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Cat owners’ perception on having a pet cat during the COVID-19 pandemic
Restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic may affect the lives of pet animals. We aimed to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the welfare of pet cats across countries, as well as the owners’ experience in relation to their cat(s). An online survey containing 21 questions was distributed i...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8528273/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34669699 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257671 |
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author | Jezierski, Tadeusz Camerlink, Irene Peden, Rachel S. E. Chou, Jen-Yun Sztandarski, Patryk Marchewka, Joanna |
author_facet | Jezierski, Tadeusz Camerlink, Irene Peden, Rachel S. E. Chou, Jen-Yun Sztandarski, Patryk Marchewka, Joanna |
author_sort | Jezierski, Tadeusz |
collection | PubMed |
description | Restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic may affect the lives of pet animals. We aimed to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the welfare of pet cats across countries, as well as the owners’ experience in relation to their cat(s). An online survey containing 21 questions was distributed internationally. Questions were related to information about the cat and its behaviour and health, changes in the household due to the pandemic, and how the owner related to the cat. The survey was completed by 324 respondents from 25 different countries. The survey showed that keeping pet cats during the COVID-19 pandemic did not create problems for the owners, except some difficulties in acquiring veterinary care. The majority (67.3%) of respondents reported no changes in their cats’ behaviour. When behavioural changes were reported, they were mostly of a positive nature. Owners who took more measures in relation to the cat to prevent the spread of the virus, e.g., reduced contact, were 1.8 times more likely to report changes in the behaviour of their cats but also 3.8 times more likely to report difficulties related to the care of the cat during the pandemic. Two-third of the respondents indicated a reduction of their own psychological tensions due to having a cat during the pandemic. We concluded that the welfare of pet cats, as reported by the owners, was not adversely affected by the pandemic and the human-cat interaction had positive effects on the owners during the lockdown. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8528273 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-85282732021-10-21 Cat owners’ perception on having a pet cat during the COVID-19 pandemic Jezierski, Tadeusz Camerlink, Irene Peden, Rachel S. E. Chou, Jen-Yun Sztandarski, Patryk Marchewka, Joanna PLoS One Research Article Restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic may affect the lives of pet animals. We aimed to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the welfare of pet cats across countries, as well as the owners’ experience in relation to their cat(s). An online survey containing 21 questions was distributed internationally. Questions were related to information about the cat and its behaviour and health, changes in the household due to the pandemic, and how the owner related to the cat. The survey was completed by 324 respondents from 25 different countries. The survey showed that keeping pet cats during the COVID-19 pandemic did not create problems for the owners, except some difficulties in acquiring veterinary care. The majority (67.3%) of respondents reported no changes in their cats’ behaviour. When behavioural changes were reported, they were mostly of a positive nature. Owners who took more measures in relation to the cat to prevent the spread of the virus, e.g., reduced contact, were 1.8 times more likely to report changes in the behaviour of their cats but also 3.8 times more likely to report difficulties related to the care of the cat during the pandemic. Two-third of the respondents indicated a reduction of their own psychological tensions due to having a cat during the pandemic. We concluded that the welfare of pet cats, as reported by the owners, was not adversely affected by the pandemic and the human-cat interaction had positive effects on the owners during the lockdown. Public Library of Science 2021-10-20 /pmc/articles/PMC8528273/ /pubmed/34669699 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257671 Text en © 2021 Jezierski et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Jezierski, Tadeusz Camerlink, Irene Peden, Rachel S. E. Chou, Jen-Yun Sztandarski, Patryk Marchewka, Joanna Cat owners’ perception on having a pet cat during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title | Cat owners’ perception on having a pet cat during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_full | Cat owners’ perception on having a pet cat during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_fullStr | Cat owners’ perception on having a pet cat during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_full_unstemmed | Cat owners’ perception on having a pet cat during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_short | Cat owners’ perception on having a pet cat during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_sort | cat owners’ perception on having a pet cat during the covid-19 pandemic |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8528273/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34669699 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257671 |
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