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A Situational Analysis of Attitudes toward Stray Cats and Preferences and Priorities for Their Management

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posted on 2024-11-12, 01:13 authored by Jacquie Rand, Rebekah Scotney, Ann Enright, Andrea Hayward, Pauleen BennettPauleen Bennett, John Morton
Current cat management approaches are outdated and ineffective, failing to reduce stray cat numbers or related complaints and negatively impacting the job satisfaction and mental health of veterinary, shelter, and municipal staff. We undertook a situational analysis prior to implementing a Community Cat Program based on free sterilization of owned, semi-owned, and unowned cats in the city of Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. The study involved 343 residents in three suburbs in Ipswich, Queensland, Australia with high per capita intake of cats into the receiving shelter and municipal pound. We investigated the prevalence and impacts of free-roaming cats in urban areas, focusing on sightings, associated issues, and community preferences for cat management. Stray cats were observed by many respondents (71%), primarily at private residences (52%) and in alleyways or streets (22%), which caused serious or moderately serious problems for 38% of those who saw stray or wandering cats. Key concerns included the killing of native birds (38%) and animals (35%), noise (33%), and soiling (32%). Actions taken by respondents who saw stray or wandering cats included chasing them away or using deterrents (25%), capturing the cat for removal or calling council (18%) and preventing home entry (14%). Respondents’ priorities for the local government management of cats included preventing kittens from being born (94% of respondents) and stopping cats from preying on native animals (91%); reducing disease spread to pets (89%), wildlife (89%), and humans (87%); decreasing stray cat numbers (75%); and preventing cat fights (70%). Respondents favored sterilization (65%) over euthanasia (35%), aligning with the results of previous research. Cat ownership and feeding unowned cats were predictors of management preferences. Only 29% of respondents were satisfied with the current local council management of the problem. Information on the benefits of management by sterilization could further enhance community support.

Funding

Financial support for the project was provided by the Waltham Foundation, and resource support was provided by the Australian Pet Welfare Foundation through fundraising donations. The authors thank the Special Issue sponsors, the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals International (SPCAi), and FOUR Paws for providing funding to cover the publication fees.

History

Publication Date

2024-10-14

Journal

Animals

Volume

14

Issue

20

Article Number

2953

Pagination

20p.

Publisher

MDPI

ISSN

2076-2615

Rights Statement

© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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