The Effect of Baby Schema in Cats on Length of Stay in an Irish Animal Shelter

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Several factors may influence cats’ length of stay (LoS) within the shelter environment. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential influence that ‘cuteness’ has on cats’ length of stay (LoS) in an animal shelter. Other factors such as paired-homing requirements, adoption profile (advertisements to encourage the adoption of a specific animal) wording, coat colour, sex and age were also explored. ‘Cuteness’ was measured in two ways; 1. Facial characteristics which characterise human infants, such as big eyes and a round head, were measured from images of cats to create an objective cuteness score. 2. Subjective cuteness scores were developed by participants rating the ‘cuteness’ of the cat images from ‘1-Not very cute’ to ‘5-Extremely cute’ through two online surveys; survey 1 investigated the cats’ social nature as well as cuteness while the second only looked at cuteness. The subjective cuteness scores were used to validate the objective cuteness scores. The analysis found that subjective cuteness influenced cats’ length of stay during the analysis of the first survey with no effect of other variables such as adoption profile language, homing requirements, coat colour, sex and age. Analysis of the data from the second survey found that none of the variables influenced the cats’ LoS. A novel objective measurement for cuteness in cats was developed which reflects the shape of the eyes and is associated with subjective cuteness scores. This research looks to understand factors that influence LoS to help identify potential methods to reduce time spent in shelters and improve the welfare of cats within these environments. ABSTRACT: Several factors may influence cats’ length of stay (LoS) within the shelter environment. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential influence that baby schema (characteristic facial features of infants, related to perceived ‘cuteness’) has on cats’ length of stay (LoS) in an animal shelter. Other factors such as paired-homing requirements, adoption profile (adverts to encourage the adoption of a specific animal) wording, coat colour, sex and age were also explored. Objective ‘cuteness’ scores were created by measuring specific facial features of 165 shelter cats. Several proportions of the cats’ faces were explored to identify the best objective measure of cuteness, including elements which have been found to associate with cuteness in cats and humans and new exploratory eye measurements. Subjective cuteness scores were developed by participants rating the ‘cuteness’ of the cat from ‘1-Not very cute’ to ‘5-Extremely cute’ through two online surveys; survey 1 investigated the cats’ social nature as well as cuteness while the second only looked at cuteness. The subjective cuteness scores were used to validate the objective cuteness scores. The analysis found that subjective cuteness in survey 1 was the only variable of influence on LoS. A novel objective cuteness measurement was developed which reflects the eye shape associated with subjective cuteness scores. The current study found that cuteness may not be as influential on cats’ LoS in shelters as hypothesised. This research looks to understand factors which influence LoS to help identify potential methods to reduce time spent in shelters and improve the welfare of cats within these environments.