Community Engagement and the Effectiveness of Free-Roaming Cat Control Techniques: A Systematic Review.

Simple Summary: Free-roaming and feral cats, along with their impacts on ecosystems and humans, have been debated globally. Cat welfare, overpopulation, and environmental and public health problems have prompted interest in controlling their populations. Several techniques exist to control cat populations, but community engagement may not always be considered. A systematic literature review was conducted to evaluate if community engagement influences the effectiveness of control techniques in managing cat populations, excluding culling. The greatest control occurred with highest community engagement; adoption and education determined the effectiveness. While research on cat control exists, few studies evaluate community engagement and technique effectiveness. This information is particularly relevant in countries that explicitly incorporate certain control techniques into their legislation. Although free-roaming and feral cat control techniques are often applied in human communities, community engagement is not always considered. A systematic literature review following an update of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA 2020) methodology was conducted to evaluate whether community engagement influences the effectiveness of control techniques, excluding culling, in managing cat populations. The degree of community engagement was estimated based on the number of roles reported during the application of the control technique, which included adoption, trapping, care, and/or education. Education followed by adoption was the determining factor in the decreasing cat populations over time. The limited evaluations of control technique effectiveness, narrow geographical scope, and our simple measure of engagement emphasize the need for more detailed studies. These studies should evaluate the effectiveness of control techniques, while considering community engagement more comprehensively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]