Much like dogs and other small mammals, cats are significantly more sensitive to sounds than are humans and have one of the broadest known hearing ranges among mammals. While human hearing can damage at 70dB, sound in shelters, kennels, veterinary hospitals, and grooming salons regularly exceed 100dB. 

First, results will be presented assessing how sound in an animal shelter affects cat behaviour and welfare. For this study, singly housed shelter cats were observed at two sessions per day for fear and maintenance behaviour over 5 months, while sound was simultaneously recorded. Cats showed more fear behaviour (p<0.001), and less maintenance behaviour (p<0.020) in AM periods (when there was consistently more noise present than PM periods), and cats showed more fear behaviour in loud AM periods than quiet AM periods (p=0.001) (Wilcoxon signed-rank tests). Where sessions included a pronounced change in sound level, fear-related behaviour was more common after a transition from quiet to loud (p=0.002) than loud to quiet (p=0.125) (Wilcoxon signed-rank tests). The results show that sound in shelter environments can substantially affect the behaviour and welfare of cats and lowering sound levels in shelters can help improve cat welfare.

Next, the most common sources, volumes and patterns of sound in an animal shelter will be presented, along with methods that animal care facilities can use to easily and accurately measure sound using validated smartphone applications. Finally, using simple and accessible sound-proofing methods, real-world examples of sound-mitigation in an animal shelter environment will be shared. 

Key Learnings :

1.Understanding the sounds that cats, dogs, and other small mammals hear, how that differs from humans, and how this can affect animal welfare.
2. Understanding how sound in an animal shelter impacts fear-related and maintenance-related behaviour in cats.
3. Understanding common sources of noise in an animal shelter, and methods that can be used to easily measure and minimize sound in animal care facilities.
 

This Session is sponsored by Royal Canin