Managing urban cats – ‘Human Animal Science’ podcast

I am loving a new series of podcasts called ‘Human Animal Science’ which are animal welfare’y, science’y and Australian based. It is hosted by Tim Adams and Mia Cobb, and if you’re a regular reader of this blog, the show will almost certainly give you a thrill too!

Some of the show’s other topics have included scientific shelter dog rehoming assessments and animal hoarding, but the segment this week is of particular interest to my fellow cat peeps…

…………

Mark Farnworth is a Senior Lecturer in Animal Welfare at Unitec Institute of Technology in Auckland, New Zealand. He has done extensive research on cats, including writing papers examining how their legal status effects their welfare, and detailing the distribution of stray cats in the community. He is on the show to discuss cat management in urban areas.

Mark points to a general lack of study on cats (more research is available on dogs) and our limited knowledge on particular segments of the cat population. Most research is done on companion cats (as they’re easily accessible), and feral cats (by studying their scats and stomach contents), while there is very little info on the ‘stray’ cat, and the different segments within this population; those who live with a colony carer, those who have one or many semi-owners, and those who live with minimal human contact.

“(With very little information on urban cat behaviours.)… it becomes an argument of ideals. As a scientist I don’t believe we should argue on ideals, we should argue based on evidence and facts. And when that is not available, we should endeavour to find out the answer to that question.”

Presenter Tim points out that in Australia we have a similar situation where we have “…. regulation is being made without having all the facts at hand”.

Mark describes his study on the populations of cats who had entered shelters in Auckland.

On examining the data of where individual cats had been collected, they found the majority of strays were coming from areas with high human populations, and in areas where the ‘NZ Deprivation Index’ was high. The ‘NZ Deprivation Index’ is a composite figure of wages/education/access to transport etc – the higher the Index number, the more socio-economically deprived a community is.

Rather than simply a ‘cat problem’,

“… you could argue that stray cats are a symptom of a wider socio-economic issues.”

Tim agrees that this is something that has been overlooked when designing cat management plans in Australia, which have been based on a broad-brush approach. Researching the social aspects, could potentially lead to more effective, targeted approaches.

Mark says that surveys of cat owners consistently reveal a 90%+ desexing rate for owned cats. However, surveys of cats entering shelters put the desexing rate at just 4%, indicating that it is not pet cats and cat owners who are the problem, but a self-sustaining stray population;

“Most people’s cats are desexed, because most people get those cats from shelters. Or if they don’t, they usually adopt them because they’ve come into the garden, or they’ve appeared from nowhere, or someone has given them to them as an unwanted kitten. Therefore they feel compelled to desex that cat.

So what we’re really saying is, stray populations are likely the main source of new cats into the owned population. And that actually undesexed cats in the owned population are a relatively minor contributor to what we tend to refer to as the ‘overpopulation problem’.

… excluding people who buy pedigree cats, most cats originate either from a stray mother, or animals which have bee taken to shelters.”

Mark finishes his interview detailing the risks cats face while outdoors and the importance of protecting pets from these as a part of responsible pet ownership. He believes that it would also make the lives of researchers easier if cats were more easily identifiable as owned, or unowned.

The full interview can be heard here.

A second interview with Mark on TNR in New Zealand is coming soon…