Role
Lauren Finka is a Research Associate in the School of Animal Rural & Environmental Sciences.
Career overview
Dr Finka has a PhD in Animal behaviour and Welfare from the University of Lincoln, where she worked to develop measures to assess sociability in cats within the rehoming environment. She has over 10 years of experience working both practically as well as academically with cats. Dr Finka specialises in the translation of scientific information to infrom best practice approaches in optimal cat management and also provides applied training in such areas. She also works on various research projects aimed to increase humans' understaning of domestic cat behaviour, using a multidisciplinary approach.
Research areas
- Developing novel, non-invasive methods to assess wellbeing
- Increasing humans' understanding of the impact of domestic living on cats
- Improving the management and wellbeing of cats within the home as well as rehoming/cattery environment
External activity
Dr Finka is as a specialist consultant for Battersea Dogs and Cats Home and also works with International Cat Care (ICatCare) and International Society for Feline Medicine (ISFM) on various behaviour and welfare projects. She also writes regular articles for cat magazine ‘Your Cat’. She is a regular invited speaker at applied welfare conferences such as the Association of Dogs and Cats Homes (ADCH).
Publications
Finka, L.R., Ward, J., Farnworth, M.J. and Mills, D.S., 2019. Owner personality and the wellbeing of their cats share parallels with the parent-child relationship. PloS one, 14(2), p.e0211862.
Finka, L.R., Ellis, S.L. and Stavisky, J., 2014. A critically appraised topic (CAT) to compare the effects of single and multi-cat housing on physiological and behavioural measures of stress in domestic cats in confined environments. BMC veterinary research, 10(1), p.73.
Finka, L., Ellis, S.L.H., Wilkinson, A. and Mills, D., 2014. The development of an emotional ethogram for Felis silvestris focused on FEAR and RAGE. Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research, 9(6), p.e5.
Sparkes, A.H., Bessant, C., Cope, K., Ellis, S.L., Finka, L., Halls, V., Hiestand, K., Horsford, K., Laurence, C., MacFarlaine, I. and Neville, P.F., 2013. ISFM guidelines on population management and welfare of unowned domestic cats (Felis catus). Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, 15(9), pp.811-817.
See all of Dr Lauren Finka's publications...Press expertise
Cat behavioural expressions and emotions
Cat welfare
Cat stress management
Cat-human relationships
Cat-cat relationships
Cats rescue/rehoming