Vasileva Ivet, McCulloch Steven P
Centre for Animal Welfare, University of Winchester, Winchester, UK.
J Appl Anim Welf Sci. 2024 Oct-Dec;27(4):746-760. doi: 10.1080/10888705.2023.2186787. Epub 2023 Mar 16.
This research uses an online questionnaire ( = 1148) to survey the Bulgarian public's attitudes and behaviors toward owned and stray cats and explore potential barriers to stray cat population management. Generally, the survey participants indicated positive attitudes toward stray cats, with 82.0% of the respondents reporting feeling sorry for stray cats. Semi-ownership behaviors were prevalent, with 82.5% feeding stray cats but only 18.1% neutering the cats they fed, posing a barrier to stray cat management. Overall, the respondents held mixed attitudes toward neutering. Of all cat owners sampled ( = 859) only 47.2% had neutered all their cats and 44.4% of owners allowed cats outdoor access or their cats lived exclusively outdoors. Multinomial logistic regression predicted that intact cats were more likely to be allowed to roam free and reproduce, which may present a significant barrier to stray cat population management. This is the first academic survey on attitudes toward cats in Bulgaria and the findings should contribute to stray cat management and ultimately improve feline welfare.
本研究使用在线问卷（n = 1148）对保加利亚公众对家猫和流浪猫的态度及行为进行调查，并探究流浪猫种群管理的潜在障碍。总体而言，调查参与者对流浪猫持积极态度，82.0%的受访者表示为流浪猫感到难过。半收养行为普遍存在，82.5%的人会喂养流浪猫，但只有18.1%的人会给他们喂养的猫绝育，这对流浪猫管理构成了障碍。总体而言，受访者对绝育态度不一。在所有抽样的猫主人（n = 859）中，只有47.2%的人给他们所有的猫都做了绝育，44.4%的主人允许猫外出或他们的猫只生活在户外。多项逻辑回归预测，未绝育的猫更有可能被允许自由游荡和繁殖，这可能对流浪猫种群管理构成重大障碍。这是保加利亚首次关于对猫态度的学术调查，研究结果应有助于流浪猫管理并最终改善猫的福利。
