Darling Saethra
Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
Department of Animal and Rangeland Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA.
Animals (Basel). 2023 Aug 29;13(17):2752. doi: 10.3390/ani13172752.
Domestic cats are euthanized at high rates in shelters, and appropriate matching between cats and adopters is believed to improve adoption success and reduce euthanasia rates. The ASPCA's Meet Your Match Feline-ality™ program, designed to match cats with owners based on personality and lifestyle, has been implemented in various shelters. This study is the first systematic evaluation of its implementation process and efficacy. Using a controlled interrupted time series design (CITS), the outcome evaluation examined and compared records for five years (2015-2019) from the Seattle Animal Shelter (SAS) and the Multnomah County Animal Shelter located in Portland, Oregon (USA). The outcome evaluation demonstrated no changes in any outcomes (e.g., cat adoptions, euthanasias, returns, transfers, or length of stay) that could be reliably attributed to Feline-ality™. The process evaluation at SAS identified and quantified eight possible errors in implementation that could affect the success of Feline-ality™; the results indicated a 1.6% overall success rate. Whereas the lack of substantive effect may indicate that MYM Feline-ality™ does not perform as purported, it is equally as likely (if not more so) that this absence of evidence of any results reasonably attributable to Feline-ality™ has occurred because the error rate in implementation of the program was very high. The fact that a poorly implemented program necessarily impacts the results of an outcome evaluation underscores the need for process evaluation concurrent with implementation.
在收容所中，家猫被安乐死的比例很高，人们认为猫与领养者的合理匹配能够提高领养成功率并降低安乐死率。美国防止虐待动物协会的“找到适合你的猫咪性格”（Meet Your Match Feline-ality™）项目旨在根据性格和生活方式为猫咪与主人进行匹配，该项目已在多家收容所实施。本研究是对其实施过程和效果的首次系统评估。采用对照中断时间序列设计（CITS），结果评估检查并比较了西雅图动物收容所（SAS）和位于美国俄勒冈州波特兰的马尔特诺马县动物收容所2015年至2019年这五年的记录。结果评估表明，没有任何结果（如猫咪领养、安乐死、归还、转移或停留时长）发生可可靠归因于“猫咪性格”项目的变化。SAS的过程评估识别并量化了实施过程中可能影响“猫咪性格”项目成功的八个错误；结果显示总体成功率为1.6%。虽然缺乏实质性效果可能表明“找到适合你的猫咪性格”项目并未如宣称的那样发挥作用，但同样有可能（甚至更有可能）的是，由于该项目实施的错误率非常高，所以没有出现任何可合理归因于“猫咪性格”项目的结果证据。一个实施不佳的项目必然会影响结果评估的结果，这一事实凸显了在实施过程中同时进行过程评估的必要性。
