Assessment of cats’ behavior during a cat show

ats, as a highly territorial animal, may suffer from changes in their physical and social environment. The change of environment and the loss of spatial and social anchors that occur during a cat show could represent a source of stress. Most studies concerning cat welfare have focused on shelters and catteries. To our knowledge, the literature, to date, offers no answers regarding the specific area of feline exhibitions. The aim of this pilot study is to explore behaviors and postures adopted by the cats during the exhibition day, to detect any signs of stress or discomfort. This may also clarify whether it may be necessary to make changes to the environment in which the cats are being exhibited to improve the welfare of animals. Behaviors of 82 cats were collected through direct observation (the observer stood in front of the cages once an hour, from 10 to 17, for a total of 8 times for each cat) during a feline exposition. Analysis of behaviors exhibited by cats during the exposition day revealed that most of them were sleeping (93.9%), resting (62.2%), and looking at their surroundings (92.7%). Some cats played (32.9%), and few cats hid themselves with a low frequency (20.7%). Behaviors showed by cats in our sample seem to indicate no discomfort supported also by the assumed postures, being, for the most part, body not in tension with straight ears (78.8%) and in few cases presenting belly-up. Focusing on the presence of visitors, our results indicate that most cats remain indifferent to their presence, but during the high attendance of visitors at 3 and 4 pm, we recorded the largest percentage of cat hiding (P ≤ 0.05). In conclusion, the cat show environment represents a situation full of stressful stimuli for the cat; despite this, our results have identified few behaviors of discomfort or stress manifested only at low frequencies. This result may be due to the habituation done on cats and to the coping abilities of these animals in this context of acute stress. Further studies are required to confirm and deepen our results.