Yesterday we published our second research paper looking at the hunting behaviour of domestic cats and their owners’ views on this.
We were delighted to see this twitter thread from the first author of the paper, Sarah Crowley, giving us a creative and unique summary of the paper:
A lighthearted rundown of some key points from our new paper, “Hunting behaviour in domestic cats: an exploratory study of risk and responsibility among cat owners”, out today in @PaN_BES, with a little (unofficial) help from @SimonsCat (Thread) 1/16 pic.twitter.com/2MkUDuNQXb
— Sarah Crowley (@sarahlcrowley) January 8, 2019
First things first, domestic #cats have different kinds of relationships with people, and lots of cats aren’t “owned” by anyone (see pic). Our research is only looking at ‘owned’ and ‘semi-owned’ cats – and their humans! 2/16 pic.twitter.com/3hLXvs0BvD
— Sarah Crowley (@sarahlcrowley) January 8, 2019
When is a cat ‘owned’? Ownership is about responsibility and control: an owner is someone who takes full or partial responsibility for the cat, and/or exercises some control over its food source, breeding or movement. But how far do these responsibilities extend? 3/16 pic.twitter.com/ALTyeHbQca
— Sarah Crowley (@sarahlcrowley) January 8, 2019
Our work is based in the UK, where there are 8-10 million owned cats. Under UK law, owners are responsible for protecting their cats from unnecessary suffering, and respecting their cats’ need to display ‘normal behaviours’ (not always clear what ‘normal’ includes, though!) 4/16 pic.twitter.com/XNEhdcDaTV
— Sarah Crowley (@sarahlcrowley) January 8, 2019
Cats have a common law ‘right to roam’ in the UK, meaning that – unlike dogs – their movements and behaviour while roaming aren’t the owners’ legal responsibility. Cats can’t trespass: they are legally classified as either property (owned cats) or wildlife (feral cats). 5/16 pic.twitter.com/YJoKOKbu1j
— Sarah Crowley (@sarahlcrowley) January 8, 2019
Cats are predators and obligate carnivores – their digestive systems are adapted to a meat-only diet. They have an instinctive drive to express hunting behaviours, which include stalking and pouncing. Hunting isn’t just for food, cats also find it fun! 6/16 pic.twitter.com/AzPSnNiEoU
— Sarah Crowley (@sarahlcrowley) January 8, 2019
Although not all cats are big hunters, large numbers of free-ranging cats will inevitably kill large numbers of wild animals. Conservation organisations like our sponsor @SongBirdSOS are very concerned about the effects predation by cats could have on wild birds. 7/16 pic.twitter.com/c2sxr52iNX
— Sarah Crowley (@sarahlcrowley) January 8, 2019
Do cat owners also see hunting behaviour as a problem? And if so, do they feel responsible for managing it? What sort of measures do they take to limit the amount their cats catch? This is what we aimed to find out in our research… 8/16 pic.twitter.com/tU0JnM30An
— Sarah Crowley (@sarahlcrowley) January 8, 2019
We interviewed 48 cat owners from urban, suburban and rural areas of Oxfordshire and Cornwall. We asked them all sorts of questions about their cats, but focused on roaming and hunting behaviour: how they felt about it and whether they felt responsible for managing it. 9/16
— Sarah Crowley (@sarahlcrowley) January 8, 2019
We asked if people thought hunting behaviour was a problem. See pic for the six different perspectives we identified. While some people want cats hunting (e.g. to catch mice), others are worried that it causes suffering or harms wild populations.10/16 pic.twitter.com/PltBWYt2ac
— Sarah Crowley (@sarahlcrowley) January 8, 2019
Most of our participants saw hunting as a normal cat behaviour, but this didn’t mean they were all happy about it. One said, “I know it’s their instinct… I understand that. Still you think, ‘oh God no’… and you try and rescue them.” 11/16
— Sarah Crowley (@sarahlcrowley) January 8, 2019
We asked if people felt responsible for managing their cats’ hunting behaviour. Our participants were divided on this (see pic). Some saw cats as too autonomous to manage: “Cats are independent by nature and they’ll do exactly what they like”. 12/16 pic.twitter.com/r4gpIDubxB
— Sarah Crowley (@sarahlcrowley) January 8, 2019
Other cat owners thought that “you can take personal responsibility, to a point”, but were often conflicted: “I could shut the cat flap at night… but then I’m denying his natural instincts”. Or, they wanted to reduce hunting but just didn’t know how to! 13/16
— Sarah Crowley (@sarahlcrowley) January 8, 2019
Hunting behaviour is just one of many things cat owners have to take into account when making decisions about their cats. Roaming cats are at risk from roads, fights and diseases; indoor cats are more likely to become obese or stressed. 14/16 pic.twitter.com/EzOJjRcuXJ
— Sarah Crowley (@sarahlcrowley) January 8, 2019
At the @UniofExeterESI, we are working with cat owners to identify effective, practical ways of reducing cat predation on wildlife, without compromising (and hopefully enhancing) cat welfare: https://t.co/65HwDAa3SC 15/16
— Sarah Crowley (@sarahlcrowley) January 8, 2019
Read the full research paper on cat owners’ views of hunting behaviour here: https://t.co/7f5KShfdLj, and also check out today’s great blog from @petsandus on @PsychToday. Thanks for following! 16/16 pic.twitter.com/NpwR4OsmBL
— Sarah Crowley (@sarahlcrowley) January 8, 2019
Find the original tweet here and Sarah’s twitter account @sarahlcrowley
Relational Thinking 