What affects us affects cats
Firstly, I have deliberately specified that this study relates to China and the reason for this will become apparent when you read the article. The title to the study has been described as sexist and discriminatory. It is entitled: Where there are girls, there are cats. The study was carried out by four Chinese …
I am generalising greatly. However, research published in the journal Royal Society Open Science involving almost 500,000 people in 109 countries concluded that the most prosperous societies tended to be the most open, cosmopolitan and secular (least religious). Losing religion is good for your wealth. My argument is that wealthy families are more likely …
I’ll cut to the chase as I have mentioned this study before but Michelle Starr of MSN has nicely picked out some key elements of a study into emotional bonding between cats/dogs and humans. These are interspecies friendships. The study at Oregon State University lead by Kristyn Vitale found that cats form secure attachment …
You might know this. The classic way of working out the human equivalent age of cats and dogs used to be to multiply their age by seven. That method is too crude by modern standards. It is far better to bracket the various ages of felines and canines and work out the human equivalent …
This study came to the conclusion that TNR volunteers managing a feral cat colony on Tokunoshima Island might cause what the scientists call ‘hyper-predation’ of local native species. What they mean is that the cats are helped by people feeding them. They think that by feeding the cats there is more predation of native …
Research into loneliness and cat and dog ownership among single women in 1994 made an interesting finding. I’ll quote from the document that I am referring to: “…That cat owners living with others should be significantly more attached to their pet than those living alone, however, is curious.” The scientists found that if a …
Occupational stress and compassion fatigue is not uncommon in animal rescue workers. One of the most visited pages on this website concerns the high suicide rate among American animal rescue workers. In fact they have the highest suicide rate among all American workers and same level as police officers and firefighters. This begs the …
This story from Fayette, Iowa, USA reminds us that sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between domesticated, free-roaming cats and feral cats. An undergraduate research project conducted by Upper Iowa University under the supervision of Dr Paul Skrade, assistant professor of wildlife biology, is taking place in the community which includes trapping, sedating and …
