Objectives: Unowned 'stray' domestic cats threaten wildlife, as well as create a community nuisance and contribute to high rates of euthanasia in animal shelters. These cats can experience poor welfare, contribute to the pet cat population and compromise attempts to control feral cats. However, many unowned domestic cats are cared for by semi-owners who do not consider they own these cats; therefore, semi-owners are a potentially important target population for human behaviour change interventions. The present study aimed to describe the characteristics of cat semi-owners and compare these with the general population of cat owners and non-cat owners to inform future cat management interventions.
Methods: An online questionnaire open to all residents of New South Wales, Australia was developed and advertised. Respondents were asked 'do you care for other free-roaming or stray cats (not including the cats you own)?', whether they owned cats, about characteristics of their home and their agreement with 15 capability, social opportunity and motivation (COM) items relating to cat containment.
Results: Questionnaire responses were received from 8708 people, including 588 semi-owners (7%). Semi-owners were significantly more likely to be female, live in urban areas, live in lower socioeconomic areas and rent their home. Most semi-owners also owned their own cats and owned more cats than non-semi-owners.
Conclusions and relevance: Semi-owners of unowned 'stray' cats are a valuable potential target audience for human behaviour change interventions. Understanding that these semi-owners often have their own cats, might already be overwhelmed with cat-caring responsibilities and are disproportionately from lower socioeconomic backgrounds should guide intervention design. A nuanced approach is needed that prioritises the wellbeing of cats and semi-owners for semi-owners to 'buy in'. Any intervention should also recognise that semi-owners often face multiple, complex barriers to neutering or claiming ownership of the cats they care for, especially cost, and trust in the authorities.
Keywords: Felis catus; behaviour change; domestic; feral; free-roaming; human–animal bond; population management; semi-owner; stray.