Abstract
Simple SummaryFor free-roaming cat management to be effective, people—including land managers, conservationists, cat lovers and the general public—need to be sufficiently empowered and motivated to accept and implement management actions. Research in the social and behavioural sciences has shown that engaging everyone and gaining consensus can be incredibly challenging. This paper describes an integrative framework based on the behavioural literature to design better, equitable and ethically acceptable interventions for free-roaming cat management.In Australia, free-roaming cats can be found in urban and rural areas across the country. They are inherently difficult to manage but it is frequently human behaviour that demands the most attention and is in most need of change. To the frustration of policy makers and practitioners, scientific knowledge, technological developments, and legal and institutional innovations, often run afoul of insufficient public capacity, opportunity and motivation to act. This paper demonstrates how the behavioural science literature can provide important insights into maximising the impact of free-roaming cat control activities within an ethical framework that prioritises acting “with” all stakeholders, rather than “on” stakeholders. By better understanding how human values, attitudes and beliefs are shaped, practitioners can more effectively and respectfully interact with how people interpret the world around them, make choices and behave. This literature also has much to say about why certain types of media and marketing messages elicit behaviour change and why other types fall flat. Finally, in addition to explaining the behavioural science and its implications, this review provides researchers, policy makers and engagement specialists with an inclusive, practical framework for conceptualising behaviour change and working to ensure land managers, cat owners and the general public can agree on and adopt best practices for managing free-roaming cats.
Highlights
The domestic cat, Felis catus, can be found in urban and rural areas across the globe
Mounting evidence indicates that free-roaming cats create substantial negative impacts through predation and competition, threatening the existence of many wildlife species in Australia and worldwide [4,5,6,7]
Research into human behaviour is extensive, with many theories describing factors that exert a causal influence on behaviour as well as the nature of this influence
Summary
The domestic cat, Felis catus, can be found in urban and rural areas across the globe. This is usually done by engaging and building relationships with community stakeholders, involving them to some degree in the decision making, defining and negotiating agreements to manage expectations and improve transparency, and creating opportunities to work together and generate shared experiences [29,30] This can be a challenging exercise as many diverse, and sometimes seemingly opposing, views and values exist towards free-roaming cats, their impact on the environment, and the ethics of managing this species including humaneness of control methods [31,32,33]. These aspects are discussed in more detail
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