Global Strategies for Population Management of Domestic Cats (Felis catus): A Systematic Review to Inform Best Practice Management for Remote Indigenous Communities in Australia

摘要

A systematic review process was used to identify the current global cat population management practices for owned, free-roaming cat populations, particularly those suited to remote Indigenous communities in Australia. Based on this review, a combination of three methods is recommended. The first method, Surgical Sterilisation (SS), requires owners to take their socialised cats to a facility for surgical sterilisation and then take them home. The second method, Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) traps, neuters (sterilises) and returns healthy owned cats, which are unsocialised to the point where trapping is necessary, to their homes, and the third method, Trap-Remove (TR), traps and removes unwanted social cats via adoption and unhealthy cats via euthanasia. Conducting these three methods together over a long-term period appears to be consistent with current global best practice for humane and ethical management of cat populations in these communities.