Crawford Caitlin, Rand Jacquie, Forge Olivia, Rohlf Vanessa, Bennett Pauleen, Scotney Rebekah
Australian Pet Welfare Foundation, Kenmore, QLD 4069, Australia.
School of Veterinary Science, The University of Queensland, Gatton, QLD 4343, Australia.
Animals (Basel). 2025 Mar 12;15(6):800. doi: 10.3390/ani15060800.
Rodents play a role in the spread of disease and cause immense damage to produce and infrastructure, leading to food safety risks and economic losses for farmers. Farmers typically control rodent populations using rodenticide baits, which are expensive, and, when used incorrectly, are inefficient, and pose a risk to children, pets and wildlife. Cats may offer a safer, more efficient and cheaper option for farmers, but concerns for cats' impact on wildlife and possible negative outcomes for their own welfare may lead to them being underutilized. Through semi-structured interviews with 15 people from 9 dairy farms in two regions, we explored the value cats have to dairy farmers and the perceived impact of the Australian Tax Office making working cat care tax deductible. The data gathered during interviews indicated that uncontrolled rodent populations have a detrimental impact on dairy farms and showed that farmers valued having cats due to their efficiency in pest control, monetary savings and companionship. They struggled to cover the cost of cat care, however, particularly costs like sterilization and vaccination, which are necessary to enhance cat welfare and protect native wildlife from diseases and cat overpopulation. Our findings demonstrate that dairy farmers value the working cats on their farms for rodent control. Allowing cat care to be tax deductible may enable farmers to provide care such as sterilization, vaccination and food, potentially improving farmers' wellbeing and cat welfare whilst reducing cats' impact on wildlife. It is strongly recommended that relevant industry bodies gather additional evidence from both dairy and other types of farming operations, and if results are consistent with the findings from our study, they lobby state and federal governments to consider that cats kept on farms for rodent control be considered tax deductible as they are in the US and UK and are also exempt from state cat registration and permit costs as working dogs are in Australia.
啮齿动物在疾病传播中起作用，并对农产品和基础设施造成巨大破坏，给农民带来食品安全风险和经济损失。农民通常使用杀鼠剂诱饵来控制啮齿动物数量，这些诱饵价格昂贵，而且使用不当会效率低下，并对儿童、宠物和野生动物构成风险。猫可能为农民提供一种更安全、更高效且更便宜的选择，但担心猫对野生动物的影响以及对其自身福利可能产生的负面结果可能导致猫未得到充分利用。通过对来自两个地区9个奶牛场的15人进行半结构化访谈，我们探讨了猫对奶农的价值以及澳大利亚税务局将养猫护理费用列为可减税项目的潜在影响。访谈期间收集的数据表明，不受控制的啮齿动物数量对奶牛场有不利影响，并表明农民重视养猫，因为它们在害虫控制方面效率高、能节省金钱且能陪伴左右。然而，他们难以承担养猫护理的费用，尤其是绝育和疫苗接种等费用，而这些对于提高猫的福利以及保护本地野生动物免受疾病和猫数量过多之害是必要的。我们的研究结果表明，奶农重视农场里用于控制啮齿动物的工作猫。允许养猫护理费用可减税可能使农民能够提供绝育、疫苗接种和食物等护理，有可能改善农民的福祉和猫的福利，同时减少猫对野生动物的影响。强烈建议相关行业机构从奶牛场和其他类型的农场运营中收集更多证据，如果结果与我们的研究结果一致，他们应游说州和联邦政府考虑将农场用于控制啮齿动物的猫视为可减税项目，就像在美国和英国那样，并且也应像澳大利亚对工作犬那样豁免州猫登记和许可费用。
