Rehabilitation program for urban free–ranging dogs

Demirbas, Y. S., Safak, E., Emre, B., Piskin, İ., Ozturk, H., & Pereira, G. D. G. (2017). Rehabilitation program for urban free–ranging dogs in a shelter environment can improve behavior and welfare. Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research, 18, 1-6.

The aim of the present study was to assess the efficacy of a rehabilitation program on improving behavior and welfare of a group of urban free–ranging dogs kept in a dog shelter. In this study, a rehabilitation protocol including training and adaptability to home environment was applied to 8 urban free–ranging dogs kept in a dog shelter in Ankara, Turkey. At the beginning of the study, all dogs' reactions were assessed by short test situations to divide them into 2 groups, that is, dogs with behavioral changes such as fear and aggression (group 1) and dogs without behavioral changes (group 2). Behavior and emotional assessments were done in the beginning and at the end of the program that lasted 6 weeks. It was observed that most dogs were obeying basic signals or requests on and off leash. In the second assessment, most of the dogs were displaying relaxed body posture while interacting with humans. Nevertheless, only significant difference was found between the groups in adaptability to home environment (Mann-Whitney U test, P < 0.05). None of the dogs in group 1 were evaluated as relaxed, whereas all the dogs in group 2 were displaying relaxed body posture, thus a positive emotional state, in home environment on the first day. Findings of this study showed that a standardized rehabilitation program including training and adaptation to home environment might be beneficial for some urban free–ranging dogs to improve their behaviors and welfare in shelter environment. Moreover, it can be suggested that urban free–ranging dogs can easily be trained and adapted to humans in case where they did not have intense fear and/or aggression.

Longer breeding seasons, more kittens: are cats reacting to climate change?

Animal behaviourist Erica Pankhurst at the Animal Welfare League with cats available for adoption. Photo: Peter Rae

Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/nsw/longer-breeding-seasons-more-kittens-are-cats-reacting-to-climate-change-20160208-gmo5bl#ixzz3zeO26IQd
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Defining priorities for dog population management through mathematical modeling

Baquero, O. S., Akamine, L. A., Amaku, M., & Ferreira, F. (2015). Defining priorities for dog population management through mathematical modeling. Preventive veterinary medicine.

We simulated dog population dynamics for a thirty-years period using a logistic growth model. Through sensitivity analyses, we determined the influence of the parameters used in the model. Carrying capacity was the most influential parameter in all simulations. In the owned-dog population, the influence of immigration, abandonment and births was 19%, 16% and 6% of the influence of the carrying capacity, respectively. In the sterilized owned-dog population, the influence of abandonment, female and male sterilization was 37%, 30% and 27% of the influence of the carrying capacity. In the stray population, the influence of abandonment, carrying capacity of the owned-dog population and adoption was 10%, 9% and 6% of the influence of the carrying capacity. In the sterilized stray population, the influence of births, female sterilization and male sterilization was 45%, 15% and 13% of the influence of the carrying capacity. Other parameters had lower influence values. Modification of the carrying capacity requires different interventions for the owned- and stray-dog populations. Dog trade control is a way to reduce immigration. The evaluation of sterilization effects must focus on the variations in the infertile population fraction. Adoption may improve the effects of the reduction in carrying capacity on the stray-dog population.

Epidemiology of Dog and Cat Abandonment in Spain

Fatjó, J., Bowen, J., García, E., Calvo, P., Rueda, S., Amblás, S., & Lalanza, J. F. (2015). Epidemiology of Dog and Cat Abandonment in Spain (2008–2013). Animals, 5(2), 426-441.

Millions of pets are abandoned worldwide every year, which is an important animal welfare and financial problem. This paper was divided into three studies. Our first two studies were designed as a national survey of animal shelters to profile the population of stray dogs and cats, as well as to gather information on both relinquishment and adoption. The aim of our third study was to test the impact of identification on the recovery of dogs entering animal shelters. Studies one and two indicate that more than 100,000 dogs and more than 30,000 cats enter animal shelters annually in Spain. We observed a seasonal effect in the number of admissions in cats. Two-thirds of dogs and cats entering shelters were found as strays, while the rest were relinquished directly to the shelter. Most pets admitted to animal shelters were adult, non-purebred, and without a microchip, with the majority of dogs being medium sized. Adult dogs spent significantly more time in shelters than puppies. While most animals were either adopted or recovered by their owner, a considerable percentage remained at the shelter or was euthanized. The identification of dogs with a microchip increased by 3-fold the likelihood of them being returned to the owner.

Evaluation of cats socialization in shelters

Slater, M., Garrison, L., Miller, K., Weiss, E., Makolinski, K., Drain, N., & Mirontshuk, A. (2013). Practical physical and behavioral measures to assess the socialization spectrum of cats in a shelter-like setting during a three day period. Animals, 3(4), 1162-1193.

Animal welfare organizations routinely accept large numbers of cats with unknown histories, and whose backgrounds vary from well-socialized pets to cats that have had little or no contact with humans. Agencies are challenged with making the determination of socialization level in a highly stressful environment where cats are often too frightened to show typical behaviors. A variety of structured behavioral assessments were conducted in a shelter-like environment, from intake through a three day holding period, on cats from the full range of socialization as reported by their caregivers. Our results show that certain behaviors such as rubbing, playing, chirping, having the tail up or being at the front of the cage were found to be unique to More Socialized cats. While not all more socialized cats showed these behaviors, cats that did were socialized. Assessing the cats throughout the three day period was beneficial in eliciting key behaviors from shyer and more frightened cats. These results will be used in future work to develop an assessment tool to identify the socialization status of cats as a standardized guide for transparent and reliable disposition decisions and higher live release rates for cats in animal shelters.

Slater, M., Garrison, L., Miller, K., Weiss, E., Makolinski, K., & Drain, N. (2013). Reliability and validity of a survey of cat caregivers on their cats’ socialization level in the cat’s normal environment. Animals, 3(4), 1194-1214.

Stray cats routinely enter animal welfare organizations each year and shelters are challenged with determining the level of human socialization these cats may possess as quickly as possible. However, there is currently no standard process to guide this determination. This study describes the development and validation of a caregiver survey designed to be filled out by a cat’s caregiver so it accurately describes a cat’s personality,

background, and full range of behavior with people when in its normal environment. The results from this survey provided the basis for a socialization score that ranged from unsocialized to well socialized with people. The quality of the survey was evaluated based on inter-rater and test-retest reliability and internal consistency and estimates of construct and criterion validity. In general, our results showed moderate to high levels of inter-rater (median of 0.803, range 0.211–0.957) and test-retest agreement (median 0.92, range 0.211–0.999). Cronbach’s alpha showed high internal consistency (0.962). Estimates of validity did not highlight any major shortcomings. This survey will be used to develop and validate an effective assessment process that accurately differentiates cats by their socialization levels towards humans based on direct observation of cats’ behavior in an animal shelter.

Slater, M., Garrison, L., Miller, K., Weiss, E., Drain, N., & Makolinski, K. (2013). Physical and behavioral measures that predict cats’ socialization in an animal shelter environment during a three day period. Animals, 3(4), 1215-1228.

Animal welfare organizations typically take in cats with unknown levels of socialization towards humans, ranging from unsocialized cats well-socialized but lost pets. Agencies typically determine the socialization status and disposition options of cats within three days, when even a well-socialized pet may be too frightened of the unfamiliar surroundings to display its typical behavior. This is the third part of a three-phase project to develop and evaluate a reliable and valid tool to predict cats’ socialization levels. We recruited cats from the full spectrum of socialization and, using information from the cats’ caregivers regarding typical behavior toward familiar and unfamiliar people, assigned each cat to a Socialization Category. This information was compared to the cats’ behavior during three days of structured assessments conducted in a shelter-like setting. The results of logistic regression modeling generated two models using assessments from the mornings of the second and third day, focusing on predicting shyer or more aloof but socialized cats. Using the coefficients from each of these models, two sets of points were calculated which were useful in differentiating More and Less Socialized cats. In combination with key socialized behaviors, these points were able to fairly accurately identify More and Less Socialized cats.

Effect of high-impact targeted trap-neuter-return and adoption of community cats on cat intake to a shelter

Levy, J. K., Isaza, N. M., & Scott, K. C. (2014). Effect of high-impact targeted trap-neuter-return and adoption of community cats on cat intake to a shelter.The Veterinary Journal.

Approximately 2–3 million cats enter animal shelters annually in the United States. A large proportion of these are unowned community cats that have no one to reclaim them and may be too unsocialized for adoption. More than half of impounded cats are euthanased due to shelter crowding, shelter-acquired disease or feral behavior. Trap-neuter-return (TNR), an alternative to shelter impoundment, improves cat welfare and reduces the size of cat colonies, but has been regarded as too impractical to reduce cat populations on a larger scale or to limit shelter cat intake. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of TNR concentrated in a region of historically high cat impoundments in a Florida community. A 2-year program was implemented to capture and neuter at least 50% of the estimated community cats in a single 11.9 km² zip code area, followed by return to the neighborhood or adoption. Trends in shelter cat intake from the target zip code were compared to the rest of the county.

A total of 2366 cats, representing approximately 54% of the projected community cat population in the targeted area, were captured for the TNR program over the 2-year study period. After 2 years, per capita shelter intake was 3.5-fold higher and per capita shelter euthanasia was 17.5-fold higher in the non-target area than in the target area. Shelter cat impoundment from the target area where 60 cats/1000 residents were neutered annually decreased by 66% during the 2-year study period, compared to a decrease of 12% in the non-target area, where only 12 cats/1000 residents were neutered annually. High-impact TNR combined with the adoption of socialized cats and nuisance resolution counseling for residents is an effective tool for reducing shelter cat intake.

Feral Cats in the Ogasawara Islands

from http://www.japanprobe.com

Last week, the Ogasawara Islands were named a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site:

The island chain, which has never been connected with a continent, has been dubbed the “Galapagos of the Orient” because animals and plants there have undergone unique evolutionary processes–similar to wildlife on the Galapagos Islands.

In particular, 100 of the 106 species of land snails found on the islands are indigenous.

The islands, which include Chichijima and Hahajima islands, are regarded as the only place in the world where geological features visible from the ground show how an archipelago is formed when oceanic plates bump against each other.

Conservation groups have been working hard to protect the islands’ unique ecosystem. One conservation project involves the capture of feral cats, descendants of pets that humans brought to the island

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Reasons for relinquishment and return of domestic cats to rescue shelters

Casey, R. A., Vandenbussche, S., Bradshaw, J. W., & Roberts, M. A. (2009). Reasons for relinquishment and return of domestic cats (Felis silvestris catus) to rescue shelters in the UK. Anthrozoos: A Multidisciplinary Journal of The Interactions of People & Animals, 22(4), 347-358.

Significant numbers of cats enter rescue and re-homing facilities each year, over half of which are relinquished directly by owners. Identifying the reasons why owners decide to give up their pet is an important step in the development of education strategies to encourage retention of cats by their owners. In addition, identifying why adopting owners fail to retain their new cats is important in the refinement of homing policies. Characteristics of 6,089 cats relinquished and returned to 11 rescue facilities in the UK were recorded over a year. In addition, information was collected on the reason why owners gave up, or brought back, their pet. Sixty percent of cats and kittens entering shelters were relinquished by owners, with 19% being due to owner circumstances, such as moving to rented accommodation or changes in family circumstances. Seven percent were for behavioral reasons, and 5% because of the occurrence of allergy or asthma in owners. Returned cats were significantly more likely to be older (Mann Whitney U, Z = –9.167, p < 0.001) and neutered (Pearson χ² = 110.0, df = 2, p < 0.001) than the general relinquished population. The reasons for original relinquishment and return of owned cats were also significantly different (Pearson χ² = 84.4, df = 6, p < 0.001), with 38% of cats being returned for behavioral reasons, and 18% because of allergy or asthma. The commonest behavioral reason for both relinquishment and return was aggression between cats in the household.

Bias against adoption of stray cats

Dybdall, K., & Strasser, R. (2014). Is There a Bias Against Stray Cats in Shelters? People's Perception of Shelter Cats and How It Influences Adoption Time. Anthrozoos: A Multidisciplinary Journal of The Interactions of People & Animals.

The determination of adoptability is a fundamental issue facing shelters wishing to rehome cats. Many shelters in the United States cannot keep a cat indefinitely and increased time in the shelter environment may lead to reduced animal welfare due to chronic stress or euthanasia. In a series of studies, we examined whether entry type (whether a cat came to the shelter as an owner-surrendered or stray) as well as a cat 's perceived social behavior influenced adoption times and people 's ratings of adoptability. In study 1, we used archival data from 1,089 cats in a Midwest shelter and found that owner-surrendered cats were adopted significantly sooner than stray cats. In study 2, we further explored the difference between owner-surrendered and stray cats by measuring the social behavior of 56 shelter cats and their time before adoption. Similarly, we found in this sample that owner-surrendered cats were adopted on average nine days sooner than stray cats. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that entry type was a significant predictor of days to adopt, and that latency to approach a human significantly improved the prediction model. Further, how quickly stray cats, but not owner-surrendered cats, approached a human experimenter correlated significantly with a shortened adoption time in the actual adoption scenario. Finally, in study 3, we used an on-line survey to present 12 dual-image pictures of cats and manipulated whether the information about the cat listed each as owner-surrendered or stray cat. We asked 120 college students to rate their likelihood of adopting each pictured cat. When participants were asked about reasons they would adopt a particular cat, 81% reported friendly behavior toward them; yet when viewing the mirror images in the survey (no behavioral information available), cats received higher adoptability ratings when presented as owner-surrendered compared with the flipped image of that cat presented as a stray. Taken together, these studies suggest that adopters' perception of stray cats, as well as cats' interactions with humans, influence the amount of time a cat remains in the shelter prior to adoption.

Two papers on cat colonies and TNR

Levy, J. K., Gale, D. W., & Gale, L. A. (2003). Evaluation of the effect of a long-term trap-neuter-return and adoption program on a free-roaming cat population. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 222(1), 42-46.

Objective—To evaluate the effect of a long-term trapneuter-return program, with adoption whenever possible, on the dynamics of a free-roaming cat population.

Design—Observational epidemiologic study.

Animals—155 unowned free-roaming cats.

Procedures—Free-roaming cats residing on a university campus were trapped, neutered, and returned to the environment or adopted over an 11-year period.

Results—During the observation period (January 1991 to April 2002), 75% of the cats were feral, and 25% were socialized. Kittens comprised 56% of the original population. Male cats were slightly more numerous (55%) than females. At the conclusion of the observation period, 47% of the cats had been removed for adoption, 15% remained on site, 15% had disappeared, 11% were euthanatized, 6% had died, and 6% had moved to the surrounding wooded environment. Trapping began in 1991; however, a complete census of cats was not completed until 1996, at which time 68 cats resided on site. At completion of the study in 2002, the population had decreased by 66%, from 68 to 23 cats (of which 22 were feral). No kittens were observed on site after 1995, but additional stray or abandoned cats continued to become resident. New arrivals were neutered or adopted before they could reproduce.

Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—A comprehensive long-term program of neutering followed by adoption or return to the resident colony can result in reduction of free-roaming cat populations in urban areas.

Foley, P., Foley, J. E., Levy, J. K., & Paik, T. (2005). Analysis of the impact of trap-neuter-return programs on populations of feral cats. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 227(11), 1775-1781.

Objective—To evaluate 2 county trap-neuter-return (TNR) programs for feral cat population management via mathematical modeling.

Design—Theoretical population model.

Animals—Feral cats assessed from 1992 to 2003 in San Diego County, California (n = 14,452), and from 1998 to 2004 in Alachua County, Florida (11,822).

Procedure—Data were analyzed with a mathematical Ricker model to describe population dynamics of the feral cats and modifications to the dynamics that occurred as a result of the TNR programs.

Results—In both counties, results of analyses did not indicate a consistent reduction in per capita growth, the population multiplier, or the proportion of female cats that were pregnant.

Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—Success of feral cat management programs that use TNR can be monitored with an easily collected set of data and statistical analyses facilitated by population modeling techniques. Results may be used to suggest possible future monitoring and modification of TNR programs, which could result in greater success controlling and reducing feral cat populations.