Emeritus Professor Jacquie Rand, BVSc, DVSc, Diplomate ACVIM (Int. Med), MANZCVSExecutive Director & Chief Scientist, Australian Pet Welfare Foundation

Emeritus Professor Rand graduated with a Bachelor of VeterinaryScience from Melbourne University in 1975, and worked in veterinarypractice for 8 years before doing a residency and doctorate at the OntarioVeterinary College, Canada, followed by 3 years as a senior registrar atthe University of Zurich, Switzerland. She is a registered specialist insmall animal internal medicine and a Diplomate of the American Collegeof Veterinary Medicine..

She was appointed Professor of Companion Animal Health at UQ in 2001and retired at the end of 2015 to head the Australian Pet WelfareFoundation, which is dedicated to saving pets’ lives through research,education and advocacy. She has published over a 112 journal articles,authored 42 book chapters, and is editor of three books.

Currently, she is involved in research programs in shelter medicine aimedat preventing unwanted and problem pets, as well as ongoing research inin diabetes and obesity.

Abstract

Attitudes of Australian dog and cat owners towards pet containment and community cat programs

In recent years, Australian local governments have begun introducing regulations aiming to better controldomestic cats. These regulations aim to reduce wildlife predation and problems associated with roaming, suchas impoundments of lost cats, motor vehicle accidents and soiling in neighbour’s yards. The aim of this study isto determine the attitudes and beliefs of Australian dog and cat owners towards confinement of their pet insideor on their property, and attitudes about predation by their pets, the impact they believe this has on wildlife andwhether these attitudes differ between dog and cat owners. Support for community cat programs is also probed.Knowledge of these attitudes may help to determine whether implementation of particular pet control methods islikely to be accepted and successful, and also to identify areas where altering attitudes and beliefs, for examplethrough education, may assist in successful implementation of these measures.