Cats and their Housing in Rescue Shelters
By Celia Haddon, www.celiahaddon.com
Most rescue cats have emotional as well as physical needs while they are kept in animal shelters. Housing - its design and its quality - is particularly important for their contentment, as well as for their safety and freedom from disease.
While cats in boarding catteries are only confined for two or three weeks, the less adoptable rescue cats may stay in shelters for months or even occasionally years. Thus poor housing will affect the welfare, both physical and emotional, of shelter cats more seriously than those in short stay catteries.
Many cat shelters or catteries have been designed with financial constraints and human convenience in mind. However, an equally important objective should be to give the cat as much control over its physical and social environment as possible (Broom and Johnson cited by Rochlitz, 2005). Good housing will allow a cat to make choices of where to sit and what to do.
Poor housing with a barren environment results in apathy and boredom Rochlitz, 2005). Cats that are very stressed in a rescue shelter respond by becoming inactive and by failing to groom, feed or toilet in a normal way. Chronic stress can also make an animal vulnerable to disease.
The obvious welfare issue among shelters is control of infectious disease (Rochlitz, 2005). Some feeding and housing procedures encourage common virus infections to spread rapidly in a shelter (Pederson et al., 2004). Long stay cats in one study were more likely to be feline coronavirus positive, and one reason for this may have been because they had moved into communal housing (Cave et al., 2004).
Cats are not as social as dogs. When feral cats live in the wild, they form related groups of females with visiting males. Even within these related groups, individuals will form bonds with some but not other individuals. Unfamiliar cats are chased off the group territory (MacDonald et al., 1987).
Stable groups of unrelated cats housed communally may not show signs of stress if they have adapted to each other over time. However, unfamiliar cats placed together for the first time are likely to experience high levels of stress. Researchers such as Ottway and Hawkins (2003) conclude that for this reason communal housing in rescue shelters is poor for welfare, compared with individual units. A stable group of compatible cats cannot be formed if cats are leaving the group for adoption or joining the group as they come into rescue.
Rochlitz (2005) recommends housing cats in separate units or in their original groups if they come from the same household, at least at the start of their stay in rescue. If cats are to be housed in groups there should be at least 1.7 metres per cat so that they can maintain a minimum distance of one metre between themselves (Kessler and Turner l999).
The quantity of space matters. Cats housed singly with a floor area of I square metre showed less stress than cats with a floor area of .7 square metres (Kessler & Turner l999). Quality of space is equally, if not more, important. Cats spend most of their time on raised surfaces rather than at floor level (Rochlitz et al., l998). The use of vertical space should be encouraged by shelves, climbing posts, walkways, windowsills and platforms (Rochlitz, 2005).
Hiding is the way cats avoid other cats, people or stressful situations (Rochlitz et al., 1998). Therefore a retreat area should always be available (Kry & Casey, 2007). Interestingly, the provision of a hide and perch box did not reduce the chances of a cat being adopted (Kry & Casey, 2007).
Cats spend a lot of time observing, so vantage points are important to them. They prefer surfaces with a constant temperature such as wood, shredded paper, straw, shavings, sacks or clothes rather than surfaces of metal or plastic (Roy, cited by McCune, 2010).
The temperature of housing will influence how the cats use space. If the only warm place is in the bed area, then on cold days that is where the cat will spend most of its time (Rochlitz et al 1998). This may have significance for human comfort too if would-be adopters have to stand out in the cold trying to observe the cats (Rochlitz et al., l998).
Finally, cats have their own individual styles or personalities, which remain a consistent part of their lives (Lowe & Bradshaw 2001). As much detail as possible about this should be obtained from the relinquishing owner. However, for cats that are handed in as strays there will be no history and many stray pet cats may behave like feral cats when they are first handed in (Slater et.al., 2010). Thus shelter managers, as well as being well informed about cats in general, should also be sensitive to each cat's individual requirements. Cats that have not been socialised to people, will find social contact with the humans in the shelter just another stressful experience (McCune, 2010). Other cats are essentially solitary and dislike all other cats (Roy cited by McCune 2010).
Practical advice on rescuing cats or building a cattery can be found at the Feline Advisory Bureau
website, www.fabcats.org
REFERENCES
Cave, T.A., Golder, M. C., Simpson, J. & Addie, D. D. (2004), Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, 6, 53-58
Kessler, M. R., & Turner, D. C., (1999), 'Effects of density and cage size on stress in domestic cats (Felis silvestris catus) housed in animal shelters and boarding catteries,' Animal Welfare, 8, 259-267
Kry, K., & Casey, R., (2007), ''The effect of hiding enrichment on stress levels and behaviourof domestic cats (Felis silvestris catus) in a shelter setting and the implications for adoption potential', Animal Welfare, 16, 375-383.
Lowe, S. E., & Bradshaw, J. W. S. (2001), 'Ontogeny of individuality in the domestic cat in the home environment', Animal Behaviour, 61, 231-237.
Macdonald, D., (1987), 'Social Dynamics and nursing coalitions among farm cats, Felis catus, Advances in Ethology, 28, 1-64.
McCune, S., (2010), 'Enriching the Environment of the Laboratory Cat,' in Enrichment Resources for Laboratory Animals. Available at http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/pubs/enrich/labcat.htm. Downloaded 22 October 2010.
Ottway, D. S. & Hawkins, D. M., (2003), Cat housing in rescue shelters; a welfarecommparison between communal and discrete-unit housing', Animal Welfare, 12, 173-189.
Pederson, N. C., Sato, R., Foley, J. E.. & Poland, A.M>, (2004), Common virus infections in cats, before and after being placed in shelters, with emphasis on feline enteric coronavirus, ' Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, 6, 83-88.
Rochlitz, 1, Podberscek, A. L. & Broom, D.M., (1998), 'Welfare of cats in a quarantine cattery', The Veterinary Record, 143, 35-39
Rochlitz, I., (2005), 'Housing and Welfare', in ed. Rochlitz, I., The Welfare of Cats, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, Springer.
Slater, M. R., Miller, K. A., Weiss, E., Makolinski K. V., & Weisbrot, L. AM (2010) 'A survey of the methods used in shelter and rescue programs to identify feral and frightened pet cats', Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, 12, 592-600.
