Do some cat owners introduce a new pet to force the existing one out?

Bad relationship between cat and owner. Picture in public domain.

Here are some facts about domestic cats and their ownership which encourage me to believe, very speculatively, that some cat owners might introduce a new pet, either a dog or a cat, into the household in order to force the resident cat out to find a new home. This post is provocative but I believe it is fair and reasonable.

• It is hard to ensure that the resident cat gets on with a new, incoming cat. It can cause stress in both cats, particular the resident cat. It can be difficult to ameliorate this tension. The relationship might never be right.
• It's a known fact that some domestic cats migrate to a new home for whatever reason. Something is not right where they are living. So they up sticks and find somewhere else, often a neighbour's home.
• We also know that some cat owners relinquish their cats to shelters under unjustified circumstances. It is done entirely voluntarily. Indeed, some cat owners take their cats to a veterinarian to put them down despite the cat being thoroughly healthy. That sounds ridiculous but it does happen. The point I am making is that the relationship between domestic cat and owner is not always good. There are instances when the relationship is broken or breaking down.
• We also know that some people do not like to openly relinquish their cats to a shelter. There are numerous instances of people abandoning cats in shelters surreptitiously by leaving them in boxes outside the front door or whatever. They do this at any time of the year including the deepest part of the winter when it is freezing outside. They even do it at night when it's even colder. So, there is a reluctance to advertise the fact that they are giving up on their cat or cats. Perhaps there is a stigma involved.

In order to avoid this stigma some canny cat owners might adopt a new cat or dog in the knowledge that it may force the existing cat out. Perhaps their relationship with the resident cat has broken down. They might be ambivalent about whether they want to continue living with their cat. They set up a situation where the resident cat might decide to leave. They encourage the scenario. It is a speculative action because it might not work. But it might work and this might suit them. 

RELATED: Not sure whether you want a cat? Try fostering first.

You would have to be a poor domestic cat caregiver to dream up that sort of scheme. But, then again, there must be a substantial percentage of homes in which caregivers are rather poor at the job. We don't have data on this. But it wouldn't surprise me that at least 10% of cat owners are average-to-poor in the caregiving that they provide. If that is correct, we are looking at millions of people. Some of them might concoct the kind of scheme that I have suggested.

Do domestic cats have a hierarchy?

Within a social group of domestic cats there may be a single dominant male or female but there is little ranking below this individual (Linda P Case in The Cat, It's Behavior & Health). And, group-living cats "lack distinct dominance hierarchies" (Irene Rochlitz in The Welfare of Cats). On these two counts, domestic cats do not have a hierarchy. This is incomplete opposition to the article about domestic cat hierarchal structures on the catster.com website where they say that there is such a structure. I believe that they are incorrect. I have never read about such a genuine hierarchal structure in multi-cat homes and within cat colonies.

Domestic cats don't have hierarchies. Image: Pixabay.

To be clear, a hierarchy is a system in which members of an organisation or society are ranked according to relative status and authority. One dominant individual does not create a hierarchy. And a dominant cat is one which is typically the most aggressive in a social group. The simple quality of aggressiveness does not necessarily mean that the cat is dominant within the context of a hierarchy. The top individual in a hierarchy controls the group such as access to resources, resting places and opportunities to make. This type of "resource guarding" is not seen in cat social groups.

The wolf has a hierarchal system and social rankings which are functional and in which they cooperate during hunting and protection of their territory but this does not apply to cat groups.

Further, cats living in groups do not have signals for reducing conflict and neither do they have mechanisms for reconciliation. Although domestic cats have become quite sociable through adaptation, they are not naturally adapted to living in close proximity to each other. In multi-cat homes cats don't have an option and therefore they adapt but it is argued that if they were able to, they would live further apart.

For the domestic cat, a discussion on hierarchal structures or their absence touches upon harmony in multi-cat households. Studies indicate that the reasons for the development of feline behavioural problems (such as avoidance-related behaviours) are due to their relationships with other cats and humans.

The fact that there are stresses and sometimes antagonism within multi-cat households between cats supports the analysis that domestic cats do not have hierarchal structures because these structures are meant to avoid such incidents.