Feline Fear of People

Introduction

Key Points

The cat should not be restrained or forced to remain in proximity to people it is afraid of. It must be given opportunities to escape from situations it finds alarming, and provided with free access to a safe area that includes all necessary resources within easy access. The kinds of people, types of clothing and patterns of behaviour that elicit most fear should be identified. Controlled exposure (desensitisation & counterconditioning) may be used to condition the cat to tolerate the types of people it is afraid of Identify the types of person of which the cat is most fearful. The solution may not be to treat the cat, but to educate the owner to accept that the cat should be allowed to avoid people (such as visitors).

For general discussion on feline fear please see Feline Fear Overview. The basis of pet ownership is the bond people feel with their pets. Clients expect that the positive feelings that they, and others, have for the pet will be reciprocated. So, fear related problems in cats are a source of distress for owners, who cannot understand why a cat is avoidant of them and their visitors. Since the cat's primary means of coping with threat are avoidance and escape, aggression is less likely with cats than it may be with dogs. However, with the wrong approach and enough perseverance, any fear-related problem can progress to aggression. Since aggressive attacks by cats can cause serious injuries, once aggression is seen the whole style of treatment must change and some cat owners will be reluctant to proceed at all, so it is vital that the cat is not unintentionally provoked.

Fear of people is more likely in poorly socialised cats or those that have been threatened or harmed by people in the past. Cats that are feral and have had no early rearing experience with people are a significant challenge and may be unsuitable as domestic pets. Cats that have a good early socialisation history but which have developed fear as a result of one or two aversive events may be easier to treat initially, but they often present a greater challenge as the full extent of the range of human-related stimuli they react to (clothing, size, vocal tone) becomes apparent over time.

Fear may be confined to specific situations, such as handling or when approached, touched or picked up, with cats being relatively relaxed around people at other times. The main barrier to treating these kinds of problems is that it is often difficult to persuade owners to adopt a respectful and systematic approach; many owners will continue to try to handle and pick up frightened cats, which increases their intolerance and mistrust of people.

Prevention

Studies, such as those by McCune, indicate that fearfulness/boldness is a heritable trait that is strongly influenced by paternity, and that willingness to approach and interact with unfamiliar people and objects is strongly influenced by experience during the sensitive period of development. Since the ‘socialisation’ period of the cat ends at around 7 weeks, breeders must take responsibility for exposing kittens to a wide range of people and other species before homing.

Owners seeking to acquire a kitten should be advised that:

• Kittens that are the progeny of aggressive or fearful parents should be avoided.
• Kittens that are reared in a domestic environment, with exposure to unfamiliar people and a range of typical domestic stimuli and events are those which are most likely to develop without fear and anxiety problems.

Those acquiring an adult cat, for example from a shelter, should be advised that:

• When introducing new cats to the home, they should be provided with a secure space that includes all resources (food, water, latrine sites) and a number of hiding places.
• The cat should be allowed to become confident in its environment before introducing it to people.
• Handling should be minimised until the cat has begun to approach and interact with people voluntarily.

Feral cats may have great difficulty adapting to a domestic setting, and should not be taken on by inexperienced owners, or without support from a shelter that has experience of rehabilitating them.

Investigation

Fear of people is apparent from the pattern of avoidance behaviour and the cat’s body postures. The specific nature of the fear problem should be thoroughly investigated including:

• Temperament of the cat's parents and siblings (if known).
• Rearing history.
• Characterisation of the cat's response to people.
• Change in the response to people over time (starting with responses during development).
• Types of people, features of appearance and kinds of activity the cat reacts to.
• Details of the owner’s previous attempts to treat or manage the problem, including their reactions to the cat’s fearful behaviour.

Treatment

The most important first step is to determine the owner's expectations and what might actually be achievable. Treatment is likely to involve a significant level of compromise by the owners, as it is unlikely that attempting to completely resolve a fear of people will be either successful or in the interest of the cat. Owners have to accept that avoidance is normal in cats and that a fearful cat is unlikely to become highly sociable.

A treatment programme will include a combination of:

• Environmental modification
• Client education
• Provision of avoidance and escape opportunities
• Controlled exposure (desensitisation and counterconditioning)
• Psychoactive medication
• Pheromones

Stress and emotional problems are of an additive nature; stress experienced in one aspect of life will heighten stress and emotional responses in other situations. It is important to improve the environment to provide the cat with a multitude of easily accessible resources and environmental enrichments, so that underlying sources of stress are reduced.

Facial and flank pheromones are used by cats to mark their core territory; an area in which cats do not expect to encounter hostility from conspecifics. Behavioural therapy involving controlled exposure is best performed in an environment where the cat already feels secure, such as within its core territory. The use of a synthetic analogue of F3 (Feliway) may enhance this core territory effect, to help provide a setting within which behavioural therapy can take place. However, studies have indicated that the "calming" effect of the synthetic pheromone does not necessarily increase tolerance of handling and other procedures, so behavioural therapy must still respect the tolerance limitations of the individual cat.

There is some evidence that a synthetic analogue of the F4 fraction of feline facial marking pheromone (Felifriend) may improve tolerance of approach and handling by people when applied to them. However, it appears only to be effective when the cat has not already accumulated a number of aversive experiences involving the particular person and situation. These cats may experience dissonance between the visual stimulus associated with threat and danger, and the pheromone cue that signals familiarity. Pheromones like F4 should only be used in conjunction with sensitive handling and behavioural techniques.

The level of fear shown by a cat will vary with the type of person, their appearance and their actions. A detailed list should be made of theses features, so that a gradient of exposure can be created, with stimuli listed in order of the level of fear they elicit. For example, animals often find tall people wearing dark clothing, hats or hoods, and moving quickly or noisily the most threatening. Controlled exposure should start with people who dress and behave in the ways that the cat is most likely to accept. For example, starting with female volunteers wearing light coloured clothing and sitting down. Cats that show signs of fear when they hear unfamiliar voices can be desensitised to these noises using recordings or radio programmes.

Cats often respond best to desensitisation based approaches best. Counterconditioning is difficult as cats rapidly lose interest in appetitive stimuli (like food) when anxious or fearful.

Desensitisation should follow distinct stages, moving on from one stage to the next only when it is clear that the cat is coping well.

• One person, sitting down and dressed in a manner that is least likely to provoke a reaction, ignoring the cat and staying still and quiet.
• Additional people, sitting down and dressed and behaving in the same neutral manner as above.
• The same people dressed with different types of clothing, gradually moving towards an appearance that is more fearful (e.g. dark clothes).
• One person, dressed in a non-provocative manner, standing up.
• Additional people, dressed in a non-provocative manner, standing up.
• The same people moving around.

Using only a small number of volunteers, the cat can be desensitised to a variety of different human appearances using different clothes and other paraphernalia such as walking sticks, hats and glasses.

The critical aspect of desensitisation is that the stimulus (in this case a person) is presented in such a manner that it does not trigger a fear response. Realistically, with a cat confined in a home some level of fear or anxiety is almost certain, but this should be minimised.

Psychoactive medication may be useful if the cat shows generalised signs anxiety or inhibition, or a delayed recovery after a person has left. Cats that are generally anxious and hesitant may not have the confidence to explore and use environmental enrichments or discover hiding and escape opportunities that have been set up for them. Drugs, such as fluoxetine and clomipramine, that reduce anxiety can be a useful adjunct in these cases. Selegiline reduces specific fearfulness and increases exploratory behaviour, and can be used to treat specific fears. None of these drugs has a UK license for the treatment of behavioural problems in the cat.

Prognosis

The prognosis depends very much upon the client’s ultimate expectations for the cat. If they expect to have a reasonably sociable house pet but are willing to accept that the cat may hide occasionally when visitors come to the home, then they may be satisfied with the results of behavioural therapy.

Indicators of a poor prognosis:

• Cat with poor socialisation history, or parents or siblings with known fear or anxiety problems.
• Non-compliant owner(s) with unreasonable expectations.
• Previous use of coercive methods to overcome problem (e.g. forced handling).
• Longstanding problem.
• A home environment that does not lend itself to providing the cat with avoidance/escape opportunities (e.g. open plan or confined).
• Busy, chaotic household.

References

The creation of this content was made possible by Ceva Santé Animale as part of the feline behaviour project.

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