title: Practical Physical and Behavioral Measures to Assess the Socialization Spectrum of Cats in a Shelter-Like Setting during a Three Day Period.
abstract: Animal welfare organizations routinely accept large numbers of cats with unknown histories, and whose backgrounds vary from well-socialized pets to cats that have had little or no contact with humans. Agencies are challenged with making the determination of socialization level in a highly stressful environment where cats are often too frightened to show typical behaviors. A variety of structured behavioral assessments were conducted in a shelter-like environment, from intake through a three day holding period, on cats from the full range of socialization as reported by their caregivers. Our results show that certain behaviors such as rubbing, playing, chirping, having the tail up or being at the front of the cage were found to be unique to More Socialized cats. While not all more socialized cats showed these behaviors, cats that did were socialized. Assessing the cats throughout the three day period was beneficial in eliciting key behaviors from shyer and more frightened cats. These results will be used in future work to develop an assessment tool to identify the socialization status of cats as a standardized guide for transparent and reliable disposition decisions and higher live release rates for cats in animal shelters.
authors.affiliation: Shelter Research and Development, Community Outreach, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA®), 50 Stone Ridge Drive, Florence, MA 01062, USA. margaret.slater@aspca.org.
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Slater
authors.affiliation: Shelter Research and Development, Community Outreach, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA®), P.O. Box 408, Little Silver, NJ 07739, USA. laurie.garrison@aspca.org.
authors.forename: Laurie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Garrison
authors.affiliation: Shelter Research and Development, Community Outreach, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA®), 520 Eighth Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10018, USA. katherine.miller@aspca.org.
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Shelter Research and Development, Community Outreach, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA®), 3201 SW Winding Way, Palm City, FL 34990, USA. emily.weiss@aspca.org.
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.affiliation: Veterinary Outreach, Community Outreach, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA®), P.O. Box 1144, Orchard Park, NY 14127, USA. kathleen.makolinski@aspca.org.
authors.forename: Kathleen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Makolinski
authors.affiliation: Shelter Research and Development, Community Outreach, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA®), P.O. Box 4323, Arlington, VA 22204, USA. natasha.drain@aspca.org.
authors.forename: Natasha
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Drain
authors.affiliation: Shelter Research and Development, Community Outreach, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA®), 1216 32nd Street, Oakland, CA 94608, USA. alexmm1345@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mirontshuk
keywords: adoption; animal shelter; behavior; cat rescue; feral cat; stray cat