Individuals’ Knowledge, Beliefs, Attitudes, and Behaviors toward Animal Releasing

Abstract

The aim of this study was to propose and validate “a great variety of animals may be released” and “attitudes toward animal releasing”. To achieve this goal, the self-developed Likert-typed questionnaire and demographic data were adapted. The demographic data collected from both stages were analyzed. Only the beliefs, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of the participants from the first stage were examined. Regression and path analysis were done for the data from both stages. The questionnaire research was divided into two stages. At the first stage, the questionnaire was answered by people from schools or private businesses in the northern, middle, and southern parts of Taiwan. A total of 1225 valid questionnaires were collected, among which only 9.3% of the participants were found to have ever joined animal releasing activities. At the second stage, the participants were chosen from the religious groups in northern Taiwan that offered animal releasing activities. A total of 151 valid questionnaires were collected. By the regression analysis of demographic data and beliefs of animal releasing, the result shows that “the experience of participating in religious ceremony to be one of the groups” is the strongest predictor; the “participants gender” and “their mother’s religions” influence knowledge of animal releasing most. The beliefs of animal releasing can account for much of attitudes than knowledge variables can do. “Beliefs of animal releasing” is more important than “significant others’ support” and “significant others’ support” is more important than “knowledge of animal releasing.” The main findings of the correlation among beliefs, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of animal releasing include the following: 1) through attitude, beliefs mediate behaviors; 2) through attitude, knowledge mediate behaviors; 3) knowledge influences behaviors directly; 4) attitude influences behaviors directly.