Implications of cat ownership statistics and social changes: A longitudinal study in Taiwan from 2001 to 2009

Pet ownership statistics in Taiwan had not been investigated until Animal Protection Act was announced on November 4, 1998. This longitudinal study aims to investigate the demographic information of household cats in Taiwan and discuss its implications with social changes from 2001 to 2009 biennially. Household cats were surveyed biennially by randomly dialed telephone survey. A structured questionnaire was designed to obtain household demographics and population-associated data on pet ownership. Related social changes data were obtained from the Statistical Yearbook of the Ministry of Interior, Taiwan. Results showed that household cat ownership increased from 2001 to 2009, but the average number of household cats owned by each household decreased every year. The study concluded that the increase in cat ownership might be caused by the following reasons: (1) dramatic rise in life stress and social/environmental/economic pressures of owners who had strong needs of self-objective fulfillment and comfort, (2) less care and attention required for cats than dogs, and (3) the availability of care-giving for cat is decreasing with the declining of the number of people within a household in Taiwan.