Cat owners in the Denmark countryside are increasingly managing their cats in the same way as urban cat owners, resulting in fewer unwanted kittens being born, according to a study published February 19, 2025, in the open-access journal PLOS One by Peter Sandøe from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and colleagues.
Populations of unowned domestic cats – whether unsocialized feral cats that have never lived with humans, or socialized cats that have strayed or been abandoned – are regarded as problematic in many countries. It is argued that they are a nuisance, that they transmit disease to humans, owned cats and wildlife, that the unowned cats suffer from poor welfare, and that their hunting reduces biodiversity. There is therefore wide agreement that populations of unowned cats should be controlled.
Interestingly, a recent study in Denmark documented a low number of unowned cats, probably due to a drop in their number over recent years. Sandøe and collaborators set out to investigate whether this could be explained by changes in the ways rural cat owners, in Denmark at least, have managed and cared for their cats over time. Households in a 47 km2 countryside area in Western Zealand, and on 23 farms near this area, were presented with the same questionnaire in 1998 and in 2022.
Over this period, there was a major shift away from cats living on full-scale farms, where the number of cats decreased by two-thirds, and on hobby farms, where the number halved. However, the number of cats living in residential homes nearly doubled, and, correspondingly, there was a significant increase in the proportion of cats with indoor access.
In addition, cat owners have increasingly adopted measures to manage their cats, including much higher proportions of cats being spayed and castrated. There was an increase from 61% to 98% among male cats with indoor access and from 13% to 70% among male cats without indoor access. There was also a major increase in cats that have been earmarked or microchipped and registered, rising from 8% to 64%. This change in owner behavior has led to many fewer unwanted kittens being born and subsequently killed.
According to the authors, the findings reflect both a diminishing divide between rural and urban life in a small and highly industrialized country and a growing human attachment to owned cats. The study also helps to explain why the number of unowned cats in Denmark recently has been found to be much lower than previously assumed.
The authors add: "The study provides evidence of changing rural human-cat relationships, with rural cat owners increasingly managing cats in the same way as urban cat owners. This probably reflects both a diminishing divide between rural and urban life in a small and highly industrialized country like Denmark and a growing human attachment to owned cats."
In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS One: https://plos.io/4gA4GH2
Citation: Sandøe P, Gade U, Ujvári ML, Wöhler B, Lund TB, Meilby H, et al. (2025) Changes in management of owned cats in the countryside – A comparison of results from surveys undertaken in the same rural area of Denmark in 1998 and 2022. PLoS ONE 20(2): e0316704. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0316704
Author countries: U.S., Denmark
Funding: This study was supported by Animal Welfare Denmark and Aage V. Jensens Fonde in the form of grants awarded to MLU, by Kitty og Viggo Freisleben Jensens Fond by grants awarded to BW and UG, and by Skibsreder Per Henriksen, R. og Hustrus Fond by a grant awarded to PS. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
