Veterinarians stepping up for feral cats
By Gina Spadafori
November 11, 2007
This weekend the National Feral Cat Summit is being held in Orlando. Considering that Alley Cat Allies held a National Cat Advocacy Seminar last month in Washington, D.C., the case can be made that the tide is turning when it comes to feral cats and trap, neuter, release programs.
In publicizing its involvement in this weekend’s Florida feral fandango, the HSUS cites the results of its unhelpfully small but nonetheless interesting study, if one imagines the results would hold up with a proper sample:
The HSUS conducted surveys at several 2007 veterinary conferences and found that 40 percent of those who responded are veterinarians in private practice who provide services for feral cats at reduced costs. Almost half of the respondents were inspired to help at the urging of a client or feral cat advocacy group.
[...]
Of the 81 veterinarians in private practice:
73 respondents (90 percent) help feral cats in their community.
44 percent became involved at the request of a client*
33 percent became involved at the request of a feral cat group*
* Others became involved as veterinary students, through another
veterinarian or working at an animal shelter.Eight respondents do not help feral cats in their community.
50 percent indicated that they never had the opportunity
25 percent indicated that they did not support TNR
25 percent did not give a reason for not helping
The study was sent by e-mail and I couldn’t find it online. I’ve asked them to put in up and send me the URL, so I’ll link to the entire release when I get it.
I hate it when people use “percent” in describing the results of small surveys. At least they use the actual numbers to begin with (“73 respondents”, “Eight respondents”) but they then jump to using percentages. which makes the numbers “feel” more significant than they are. Rework:
50 percent indicated that they never had the opportunity
25 percent indicated that they did not support TNR
25 percent did not give a reason for not helping
into:
4 respondents indicated that they never had the opportunity
2 respondents indicated that they did not support TNR
2 respondents did not give a reason for not helping
and it “feels” a lot different, doesn’t it?
I don’t recall the guidelines for how large a sample has to be before you can legitimately report “statistical findings” as “percentages”, but I’m pretty sure it’s in the hundreds at least - not 81.
Imagine I were to ask two people whether they liked peanut butter, and one of them said that no, he hated it. And then imagine I went on to report that “In a recent survey, 50% of respondents said the smell of peanut butter makes them nauseous.”
It’s just not quite forthcoming to use “percentage” results when reporting on a very small number of responses.
Comment by The OTHER Pat — November 11, 2007 @ 7:01 am
Lies, damn lies and statistics … :)
Comment by Gina Spadafori — November 11, 2007 @ 9:15 am