October 17, 2013
Categories: Organizational Management, Shelter Medicine

UKCatAre cats sheltered differently in the U.K. than in the U.S.?

Maddie’s InstituteSM put that question to Dr. Annette Litster, director of the Maddie’s® Shelter Medicine Program at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Purdue University, who is currently on sabbatical in the United Kingdom doing research on feline respiratory disease in shelter cats.

Joining her was Dr. Rachel Dean, Director of the Centre for
Evidence-based Veterinary Medicine in the U.K.

“One of the biggest differences, I think, is that we
don’t have as much data to work with as you do in the States,” said Dr.
Dean. “But we do know, when we compare the two countries, that we don’t
have the over-population within our shelters that you do, and that the amount
of space allotted to each cat in a shelter is, in a lot of circumstances, greater
than in the U.S.”

Additionally, Dr. Dean said, they believe the majority of
housing for cats in shelters is individual, with each cat having a spacious
indoor area as well as an attached, secure outdoor area.

The U.K. is a cat-loving nation, and anyone who has visited
will know that cats are everywhere, including places like pubs were you’d
rarely, if ever see a cat in the U.S. What accounts for their much lower
population density in shelters?

“In the U.S., it seems in many places, animal control
officers are responsible for collecting outdoor cats and bringing them into
shelters,” said Dr. Litster. “It seems that in the U.K., outdoor cats
are seen as normal, and are generally left alone. No one feels they have to ‘do
something’ about a cat they see outdoors, unless the cat appears to be injured
or ill.”

Dr. Dean agreed. “We’re used to seeing cats outdoors in
the U.K., so we don’t worry about doing something about it,” she said.
“There are probably quite a lot of cats that have two or three homes. Ownership
is difficult to determine – for us, that’s normal.”

Both Dr. Dean and Dr. Litster said that, although the U.K.
does have shelters with what we in the U.S. call an “open admission”
policy, most shelters will not continue to admit cats if they are at their
capacity.

“There is almost never the kind of situation you see in
the U.S., where shelters will have animal control contracts with municipalities
and can’t close their doors except in exceptional circumstances,” said Dr.
Litster.

British shelter cats also seem to have a lower rate of
respiratory infection than in U.S. shelter cats, and the severity of the
disease is less as well.

“There are some big shelters in some of the cities
where they have more of a problem similar to the U.S., and do have an ‘open
door’ policy, but even those don’t have the same level of disease or shelter
crowding that we see in the U.S. shelters,” said Dr. Dean.

“The euthanasia rate is also much higher in U.S.,”
she continued. “In the U.K., the rate for cats is only around 13 percent. Some
shelters may euthanize for space, but not on the scale you see in the U.S.”

Dr. Litster said, “In the U.S., cats just keep coming
and coming and coming. In the U.K., it seems to be much more common for
shelters to say, if their facility is full, then they’re closed until they have
some space freed up again.”

Dr. Litster also sees a difference in the quality of care
cats receive in U.K. shelters. “When you walk through a U.K. shelter, the
atmosphere isn’t the sort of emergency room, panic, all-hands-on-deck feeling in
many U.S. shelters,” she said. “The atmosphere is calmer, and there
is more one-on-one attention paid to the individual cats. This could be because
there is a difference in the staffing levels at shelters in each country, but
we need to collect more data to confirm this.”

In the U.K., she said, with its much lower euthanasia rate,
shelter workers feel comfortable spending time with and caring for the
cats.  In the U.S., on the other hand,
“the effect of people working in shelters performing euthanasia, or coming
in and seeing that a cat they were caring for was killed, is likely to lead to
a high rate of stress and turnover among staff.”

Research on the impact of differences in sheltering between
the two countries is still ongoing, and Maddie’s Institute will keep you up to
date on results as they’re published.