ABSTRACT

Capacity for Care (C4C) is a shelter management strategy that is capable of improving the welfare of cats in a shelter’s care. Managing shelter intake using intake waitlists and scheduled intake appointments is a key feature of C4C. The purpose of this study was to describe the population of owned cats whose owners contacted the Guelph Humane Society (GHS) to explore the option of relinquishing, and to report outcomes for this population. Data were collected retrospectively from shelter records created by the GHS from July 2017 to June 2018. This study further examined associations between cat outcome and rehoming options under consideration by owners at the initial point of contact with the shelter, cat source, and reason for relinquishment. A greater proportion of cats with veterinary issues reported as the primary reason for potential surrender were kept by their owners compared with being relinquished (p<0.01), rehomed (p<0.01), and having an unknown outcome (p<0.01). A greater proportion of cats whose owners had medical issues were surrendered, compared with being retained in their homes.The large number of cats whose outcomes were unknown suggests a need for future research in order to further understand the outcomes that are occurring for cats whose admission to a shelter are deferred.

摘要

照料能力 (C4C) 是一种收容所管理策略，能够改善收容所照料中的猫的福利。使用收容候补名单和预定收容预约管理收容所收容是 C4C 的一个关键特征。本研究的目的是描述其主人联系圭尔夫人道协会 (GHS) 以探索放弃的选择的拥有猫的种群，并报告该种群的结果。数据是从 GHS 于 2017 年 7 月至 2018 年 6 月创建的收容所记录中回顾性收集的。这项研究进一步研究了猫的结果与主人在与收容所最初接触时所考虑的重新安置方案之间的关联、猫的来源和放弃的原因. 与被放弃 (p<0.01)、被重新安置 (p<0.01) 和结果未知 (p<0.01) 相比，有兽医问题的猫被报告为潜在投降的主要原因，而这些猫被主人饲养的比例更大。与被留在家中相比，主人有健康问题的猫被交出的比例更大。大量结果未知的猫表明需要进行未来研究，以进一步了解入院猫的结果到避难所被推迟。