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Numbers and Characteristics of Cats Admitted to Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) Shelters in Australia and Reasons for Surrender

SIMPLE SUMMARY: National Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) shelter admission data were utilized to examine cats presented to Australian animal shelters and reasons for surrender. This study reports the most commonly cited reasons for an owner to surrender and found lower...

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Autores principales: Alberthsen, Corinne, Rand, Jacquie, Morton, John, Bennett, Pauleen, Paterson, Mandy, Vankan, Dianne
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4810051/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26999223
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani6030023
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author Alberthsen, Corinne
Rand, Jacquie
Morton, John
Bennett, Pauleen
Paterson, Mandy
Vankan, Dianne
author_facet Alberthsen, Corinne
Rand, Jacquie
Morton, John
Bennett, Pauleen
Paterson, Mandy
Vankan, Dianne
author_sort Alberthsen, Corinne
collection PubMed
description SIMPLE SUMMARY: National Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) shelter admission data were utilized to examine cats presented to Australian animal shelters and reasons for surrender. This study reports the most commonly cited reasons for an owner to surrender and found lower than expected sterilized cats. ABSTRACT: Despite high numbers of cats admitted to animal shelters annually, there is surprisingly little information available about the characteristics of these cats. In this study, we examined 195,387 admissions to 33 Australian RSPCA shelters and six friends of the RSPCA groups from July 2006 to June 2010. The aims of this study were to describe the numbers and characteristics of cats entering Australian RSPCA shelters, and to describe reasons for cat surrender. Data collected included shelter, state, admission source, age, gender, date of arrival, color, breed, reproductive status (sterilized or not prior to admission), feral status and surrender reason (if applicable). Most admissions were presented by members of the general public, as either stray animals or owner-surrenders, and more kittens were admitted than adults. Owner-related reasons were most commonly given for surrendering a cat to a shelter. The most frequently cited owner-related reason was accommodation (i.e., cats were not allowed). Importantly, although the percentage of admissions where the cat was previously sterilized (36%) was the highest of any shelter study reported to date, this was still lower than expected, particularly among owner-surrendered cats (47%). The percentage of admissions where the cat was previously sterilized was low even in jurisdictions that require mandatory sterilization.
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spelling pubmed-48100512016-04-04 Numbers and Characteristics of Cats Admitted to Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) Shelters in Australia and Reasons for Surrender Alberthsen, Corinne Rand, Jacquie Morton, John Bennett, Pauleen Paterson, Mandy Vankan, Dianne Animals (Basel) Article SIMPLE SUMMARY: National Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) shelter admission data were utilized to examine cats presented to Australian animal shelters and reasons for surrender. This study reports the most commonly cited reasons for an owner to surrender and found lower than expected sterilized cats. ABSTRACT: Despite high numbers of cats admitted to animal shelters annually, there is surprisingly little information available about the characteristics of these cats. In this study, we examined 195,387 admissions to 33 Australian RSPCA shelters and six friends of the RSPCA groups from July 2006 to June 2010. The aims of this study were to describe the numbers and characteristics of cats entering Australian RSPCA shelters, and to describe reasons for cat surrender. Data collected included shelter, state, admission source, age, gender, date of arrival, color, breed, reproductive status (sterilized or not prior to admission), feral status and surrender reason (if applicable). Most admissions were presented by members of the general public, as either stray animals or owner-surrenders, and more kittens were admitted than adults. Owner-related reasons were most commonly given for surrendering a cat to a shelter. The most frequently cited owner-related reason was accommodation (i.e., cats were not allowed). Importantly, although the percentage of admissions where the cat was previously sterilized (36%) was the highest of any shelter study reported to date, this was still lower than expected, particularly among owner-surrendered cats (47%). The percentage of admissions where the cat was previously sterilized was low even in jurisdictions that require mandatory sterilization. MDPI 2016-03-16 /pmc/articles/PMC4810051/ /pubmed/26999223 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani6030023 Text en © 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons by Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Alberthsen, Corinne
Rand, Jacquie
Morton, John
Bennett, Pauleen
Paterson, Mandy
Vankan, Dianne
Numbers and Characteristics of Cats Admitted to Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) Shelters in Australia and Reasons for Surrender
title Numbers and Characteristics of Cats Admitted to Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) Shelters in Australia and Reasons for Surrender
title_full Numbers and Characteristics of Cats Admitted to Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) Shelters in Australia and Reasons for Surrender
title_fullStr Numbers and Characteristics of Cats Admitted to Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) Shelters in Australia and Reasons for Surrender
title_full_unstemmed Numbers and Characteristics of Cats Admitted to Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) Shelters in Australia and Reasons for Surrender
title_short Numbers and Characteristics of Cats Admitted to Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) Shelters in Australia and Reasons for Surrender
title_sort numbers and characteristics of cats admitted to royal society for the prevention of cruelty to animals (rspca) shelters in australia and reasons for surrender
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4810051/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26999223
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani6030023
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