Systematic behavioral assessment of cats in shelters improves welfare, guides placement decisions, and increases successful adoption outcomes.
Behavioral assessment in shelters serves multiple welfare functions simultaneously. It protects individual cats from euthanasia based on misread stress responses. It guides enrichment programs to address each cat's specific needs. It improves adoption matching, reducing return rates and the welfare harm of repeated rehoming. And it identifies cats who may be feral or poorly socialized and better served through alternative programs like TNR. Investment in behavioral assessment infrastructure is one of the highest-welfare interventions available to shelter organizations.