Department Nutrition, Genetics and Ethology, Ethology and Animal Welfare Research Group, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Heidestraat 19, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium.
Department of Applied Mathematics, Computer Sciences and Statistics, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281-S9, 9000 Gent, Belgium.
Res Vet Sci. 2021 May;136:209-219. doi: 10.1016/j.rvsc.2021.02.025. Epub 2021 Mar 2.
Stray cat population management is an important worldwide issue. Understanding citizen attitudes towards stray cat control options is vital to the success of controlling stray cat numbers, as public perception affects the acceptance of, support for and collaboration in stray cat management policies. Audience segmentation, as to enable each group to be engaged in the stray cat management policy, is important for the success of the interventions. Therefore a web-based survey was conducted among Flemish citizens in order to examine differences in acceptance towards seven management scenarios: household cat neutering with financial support for the owner, household cat neutering without financial support for the owner, encouraging responsible household cat ownership, trapping stray cats and taking them to a shelter, trapping and neutering stray cats for release into a managed "cat colony" (composed by so called "community cats"), trapping and killing of stray cats, and undertaking no action. A total of 4059 valid responses were collected and the proportions of agreement were compared across the different management scenarios using the two-sample z-test. Interactions among factors that influenced each management scenario were investigated using the CHAID (Chi-squared Automatic Interaction Detection) analysis and visualized on a tree. Our results showed that fostering responsible household cat ownership (89.9%) and conversion of stray cats to "community cats" (76.3%) were most supported by respondents in our sample (which consisted mainly of females, cat-lovers, and families without children). Least supported were the killing of stray cats (7.7%) and undertaking no action (3.3%). The demographic analyses revealed that for the acceptance of management scenarios there were three important factors (attitude towards cats, area of residence, and gender), two weaker factors (education and having children) and two which had almost no impact (age and cat ownership). We propose that future studies should focus on the effect of 'area of residence', 'having children' and 'education'. In conclusion, our research confirms that management of and communication on stray cat strategies should not be developed with a one-size-fits-all approach. Efforts should be tailored to each audience segment, thus adapted to the area of residence and human characteristics.
流浪猫种群管理是一个全球性的重要问题。了解市民对流浪猫控制选项的态度对于成功控制流浪猫数量至关重要，因为公众看法会影响对流浪猫管理政策的接受、支持和合作。对受众进行细分，以便使每个群体都能参与到流浪猫管理政策中，对于干预措施的成功非常重要。因此，我们在弗拉芒地区的市民中进行了一项基于网络的调查，以研究他们对七种管理方案的接受程度的差异：为有猫的家庭提供绝育服务并资助主人、为有猫的家庭提供绝育服务但不资助主人、鼓励负责任的家庭养猫、诱捕流浪猫并将其送到庇护所、诱捕并绝育流浪猫然后将其放归到管理的“猫群”（由所谓的“社区猫”组成）、诱捕并杀死流浪猫、以及不采取任何行动。共收集到 4059 份有效回复，并使用双样本 z 检验比较了不同管理方案的同意比例。使用 CHAID（卡方自动交互检测）分析调查了影响每个管理方案的因素之间的相互作用，并在树图上进行了可视化。我们的结果表明，在我们的样本中（主要由女性、爱猫人士和没有孩子的家庭组成），受访者最支持培养负责任的家庭养猫意识（89.9%）和将流浪猫转变为“社区猫”（76.3%）。最不支持的是杀死流浪猫（7.7%）和不采取任何行动（3.3%）。人口统计学分析表明，对于管理方案的接受程度，有三个重要因素（对猫的态度、居住区域和性别）、两个较弱的因素（教育程度和有孩子）和两个几乎没有影响的因素（年龄和养猫）。我们建议未来的研究应重点关注“居住区域”、“有孩子”和“教育程度”的影响。总之，我们的研究证实，流浪猫管理策略的沟通和管理不应采用一刀切的方法。应根据每个受众群体的特点制定有针对性的措施，从而适应居住区域和人类特征。
