Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T08:24:38.507Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Single vs multiple cat adoptions: A trade-off between longer adoption times and social bonding in shelter cats

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

L Engebrecht ,
T Smith  and
M Suchak
L Engebrecht
Affiliation:
Canisius College, Buffalo, NY 14208, USA
T Smith
Affiliation:
Canisius College, Buffalo, NY 14208, USA
M Suchak*
Affiliation:
Canisius College, Buffalo, NY 14208, USA
*
* Contact for correspondence: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Timely adoption is essential for shelters to prevent unnecessary illness or euthanasia in cats (Felis catus). Many studies have examined the role of individual cat characteristics and environmental factors in facilitating cat adoptions, but none have looked at the role the number of cats being adopted plays. In this study, we examined whether or not adopting cats in pairs influences adoption times, in addition to commonly studied factors. We then collected video data on a small subset of cats to determine whether pairs that were adopted together differed behaviourally from pairs who were not. Our results demonstrate that cats who are adopted as part of a multi-cat outcome spent three days (42%) longer on the adoption floor than those adopted individually, independently of other factors such as age and coat colour. This difference increased to 13 days (185%) longer if the cat had a notification indicating they must be adopted together with another cat. While behavioural data show that these pairs of cats engage in significantly more affiliative behaviour with each other than cats who were adopted singly, there was a large discrepancy between which pairs the shelter classified as multi-outcome and those who would be classified that way based on behaviour alone. We suggest that decisions to place cats together should be made carefully given the potential adverse impacts of keeping cats in the shelter longer. Further, we suggest that guidance should be developed to help shelters accurately and consistently identify which cats merit a multi-outcome adoption.

Keywords

adoptionanimal shelteranimal welfarecat, Felis catussocial behaviour
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Welfare , Volume 31 , Issue 3 , August 2022 , pp. 329 - 339
Copyright
© 2022 Universities Federation for Animal Welfare

References

ASPCA undated Pet statistics. https://www.aspca.org/helping-people-pets/shelter-intake-and-surrender/pet-statisticsGoogle Scholar
Barry, KJ and Crowell-Davis, SL 1999 Gender differences in the social behavior of the neutered indoor-only domestic cat. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 64: 193–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0168-1591(99)00030-1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonded Pairs undated https://www.avacats.org/cat-101/bonded-pairs/Google Scholar
Bonded Pairs undated Why you might want to adopt two cats instead of one. https://www.hartz.com/bonded-pairs-might-want-adopt-two-cats-instead-one/Google Scholar
Bradshaw, JW 2016 Sociality in cats: A comparative review. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 11: 113–124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2015.09.004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradshaw, JWS and Hall, SL 1999 Affiliative behaviour of related and unrelated pairs of cats in catteries: A preliminary report. Applied Animal Behavior Science 3: 251–255. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0168-1591(99)00007-6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brooks, ME, Kristensen, K, Benthem, KJ, van Magnusson, A, Berg, CW, Nielsen, A, Skaug, HJ, Machler, M and Bolker, BM 2017 GlmmTMB balances speed and flexibility among packages for zero-inflated generalized linear mixed modeling. The R Journal 9: 378. https://doi.org/10.32614/RJ-2017-066CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, WP and Morgan, KT 2015 Age, breed designation, coat color, and coat pattern influenced the length of stay of cats at a no-kill shelter. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 18: 169–180. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888705.2014.971156CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buzhardt, L undated Cat adoption: Bonded pairs. https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/cat-adoption-bonded-pairs#:~:text=A%20bonded%20pair%20contains%20two,move%20on%20down%20the%20aisleGoogle Scholar
Crowell-Davis, SL, Curtis, TM and Knowles, RJ 2004 Social organization in the cat: A modern understanding. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery 6: 19–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfms.2003.09.013CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dinnage, JD, Scarlett, JM and Richards, JR 2009 Descriptive epidemiology of feline upper respiratory tract disease in an animal shelter. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery 11: 816–825. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfms.2009.03.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fantuzzi, JM, Miller, KA and Weiss, E 2010 Factors relevant to adoption of cats in an animal shelter. Journal Applied Animal Welfare Science 13: 174–179. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888700903583467CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friard, O and Gamba, M 2016 BORIS: a free, versatile open-source event-logging software for video/audio coding and live observations. Methods Ecology and Evolution 7: 1325–1330. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.12584CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gourkow, N and Fraser, D 2006 The effect of housing and handling practices on the welfare, behaviour, and selection of domestic cats (Felis sylvestris catus) by adopters in an animal shelter. Animal Welfare 15: 371–377CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gouveia, K, Magalhães, A and de Sousa, L 2011 The behaviour of domestic cats in a shelter: Residence time, density and sex ratio. Applied Animal Behavior Science 130: 53–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2010.12.009CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartig, F 2019 DHARMa: Residual diagnostics for hierarchical (multi-level/mixed) regression models. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=DHARMaGoogle Scholar
Janke, N, Berke, O, Flockhart, T, Bateman, S and Coe, JB 2017 Risk factors affecting length of stay of cats in an animal shelter: A case study at the Guelph Humane Society, 2011–2016. Preventive Veterinary Medicine 148: 44–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prevetmed.2017.10.007CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lepper, M, Kass, PH and Hart, LA 2002 Prediction of adoption versus euthanasia among dogs and cats in a California animal shelter. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 5: 29–42. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327604JAWS0501_3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lüdecke, D, Makowski, D and Waggoner, P 2019 Performance: Assessment of regression models performance. https://easystats.github.io/performance/Google Scholar
McHugh, ML 2012 Interrater reliability: The kappa statistic. Biochemia Medica 22: 276–282. https://doi.org/10.11613/BM.2012.031CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meyer, D, Zeileis, A and Hornik, K 2020 vcd: Visualizing Categorical Data. R package version 1.4-8. https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/vcd/vcd.pdfGoogle Scholar
Newbury, S, Blinn, MK, Bushby, PA, Cox, CB, Dinnage, JD, Griffin, B, Hurley, KF, Isaza, N, Jones, W, Miller, L, O’Quin, J, Patronek, GJ, Smith-Blackmore, M and Spindel, M 2010 Guidelines for standards of care in animal shelters. Association of Shelter Veterinarians pp 1–64. https://www.sheltervet.org/assets/docs/shelter-standards-oct2011-wforward.pdfGoogle Scholar
R Core Team 2019 R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Core Team: Vienna, Austria. https://www.R-project.orgGoogle Scholar
Romanow, M 2020 What is a bonded pair of cats? https://www.petcurean.com/blog/what-is-a-bonded-pair-of-cats/Google Scholar
Silk, J, Cheney, D and Seyfarth, R 2013 A practical guide to the study of social relationships. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews 22: 213–225. https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.21367CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suchak, M and Lamica, J 2018 A comparison of cats (Felis silvestris catus) housed in groups and single cages at a shelter: A retrospective matched cohort study. Animals 8: 29. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani8020029CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suchak, M, Piombino, M and Bracco, K 2016 Predictors of proximity to others in colony housed shelter cats (Felis silvestris catus). Pet Behaviour Science 2: 24–33. https://doi.org/10.21071/pbs.v0i2.5186CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wagner, DC, Kass, PH and Hurley, KF 2018 Cage size, movement in and out of housing during daily care, and other environmental and population health risk factors for feline upper respiratory disease in nine North American animal shelters. PLoS ONE 13: e0190140. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0190140CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weiss, E, Miller, K, Mohan-Gibbons, H and Vela, C 2012 Why did you choose this pet? Adopters and pet selection preferences in five animal shelters in the United States. Animals 2: 144–159. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani2020144CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weiss, E, Patronek, G, Slater, M, Garrison, L and Medicus, K 2013 Community partnering as a tool for improving live release rate in animal shelters in the United States. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 16: 221–238. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888705.2013.803816CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zito, S, Vankan, D, Bennett, P, Paterson, M and Phillips, CJ 2015 Cat ownership perception and caretaking explored in an internet survey of people associated with cats. PLoS ONE 10: e0133293. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0133293CrossRefGoogle Scholar