Adaptação do protocolo Shelter Quality® para avaliação do bem-estar de gatos domésticos em ambientes de abrigos

Abstract

The evaluation of the welfare of cats in shelters in Brazil lacks standardized tools adapted to the ethological particularities of the species and the national reality. The main objective of this dissertation was to adapt and test the feasibility of the Shelter Quality® for domestic cats in Brazilian shelters. The adaptation process was based on the integration of the principles of the Welfare Quality® (2009) with the guidelines of the AAFP/ISFM (2013) and specific recommendations for felines, resulting in a protocol with 23 species-specific indicators distributed in the animal, environment and management axes. The adapted tool was applied in four shelters in Juiz de Fora - MG between June 2024 and January 2025, evaluating 149 cats through a complete census methodology. The results showed high operational feasibility, with an average application time of 1h47min per shelter, and applicability in institutions of different sizes. The tool made it possible to capture the heterogeneity characteristic of national shelters, from smaller institutions (with 13 cats) to larger ones (with 96 cats). The adaptation incorporated essential criteria such as evaluation of verticalization, affiliative behaviors (allogrooming and allorubbing), triangulated distance between resources, and specific sanitary management for diseases such as FIV, FeLV, and sporotrichosis. It is concluded that the adapted protocol represents a promising tool to standardize feline welfare assessments in Brazilian shelters, offering a methodological basis for future comparisons between different institutions and locations. Its integration with complementary methods, such as fecal cortisol measurement and computational ethology, is recommended for future research. This tool constitutes a milestone for shelter medicine in Brazil, potentially contributing to tangible improvements in the quality of life of sheltered cats.