Abstract
According to the American Pet Products Association, in the USA there are an estimated 86.4 million owned cats, and approximately 40% of these are allowed to roam outdoors. Little has been written about the contribution of owned cats to problems attributed to feral cats, including wildlife predation, spread of zoonotic diseases and overpopulation. A recent study found that 64% of cats have visited the veterinarian within the past year, suggesting frequent opportunity for veterinarians to communicate risks and benefits of indoor vs outdoor living. We conducted the following survey to evaluate current views about this role of veterinarians, by surveying veterinary school faculty (n = 158). Our objectives were to assess (i) the degree to which veterinary teaching faculty believe that the issue of clients maintaining owned cats indoors vs outdoors is appropriate for discussion with students within the veterinary school curriculum; (ii) the degree of agreement and understanding there is among the faculty as to the reasons that clients maintain cats either inside or outside the home; and (iii) the degree to which veterinary faculty believe owned cats that are allowed to go outdoors contribute to various identified problems. The results indicated that many participants believed that the discussion of maintaining cats indoors is relevant to the profession, that it belongs in the veterinary school curriculum, that they understand client motivations, that they feel that more practicing veterinarians should discuss cat housing practices with clients and that cat overpopulation continues to be a significant concern for owned cats being outdoors. Additional ways to help maintain the health and wellbeing of cats that are primarily housed indoors is briefly discussed, including through such means as environmental enrichment or by providing cats access to safe areas while outdoors.
Short Communication
Feral cats have received attention for their association with problems of wildlife predation, spreading of zoonotic diseases, poor health and overpopulation. However, limited information exists about the contribution of free-roaming, owned cats to these same problems. An estimated 35 million owned cats are allowed to roam outdoors. 1 Similar to feral cats, owned cats are efficient hunters of wildlife. For example, a survey conducted in Michigan revealed that owned cats killed, on average, an estimated minimum of 1 bird/km/day during the bird breeding season. 2 Owned cats can also carry zoonotic diseases, including rabies. Furthermore, owned cats contribute to the overpopulation problem and they produce about 20% of the kittens born each year. 3 Finally, owned cats are commonly believed to lead longer lives than feral cats, 4 although there may be exceptions because indoor confinement may produce negative health or behavioral problems in some cats.5,6
A 2001 survey of 600 veterinarians found that whereas the majority (91%) believed the problems and dangers of letting cats roam outside should be communicated to all current and future cat owners, only two-thirds (66%) of the total recommended keeping cats indoors to their clients. 7 The study concluded that veterinarians are uncomfortable making non-medical recommendations. Our objectives were to assess (i) the degree to which veterinary teaching faculty believe that the issue of clients maintaining owned cats indoors vs outdoors is appropriate for discussion with students within the veterinary school curriculum; (ii) the degree of agreement and understanding there is among the faculty as to the reasons that clients maintain cats either inside or outside the home; and (iii) the degree to which veterinary faculty believe owned cats that are allowed to go outdoors contribute to various identified problems.
A survey was developed by the veterinary teaching faculty at the University of Maine, and approved by the University of Maine Human Subjects Review Board and the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges. Thirty-four chairpersons of all veterinary departments in the USA were contacted by email and were asked to forward a request to their department teaching faculty (including veterinary interns and residents) to complete an attached online survey. Thirty-one chairpersons reported they had forwarded the request to 1097 recipients. One hundred and fifty-eight surveys were returned by 88 female and 66 male clinical and non-clinical faculty. The median date of graduation from veterinary school was 1989 (range 1962–2008). All indicated that they taught students, with the most common subjects taught being surgery, small animal medicine and internal medicine. Although a limited response sample was obtained, we are not aware of any reason why the sample obtained may be biased. Analyses revealed an adequate number of both older and younger faculty, of both sexes, from broadly distributed US geographic regions, and from those that taught a variety of courses. Additionally, response patterns from several questions were quite variable, suggesting disparate opinions from participants.
Table 1 summarizes the overall frequencies and response patterns of participants who were asked four categories of questions. All questions were provided in the form of Likert-type options as shown. Response frequency patterns were then analyzed with χ2 analyses. The first category of questions included how participants viewed the issue of keeping cats indoors vs outdoors with regard to its curricular relevancy. As shown in Table 1, the majority (70%) believed that cat housing practice was a veterinary preventive medicine issue to either a moderate or great extent. Fewer believed as strongly that keeping cats indoors was an animal welfare issue, but still nearly a third believed it was of moderate relevance. A majority viewed the issue as small or minimally related to wildlife conservation. Nevertheless, the majority (77%) believed, to either a moderate or great extent, that the decision to keep a cat indoors or allow it to free roam merits a conversation that veterinarians should have with their clients. Additionally, the majority (71%) believed that this issue of cat housing was appropriate to discuss specifically within the veterinary school curriculum.
Questions, frequencies and statistical comparisons of veterinary faculty members’ responses to groups of thematically related questions from a survey on cat housing practices
Frequency counts (and percentages) reflect the number of participants choosing each of the provided options. Values with different subscript letters (eg, a, b, c) indicate frequencies that differ significantly via pairwise χ2 analyses within each row (P ⩽0.05). Total n responding to each question is the sum of frequencies within each row
df = degrees of freedom
To assess participants’ beliefs of why cat owners specifically kept their cats indoors, participants were asked to judge the extent to which four identified reasons contributed to this activity. The results indicated participants believed the greatest factor motivating cat owners to keep their cats indoors was to reduce the risk of disease or injury, with nearly all judging this to be either of great or moderate importance. In contrast, more than half of the participants believed that cat owners’ interests in keeping them indoors to reduce unwanted litters, to reduce veterinary costs or to reduce hunting of wildlife were of small or no importance.
Participants largely believed cat owners allow their cats outdoors to allow them to enjoy the outdoors. Many believed that either cat crying or escaping out the door was a great or moderate reason for their being allowed outdoors. Slightly fewer, but still a majority, believed that reducing damage to furniture or woodwork was a moderate or great reason to allow cats outdoors. A majority of participants believed owners’ dislike of cleaning litter boxes or the inappropriate use of the litter box was of moderate to great importance, respectively, in the decision to allow them outdoors. The majority of participants identified rodent control as only a minor reason for letting cats outdoors.
Participants were asked the degree to which they believed allowing owned cats outdoors contributed to four problems often associated with the presence of outdoor cats. Public health concerns were deemed minimal by most participants, while cat overpopulation was deemed the most important problem, with the majority rating it as a moderate-to-great problem. The question of the impact of outdoor cats on wildlife (wildlife predation) produced variable responses, with just more than half judging the presence of cats as having either a moderate or great impact on wildlife, with the greatest number judging the issue to be of only small or having minimal impact. The influence of cats being outdoors on weakening human–feline bonds was deemed to be a small problem by the majority of participants.
Finally, participants were asked where they believed cat owners are most likely to get advice concerning problem behaviors. The most common responses were from veterinarians (49%), the internet or newsletters (44%), friends or family members (35%), pet store workers (10%) and humane shelter workers (1%). Additionally, the majority of participants (57%) indicated they believed that indoor-only cats were generally healthier than those allowed outdoors.
Conclusions
Our first objective revealed that nearly 80% of veterinary faculty staff members felt that keeping owned cats indoors is relevant to veterinary preventive medicine, that it is a conversation veterinarians should have with their clients (77%) and that it is appropriate to discuss within the veterinary school curriculum (71%). Whether the issue should be discussed more routinely in the curriculum is an ongoing question; however, prior study indicated the problems associated with cats roaming free is something that many veterinarians think should be communicated with all current cat owners and future owners. 7 Nearly half (44%) of the participants agreed that allowing cats outdoors is a wildlife conservation problem, which corresponds to an increasing concern and sometimes debate about the degree and impact of predation of animals by cats, especially of birds.8,9
Our second objective revealed that veterinary faculty members appear to understand why people confine their cats indoors. An earlier Humane Society of the United States study, 10 based on interviews with 600 cat owners throughout the USA, found that the primary reason cats were kept indoors was to protect them from harm, most significantly from being hit by vehicles or acquiring diseases. The results of our study agree, with nearly all participants identifying both of these factors as being of significant importance. Additionally, most believed that the greatest motivator for owners to allow cats outside is to allow them to enjoy the outdoors, which is consistent with prior findings. 10 The shared concern by veterinarians and their clients provides an opportunity for making a recommendation to keep cats indoors; however, this may still be challenging because the majority of people let their cats outdoors because they feel it is natural for them to be outside. This perceived enjoyment is a belief or value, and veterinarians may not want to express conflict with the beliefs of their clients. 7 In this case, veterinarians may feel more comfortable framing the issue in preventive medical terms. Additionally, it should be recognized that indoor containment may pose potentially negative health and welfare complications for some cats,5,6 and obviously such negative outcomes should be considered and prevented if possible. One way to help ensure the wellbeing of indoor-housed cats is to use various environmental enrichment strategies. 11 Other complementary or alternative procedures would enable cats to have safe access to outside spaces either through the use of leash-walking or by providing safe fenced-in enclosures that provide freedom and stimulation while still protecting wildlife and ensuring the wellbeing of the cat(s). 12
Finally, our third main objective, that of characterizing the perceived impact of allowing owned cats outdoors, had indicated a relatively strong concern about cat overpopulation occurring, with lesser belief that such practices led to notable impacts on wildlife predation.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the survey constructionists and Leland McDougal for helping with analyses at University of Maine at Presque Isle, and the anonymous reviewers for constructive suggestions.
Conflict of interest
The authors do not have any potential conflicts of interest to declare.
Funding
The authors received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors for the preparation of this short communication.