Are cats less stressed in homes than in shelters? A study of personality and faecal cortisol metabolites

Abstract

Personality is defined by characteristics of individuals and describes and accounts for temporally stable patterns of affect, cognition and behaviour traits. The study of cat behaviour and personality can minimize potential problems in the relationship between cats and their owners and decrease abandonment and maltreatment. People generally adopt animals according to the individual’s appearance, age or sex. Personality assessments can help make adoptions successful by identifying ideal subjects for potential owners. A personality assessment called “Meet Your Match®” (MYM), developed by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and validated for our cat sample was used in this study. To evaluate stress, we measured faecal cortisol metabolites (FCMs) of cats in shelters and after adoption. In an effort to improve adoption and cat adaptation in new homes, our goals were 1) to evaluate the relationship between personality and cortisol levels; 2) to confirm if MYM assessment is consistent through situations; and 3) to investigate how moving from the shelter to the owners’ homes affects FCM levels. The subjects for our first goal were 53 sheltered cats. For the second and the third goals, we followed 15 of the original 53 after the adoption. No correlation was found between personality dimensions (agreeableness p = 0.878; openness p = 0.141; extraversion p = 0.942) and FCM levels. MYM assessment was consistent through different localities. There was a slight, but significant (p = 0.0072), decrease of FCM levels at owners’ home. However, most subjects (n = 11) did not present changes that were significantly different from zero. Our study underlined the usefulness of the MYM personality assessment and confirmed a lack of correlation between personality and cortisol levels in cats. It is a further step towards incorporating a more objective approach to the adoption process in shelters to improve the pairing of humans and cats.