Measures That Predict Cats’ Socialization In An Animal Shelter

This article describes the third phase of a three-part study. The research was designed to develop simple and reliable tools to assess the socialization levels of cats within their first three days at a shelter. 297 cats with a wide range of socialization levels were held in a shelter-like bank of steel cages. At established intervals, an assessor interacted with the cats in various ways and monitored them for specific indicators. Some key measures were identified to distinguish socialized cats, most effectively over the full three-day period. Further testing is planned to finalize the assessment tool.

{Abstract excerpted from original article.}

“Animal welfare organizations typically take in cats with unknown levels of socialization towards humans, ranging from unsocialized cats well-socialized but lost pets. Agencies typically determine the socialization status and disposition options of cats within three days, when even a well-socialized pet may be too frightened of the unfamiliar surroundings to display its typical behavior. This is the third part of a three-phase project to develop and evaluate a reliable and valid tool to predict cats’ socialization levels. We recruited cats from the full spectrum of socialization and, using information from the cats’ caregivers regarding typical behavior toward familiar and unfamiliar people, assigned each cat to a Socialization Category. This information was compared to the cats’ behavior during three days of structured assessments conducted in a shelter-like setting. The results of logistic regression modeling generated two models using assessments from the mornings of the second and third day, focusing on predicting shyer or more aloof but socialized cats. Using the coefficients from each of these models, two sets of points were calculated which were useful in differentiating More and Less Socialized cats. In combination with key socialized behaviors, these points were able to fairly accurately identify More and Less Socialized cats.”

Additional phases of this study:

http://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/3/4/1162 http://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/3/4/1194