Kittens in trendy cat cafes have higher rates of sickness, study warns
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Cat sick! Kittens in trendy cat cafes get SICK more often, study warns
- Research studied 797 cats from a rescue organization and an affiliated cat cafe
- It suggests that café cats’ higher disease rates could be explained by human contact
Cat cafes have exploded in popularity over the past decade and have sprung up in locations all over the world.
But a new study suggests they may not necessarily be the best place for our feline friends.
That’s because researchers have found that kittens in trendy cat cafes are more likely to get sick than kittens in foster homes.
Even worse, these diseases eventually create a domino effect that makes the cats less likely to be adopted.
They also spread disease to other felines in the cafes, changing their behavior and again reducing the acceptance rate as a whole.
Huge following: Cat cafes have exploded in popularity over the past decade and have sprung up in locations all over the world (stock image)
Care: However, researchers have found that kittens in trendy cat cafes are sick more often than kittens in foster homes (stock image)
Experts at the Animal Behavior Wellness Center in Virginia, who led the study, said close contact with humans was partly to blame.
“Cats in the cat cafe have a significantly higher disease frequency compared to foster cats,” the authors wrote.
They said the average length of stay for cats in foster homes was 21.5 days, compared to 23 days for cafe cats.
The researchers added: ‘The unpredictable and fluctuating nature of human visitors to the cafe creates a lack of consistency and increasing social stress compared to a stable home environment and traveling once a week to an adoption event.
‘Environmental factors, including available resources, cleanliness and human observation, would also differ between the groups.
“It’s possible that the more frequent and intense cafe stress combined with environmental and individual factors could make a cat more susceptible to illness or that the increased number of people watching the cats could lead to a better detection of mild disease. ‘
The concept of a cat cafe is said to have originated in Taiwan in 1998 with the opening of the ‘Cat Flower Garden’.
Similar establishments began popping up in Asia – Japan in particular – but also in Europe and North America.
As they grew in popularity, some began to branch out by hosting cats available for adoption.
However, the new study suggests that more may need to be done to prevent disease from ripping through.
It turned out that cats in cat cafes tended to be sicker, especially males, while also staying longer compared to cats in foster homes.
Cat cafes are controversial because questions arise about the suitability of the environment and the changing cat population, the number of cats in a confined space and the daily exposure to a changing human population and the possible lack of regulation of such entities, write the authors. wrote.
Sickness rates: This graph shows that cats in cat cafes are sick more often than cats in foster homes
Analysis: For the study, the researchers looked at 797 cats housed at a shelter or at an affiliated cat cafe (stock image)
As part of the study, experts looked at 797 cats housed by a shelter or affiliated cat cafe.
They analyzed disease frequency, adoption rates and length of stay of cats in each environment.
“In summary, illness frequency and length of stay are influenced by housing status, inherent characteristics of the cat, and behavioral and medical observations of cat cafe employees,” the researchers said.
They added that they hoped their findings “could help rescue organizations identify and act on feline disease behaviors (to limit spread and improve welfare), determine optimal housing for reduced length of stay, and improve visibility for cats that are sick longer. duration of stay.’
The research has been published in the journal of Veterinary behavior.