LB 32-313 - CANCELLED - Outdoor cats: Identifying owner beliefs, attitudes, and demographics that influence choice of indoor or outdoor lifestyle

Background/Question/Methods:

Bird populations have been declining at alarmingly high rates in the last four decades, and free-ranging domestic cats (Felis catus) contribute significantly to these declines. However, many cat owners continue to let their cats outdoors. Understanding the perceptions of cat owners is a key first step to develop effective educational campaigns on this issue and create sustainable policies on outdoor cat management. To better understand the various factors that influence a cat owner’s decision to provide outdoor access, we surveyed 488 faculty and staff at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Of the respondents, 260 owned cats (53%) and 229 did not own cats (46%), with cat owners asked a more extensive set of questions. Specifically, we asked cat owners about their attitudes and beliefs towards pet cats spending time outdoors, risk perceptions related to cats going outside, perceived constraints for containing cats indoors, and demographic variables.

Results/Conclusions:

Preliminary results indicate greater support from cat owners and non-cat owners for allowing cats outdoors with restrictions, including only when supervised, when leashed, or in outdoor enclosures (36% agree and 18% strongly agree), than for always containing cats indoors (22% agree and 11% strongly agree). For cat owners who provide their cat with outdoor access, the most important reasons included cat happiness (55% extremely important) and cat physical health (30% extremely important). For cat owners who did not allow or restricted outdoor access, the most important reasons included getting attacked by wild animals (69% extremely important) and getting hit by a car (57% extremely important); killing wild birds and disease transmission were comparatively less important (27% and 22% extremely important, respectively). Results suggest cat owners are predominantly concerned with increasing cat wellbeing, whether by letting them access the outdoors or not. Outreach to cat owners to contain their cats could focus on the benefits to cat welfare and provide ways to ensure cats remain happy and healthy with an indoor lifestyle. By increasing understanding of cat owner perspectives, we can design better communication strategies to help reduce the impact of outdoor cats on birds and other wildlife.