Kilgour R J, Flockhart D T T
Urban Wildlife Institute, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, IL, United States.
Department of Animal Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States.
Front Vet Sci. 2022 Jun 7;9:766312. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2022.766312. eCollection 2022.
Animal shelters play a vital role for pets, such as transitioning animals between homes, from outdoor communities into homes, caring for unadoptable and community animals, and providing a breadth of veterinary and welfare services. The goal of shelters is to move cats to their appropriate outcome as quickly as possible, which for many animals, is to rehome them as quickly as possible through adoption. Therefore, the ability to identify pre-existing factors, particularly those occurring outside the walls of the shelter, which result in specific outcomes is vital. In this study, we used structural equation modeling to test four hypotheses addressing how to predict cat outcome from a shelter in Washington, D.C. We developed four hypotheses that described how cat outcomes could be predicted, based on four general factors: (1) The characteristics of the cats; (2) The location of origin; (3) The type and date of intake; (4) The length of stay. Using 4 years of data from the Humane Rescue Alliance in Washington, D.C., we found support for each of our hypotheses. Additionally, we tested and found support for a global model, which comprised an amalgamation of our all our predictors. From the global model, we can conclude that many factors are at play in predicting cat outcomes in this shelter and very likely in many others as well. Critically, these factors are interconnected, indicating, for example, that cat characteristics mediate the influence of intake location on outcome type. Furthermore, our study highlights the importance of incorporating influences beyond the shelter when attempting to understand cat outcomes. Therefore, to modify cat outcomes most efficiently, such as increasing adoption probabilities, our results show that efforts may be most effective when incorporating multiple factors.
动物收容所对宠物起着至关重要的作用，比如在家之间转移动物、将户外社区的动物转移到家中、照顾无法被领养的动物和社区动物，以及提供广泛的兽医和福利服务。收容所的目标是尽快让猫咪得到合适的安置，对许多动物来说，就是尽快通过领养为它们重新找到家。因此，识别导致特定结果的既有因素，尤其是那些发生在收容所之外的因素的能力至关重要。在本研究中，我们使用结构方程模型来检验四个假设，这些假设涉及如何预测华盛顿特区一家收容所猫咪的安置结果。我们基于四个一般因素提出了四个描述如何预测猫咪安置结果的假设：(1) 猫咪的特征；(2) 来源地；(3) 收容的类型和日期；(4) 停留时长。利用华盛顿特区人道救援联盟四年的数据，我们发现我们的每个假设都得到了支持。此外，我们检验并发现了一个全局模型得到了支持，该模型由我们所有的预测变量合并而成。从全局模型中，我们可以得出结论，在这个收容所中，许多因素在预测猫咪安置结果时都发挥着作用，并且很可能在许多其他收容所也是如此。至关重要的是，这些因素相互关联，例如表明猫咪特征介导了收容地点对安置类型的影响。此外，我们的研究强调了在试图理解猫咪安置结果时纳入收容所以外影响因素的重要性。因此，为了最有效地改变猫咪的安置结果，比如提高领养概率，我们的结果表明，综合考虑多个因素时努力可能最有效。
