Children’s attitudes to release outdoors and abandon pet cats

Domestic cats are popular pets globally, with many individuals being allowed to roam outdoors. Free-ranging and feral cats cause environmental losses due to their predatory behavior and the transmission of diseases. The factors affecting the intentions of owners to release and abandon their cats are poorly studied and speculative. Therefore, we surveyed children who owned cats in the Czech Republic to determine awareness and compare the attitudes to abandon their cats (with no intention of letting them back in ever again), which can be reflected later in children's lives. Complete questionnaire responses were received from 2,923 pupils, including 976 cat owners. In children who could become adult owners of cats later in their lives, the origin of pet cats was significantly identified as an important internal factor, which may energize or direct the intentions to release outdoors or abandon unwanted and previously adopted stray cats. Since approximately 71% of respondents kept other pets, it is recommended to further study if the owner who is motivated to release an unwanted cat outdoors may also abandon other unwanted pet animals and the role of household practices and family norms regarding pet ownership. The presented findings should be of concern to wildlife managers, conservationists, teachers, decision-makers and other stakeholders to raise public awareness and political leverage to minimize the deliberate release of pet cats by their owners.