Delanoeije Joni, Moons Christel Palmyre Henri, Peeters Els Helena Karel Anna, Pendry Patricia
Work and Organisation Studies, Faculty of Economics and Business, KU Leuven, Hendrik Conscienceplein 8 Box 3530, 2000 Antwerpen, Belgium.
Research Foundation Flanders (FWO Vlaanderen), Egmontstraat 5, 1000 Brussels, Belgium.
Animals (Basel). 2024 Dec 26;15(1):33. doi: 10.3390/ani15010033.
The engagement of cats in animal-assisted services (AAS) is increasing. This is surprising given that feline behavioural needs have been perceived as contradictory to conditions associated with AAS engagement, leading to the assumption that cats as a species are not suitable for AAS. However, important within-species variability in behavioural traits nuancing this assumption has not been addressed. Therefore, this study aimed to map the behavioural profiles of cats engaged in AAS and non-AAS cats to detect behavioural profile differences between these groups. Such differences could point to AAS cats being selected to engage in AAS based upon particular behavioural traits or, relatedly, to AAS cats coping differently with AAS features. Using a Flemish translation of the Feline Behavioural Assessment and Research Questionnaire (Fe-BARQ), cross-sectional survey data on various cats' ( = 474) behavioural indices were collected. Using Mann-Whitney U-tests, results indicate that AAS cats significantly differed from non-AAS cats on five out of 19 behavioural subscales. Specifically, AAS cats scored higher on sociability with people, attention seeking, sociability with cats and predatory behaviour, and they scored lower on resistance to restraint. While this study did not allow for assessing explanations for these differences, findings suggest that cats in AAS may be intentionally or unintentionally selected for behavioural traits perceived as desirable for engagement in AAS. While we refrain from drawing conclusions regarding the "suitability" of cats based solely on our findings, our study contributes to the ongoing discourse surrounding critical themes around AAS-engaging cats. Furthermore, our findings provide a first indication of the reliability of a translation of a well-validated measurement tool suitable to map behavioural traits of cats in Flanders engaged in AAS.
猫参与动物辅助服务（AAS）的情况正在增加。考虑到猫的行为需求被认为与参与AAS的相关条件相矛盾，这一现象令人惊讶，从而导致人们认为猫作为一个物种不适合AAS。然而，尚未探讨行为特征中重要的种内变异性对这一假设的影响。因此，本研究旨在描绘参与AAS的猫和未参与AAS的猫的行为概况，以检测这两组猫之间的行为概况差异。这种差异可能表明，参与AAS的猫是基于特定行为特征被挑选出来参与AAS的，或者相关地，参与AAS的猫对AAS特征的应对方式有所不同。使用《猫行为评估与研究问卷》（Fe-BARQ）的佛兰芒语译本，收集了关于各类猫（n = 474）行为指标的横断面调查数据。使用曼-惠特尼U检验，结果表明，在19个行为子量表中的5个上，参与AAS的猫与未参与AAS的猫存在显著差异。具体而言，参与AAS的猫在与人类的社交性、寻求关注、与猫的社交性和捕食行为方面得分较高，而在对约束的抵抗力方面得分较低。虽然本研究无法评估这些差异的原因，但研究结果表明，参与AAS的猫可能是有意或无意地因其被认为适合参与AAS的行为特征而被挑选出来的。虽然我们不会仅根据我们的研究结果就猫的“适用性”得出结论，但我们的研究有助于围绕参与AAS的猫的关键主题展开持续讨论。此外，我们的研究结果首次表明，一种经过充分验证的测量工具的译本适用于描绘佛兰芒地区参与AAS的猫的行为特征，具有一定的可靠性。
