and Urban Cats in the Anthropocene: The Clash of Welfare Concepts

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