Public Opinions on Stray Cats in China, Evidence from Social Media Data

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Stray cat management is often under public discussion because of different perceptions toward these animals. Accordingly, understanding public opinions on stray cats is important for devising management strategies. Using user-generated content (UGC) from Weibo (Chinese Tweet), this study analyzed public opinions on stray cats for five topics: (1) human-stray cat interactions, (2) stray cat-related welfare, (3) public nuisances, (4) ecological impacts, and (5) actions to be taken for stray cat management. Results indicated that people’s interactions with and attitudes to these animals were distinct. Management implications were proposed based on the detailed results. ABSTRACT: The management of stray cats is often contentious because public perceptions about these animals are different. Using user-generated content from Weibo, this study investigated Chinese citizens’ opinions on stray cats on a large scale. Through the techniques of natural language processing, we obtained each Weibo post’s topics and sentiment propensity. The results showed that: (1) there were some irresponsible feeding behaviors among citizens; (2) public perceptions of the ecological impacts caused by stray cats were unlike; (3) the trap-neuter-return (TNR) method served high support in public discussion; (4) knowledge about stray cats’ ecological impacts was positively correlated with support for the lethal control methods in management. Based on these findings, we suggested that management policies should be dedicated to (1) communicating to the (potential) cat feeders about the negative aspects of irresponsible feeding behaviors; (2) raising “ecological awareness” campaigns for the public as well as highlighting the environmental impacts caused by stray cats; (3) understanding citizens’ perceptions toward different management scenarios and making decisions accordingly. In addition, this study also suggested that social media data can provide useful information about people’s opinions on wild animals and their management. Policies would benefit by taking this source of information into the decision-making process.