Cats in Space: Quantifying the Community Cat Caregiver Network
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.56771/jsmcah.v5.168Keywords:
community cats, free-roaming cats, geospatial, return-to-field, RTF, TNR, trap-neuter-return, welfareAbstract
Introduction: For many US animal shelters, the majority of feline admissions are classified as ‘strays’. Historically, many of these cats were euthanatized despite being in generally good health. Return-to-field programs – shelter-based versions of the more traditional (i.e. community-based) trap-neuter-return (TNR) programs – offer an alternative, increasing a shelter’s live outcomes as eligible cats are sterilized, vaccinated, and returned to the location where they were found. It is not unusual for these programs to be conducted without any direct knowledge of caregivers associated with specific cats. Instead, they rely on the general health of the cats as a sign that they are receiving sufficient care. The objective of this study was to quantify the extent of the community cat ‘caregiver network’ by applying a geospatial analysis to a large set of cat and caregiver location data.
Methods: For this retrospective observational study, we used two sets of cat and caregiver location data (22,521 records in all). An empirical network was created using records for which both cat and caregiver location were known; a theoretical network was created using records for which no caregiver location was available (the cats having come through the local shelter system as ‘strays’). These two caregiver networks were then used to estimate the distances between community cats and potential caregivers nearby.
Results: Our results suggest that most cats in the study community are located within distances that are reasonably consistent with well-documented feline home ranges and foraging behavior in urban and suburban environments. For cats included in the area’s extensive TNR program, for example, the median distance to the second nearest caregiver was 235 m. For cats entering the shelter system as strays, the median distance to the nearest known caregiver was similar (246 m). Our theoretical network suggests that if 20% of households in the study are provided care for outdoor cats, 66.7% of cats would be within 126 meters of a theoretical caregiver, 20.7% would be within 80 meters.
Conclusion: The general availability of resources revealed by these findings might help explain the results of previous research (and considerable anecdotal evidence) documenting the good general health of community cats.
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