Evidence-based approaches to maintaining welfare and behavioral health of cats in rescue shelters.
Shelter cat welfare represents a convergence of individual animal welfare, population management, and adoption success, as behavioral welfare directly determines whether cats can be successfully rehomed. The shelter environment is inherently stressful for most cats, and chronic stress degrades both welfare and adoptability over time. Evidence-based shelter management including hiding spaces, routine predictability, positive human interaction, and behavior modification programs for challenging cats has transformed outcomes at well-resourced shelters. Resource constraints at underfunded shelters mean these welfare improvements are unevenly distributed.