ABSTRACT
Over the last several decades, feral cats have moved from the fringes to the mainstream in animal welfare and sheltering. Although many best practice guidelines have been published by national non-profits and veterinary bodies, little is known about how groups "in the trenches" actually operate. Our study sought to address that gap through an online survey of feral cat care and advocacy organizations based in the United States. Advertised as "The State of the Mewnion," its topics included a range of issues spanning non-profit administration, public health, caretaking and trapping, adoptions of friendly kittens and cats, veterinary medical procedures and policies, data collection and program efficacy metrics, research engagement and interest, and relationships with wildlife advocates and animal control agencies. Respondents from 567 organizations participated, making this the largest and most comprehensive study on this topic to date. Respondents came primarily from grassroots organizations. A majority reported no paid employees (74.6%), served 499 or fewer feral cats per year (75.0%), engaged between 1 and 9 active volunteers (54.9%), and did not operate a brick and mortar facility (63.7%). Some of our findings demonstrate a shared community of practice, including the common use of a minimum weight of 2.0 pounds for spay/neuter eligibility, left side ear tip removals to indicate sterilization, recovery holding times after surgery commonly reported as 1 night for male cats and 1 or 2 nights for females, requiring or recommending to adopters of socialized kittens/cats that they be kept indoor-only, and less than a quarter still engaging in routine testing of cats for FIV and FeLV. Our survey also reveals areas for improvement, such as most organizations lacking a declared goal with a measurable value and a time frame, only sometimes scanning cats for microchips, and about a third not using a standardized injection site for vaccines. This study paints the clearest picture yet available of what constitutes the standard practices of organizations serving feral and community cats in the United States.
ABSTRACT
Non-human animals serve as sentinels for numerous issues affecting humans, including exposure to toxic heavy metals like lead. Lead plays a role in perpetuating cycles of poverty in low-income communities due to the inequitable distributions of indoor health risks from lower-quality housing and outdoor health risks from industry and polluters, compounded by inequitable distributions of heath care and education. In this pilot study, we explore the potential for studying lead in low-income populations by partnering with nonprofit veterinary outreach programs. We investigate the lead concentration in fur samples of 85 domestic cats (Felis catus) presented to a high-volume spay/neuter clinic and report a mean of 0.723 µg of lead per gram of fur. This study reveals new information about lead exposure in cats in the USA, including that females had greater lead exposure than males, lead exposure increased with increasing amount of access to the outdoors, and lead exposure increased in cats with decreased body condition. We propose that pet, feral, and free-roaming cats presented to high-volume spay/neuter clinics could serve as a source of data about lead exposure in disadvantaged communities where these clinics already operate. Such a non-invasive surveillance system using inert, unobtrusively obtained samples could be deployed to detect highly exposed cats, prompting to follow up contact to a cat's caretakers to recommend seeking lead testing for themselves, their families, and their neighbors.
Subject(s)
One Health , Poverty , Animals , Cats , Female , Housing , Lead , Male , Pilot ProjectsABSTRACT
[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fvets.2021.791134.].
