Feline Fear of People
Introduction
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Immediate Action
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Fear of people is one of many possible aspects of fear in cats. For general discussion on feline fear please see Feline Fear Overview. Fear of people is considered separately from fear of other species because the client’s expectations are different and the range of situations that the cat may be expected to tolerate are more demanding. The owner is also at greater risk if aggression results form mishandling. Clients always hope that the love they and other people radiate toward the cat will be reciprocated, so there is a need to educate the cat owner about the cat’s own needs and expectations of interaction with people. Owner appreciation of the cat’s perspective of the relationship always improves the prognosis.
Fear of people can have a number of manifestations and underlying factors. Cats may have a general fear of all people, causing avoidance behaviour and potential aggressiveness if the cat is cornered. This is most 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 major challenge. The basic framework of positive associations with human contact is missing and has to be trained from scratch. This can be extremely time-consuming but rewarding. 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 later on as the full extent of the range of human-related stimuli they react to (clothing, size, vocal tone) becomes apparent over time.
Fear of people may be confined to certain situations, such as in a particular context, during handling or when approached or touched. These cats may be relatively relaxed around people until a specific event or situation of this kind arises. These cats ought to be the easiest to deal with, as long as clients can be effectively counselled to approach the problem systematically. However, the cat’s generally relaxed demeanour often leads people to try to initiate contact that alarms the cat and further teaches it to dislike human contact.
With the wrong approach and enough perseverance, any one of these types of fear-related problems can progress to aggression. Once actual 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.
Prevention
The ‘socialisation’ period of the cat ends at around 7 weeks. The breeder is therefore responsible for exposing the kittens to a wide range of people and other species before homing.
- Do not pick kittens that are the progeny of aggressive or fearful parents.
- Avoid choosing kittens that have been reared in impoverished or barren environments.
- When introducing new cats to an environment, provide them with a secure space that includes all major resources and a number of hiding places.
- Allow the cat to become confident in its environment before introducing it to new people.
Diagnosis
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:
- Rearing history
- Early responses to unfamiliar people
- Responses to handling by familiar people
- Types of human appearance and activity the cat most fears
- Details of the owner’s previous attempts to treat or manage the problem, including their reactions to the cat’s fearful behaviour
This information is essential to understanding the full nature of the problem so that all aspects of the cat’s fear can be dealt with.
Treatment
Essential steps in reducing fearfulness of people are a mixture of the techniques used for treating fear of other species and fear of inanimate objects. The process described for the treatment of fear of people will be considered from the perspective of treating a cat with a severe general fear of people. Less severe cases might require fewer steps and could then go on to the kind of handling techniques described in the sections discussing aggression related to handling and human interaction.
The benefit of using desensitisation and counterconditioning procedures for cats with a fear of people is that, with some co-operation, we can control many aspects of the person’s behaviour whilst in the presence of the cat. The cat can be desensitised or habituated to a variety of different human appearances using different clothes and other paraphernalia such as walking sticks, hats and glasses. This means that only a relatively small number of volunteers is needed.
If the cat has already shown different levels of fear according to the appearance of the people it has encountered, then a list should be made of the features of appearance the cat tolerates least. Typically, animals least like tall people wearing dark clothing, hats or hoods, because these make them seem more threatening. This enables therapy to start with people who dress and behave in the ways that the cat is most likely to accept. A good starting point is to start with female volunteers sitting down and wearing light coloured casual clothing. Cats that show signs of fear when they hear unfamiliar voices may be desensitised to these noises using recordings or radio programmes.
Desensitisation to the presence of a person will be most rapid if that person can remain as still as possible without watching the cat at all. This effectively makes the person inanimate and without any intention towards the cat.
As the cat becomes confident with several different people dressed on different occasions in a wide selection of clothes, the next stage is for the cat to encounter these same people while they are standing up. This will make them appear larger and therefore more dangerous. In successive stages the volunteers should begin to move about slowly, then more rapidly, but always remaining disinterested in the cat.
The process may be speeded up if F4 (Felifriend) is applied to the person acting as the stooge and the environment is one in which an F3 diffuser (Feliway) is operating. However, F4 should be used with care as it can induce panic in cats that already have memories of specific aversive events involving people. These cats experience a dissonance between the visual stimulus associated with threat and danger, and the pheromone cue that signals familiarity.
Treatment Summary:
- Make a list of the types and appearances of people that the cat is fearful of, placing them in order of the degree of fear elicited.
- Prepare a quiet and familiar environment for training, allowing the cat to get used to this in advance of training. Provision of F3 diffusers in this environment will increase the perceived sense of security. The cat should have resting places and boltholes where it can avoid contact if it wishes.
- Desensitise or countercondition the cat to elements of the stimuli it fears separately: sight, sound, smell and movement of the animal.
- Psychoactive medication may help behaviourally inhibited cats or those that are too apprehensive to commence training (Selegiline).
- DO NOT CARRY THE CAT INTO A TRAINING SITUATION AS THIS MAY TRIGGER AGGRESSION. Instead, bring it in in a carry box, or allow it to enter from another room on a harness and extending leash.
Prognosis
The prognosis depends very much upon the client’s ultimate expectations for the cat. If they intend 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 very happy with the results of behavioural therapy.