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Cat Ownership Perception and Caretaking Explored in an Internet Survey of People Associated with Cats

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  • Sarah Zito
  • Dianne Vankan
  • Pauleen Bennett
  • Mandy Paterson
  • Clive J C Phillips

Abstract

People who feed cats that they do not perceive they own (sometimes called semi-owners) are thought to make a considerable contribution to unwanted cat numbers because the cats they support are generally not sterilized. Understanding people’s perception of cat ownership and the psychology underlying cat semi-ownership could inform approaches to mitigate the negative effects of cat semi-ownership. The primary aims of this study were to investigate cat ownership perception and to examine its association with human-cat interactions and caretaking behaviours. A secondary aim was to evaluate a definition of cat semi-ownership (including an association time of ≥1 month and frequent feeding), revised from a previous definition proposed in the literature to distinguish cat semi-ownership from casual interactions with unowned cats. Cat owners and semi-owners displayed similar types of interactions and caretaking behaviours. Nevertheless, caretaking behaviours were more commonly displayed towards owned cats than semi-owned cats, and semi-owned cats were more likely to have produced kittens (p

Suggested Citation

  • Sarah Zito & Dianne Vankan & Pauleen Bennett & Mandy Paterson & Clive J C Phillips, 2015. "Cat Ownership Perception and Caretaking Explored in an Internet Survey of People Associated with Cats," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(7), pages 1-21, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0133293
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0133293
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