Good.
Australian with three cats here - they're all indoor and happy about it because i'm not a shitarse pet owner. An outdoor cat in Australia is ecological genocide
this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2023
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From the cats perspective I think it's quite uncontroversial to say they'd be happier roaming free.
EDIT: I'd really love to hear the argument for why a cat actually prefers to live its enitire life indoors, despite this being something we've only done to them for the past few decades or so.
I could literally leave my back door wide open and Cerys would not step foot out it. She hates the outdoors. Punkin's stuck his nose out a few times, but it holds no real interest for him and Misha - who was an abandoned cat that literally decided to move in with us and has lived an extensive part of her life as an in-out cat could not give a shit about going outside.
Needs are met - food, safety, security and entertainment - they're very happy.
But all of that is downright irrelevant. We are talking about an introduced species that wreaks unimaginable ecological damage if left to its own devices. Why the almighty fuck would a cat's fee-fees override that? Not to mention the cat safety issues. I mean i'm sure punkin would be 'happier' with his balls intact merrily raping and impregnating his sister and mother but that shit ain't happening either.
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Good, should be enforced world wide.
Good luck getting the UK on board, something like 90% of cats are outdoor cats here
Domestic cats have been in the UK for ~2000 years, and wildcats for >~8000 years.
Their only real predators in the UK are cars and dogs, and most British bird species are well acquainted with cats, and on the whole aren't at high risk. Recommendations say an outdoor cat is a healthy, happy cat.
The RSPB (bird conservation charity) doesn't find them a major problem here, but do recommend:
- Neuter them
- Keep them in at dawn, dusk & night
- If they ever kill a bird, put a bell or beeper on the collar
Which seems a reasonable set of recommendations.
On the other hand, the USA and Australia don't have the thousands of years of history of cats as part of the ecosystem, and they have all these wild dog-type-things and snappy reptile things etc, so the cats are in more danger, and the native bird species are at higher risk. Recommendations say an outdoor cat is a bird-murdering machine that's about to get run over by a giant SUV and then eaten by drop-bears.
My Eastern European neighbours think it's weird that we let the cats inside at all. They think they should live entirely outside.
So I guess "different countries, different rules".
Finally some sense in these cat posts
More than countries, different ecosystems different rules. Mainland USA and Hawaii have different ecological rules for good reason.
From a UK perspective, it seems unbelievably cruel to keep a cat locked indoors. The hunting instinct is one of a cat's main drives, so to take that away is equivalent to removing sleep or food. I understand the issues around cats and wildlife in other countries, but I think the solution is to just not have domestic cats rather than trying to imprison them.
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Not everywhere are cats a problem.
They are literally native to Africa and parts of Asia. In most of Europe they have been held for thousands of years and are not a threat to the ecosystems.
Taking Countries with invasive species as a global role model makes no sense.
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It's crazy how it's seen as socially acceptable to "adopt" or "rescue" them and then release them to freely roam your neighbourhood as an invasive species.
As a cat owner I fully agree with this. Pets should generally be kept in ways that don´t threaten wildlife. However I would also prefer that cats who stray around don´t get killed but instead caught, spayed, sheltered and adopted.
TNR works, as feral cats often cannot be adopted past a certain age, they just won't let humans near them willingly. But there isn't a need to kill cats for not wanting to be adopted, they can be fed and over time their population can be dramatically reduced, it just requires actual commitment to the program and free access to spay and neutering services to the public.
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If my dog has to stay inside my property, so can your fucking cat.
*cat owners
And I'm not sure how a curfew is going to work since that relies on cats to give one ounce of shit.
Curfews rely on owners, not cats.
Partially. It also relies on the cat listening to the owner when they try to get them inside. Some cats will, but most come when they feel like it. "Like herding cats" has its meaning for a reason.
Pets in general shouldn't be allowed to roam freely outside. There's too many dangers to them and things they can do to cause problems.
Entirely.
If you can’t keep your cat inside on time, than keep it inside all the time. This is 100% on the owner, they have the capabilities to stop it.
Australian cat owner here. owners that aren't responsillble enough to keep their cats inside are deadset dickheads. the most my cat sees of the outside is our backyard when I take her for a walk either leashed up or in my arms, and even then her killer instinct is so obvious as she tracks lizards lying in the garden and such. cats are born hunters. keep them inside
American cat-directed can opener here: re outdoor cats - we have so many of the same dickheads here. We have coyotes on a nearby trail that eat cats all the time, you'd think their owners would care enough to keep them indoors but no such luck.
My cat has taken the time to break me in, he's not going to want to train a new can opener and is happy at home indoors.
We have coyotes on a nearby trail that eat cats all the time, you’d think their owners would care enough to keep them indoors but no such luck.
Some people just don't really get the whole taking care of pets thing
I see so many missing cat flyers around my neighbourhood it's depressing, and yet people keep letting their cats outside. It's bad from just about every angle I don't understand why people keep doing it.
At the very least neutering should be mandatory and strict controls on where cats can be purchased to prevent breeding farms and suchlike.
Cats are just doing what they evolved to do, murder everything.
Murder Everything®
They're almost as good at it as people.
Im so mad with people not willing to put down feral cats, the live of a single cat is worth more than the live of the hundreds of wild animals that it will kill in its lifetime? Fucking not, but some people are delusional and only think in the cute cat pics. They say ignorance is bliss
TNR works absolutely fine at reducing feral cat populations. The issue is not that people are not killing enough cats, it's that getting a cat spayed or neutered can be expensive and therefore inaccessible to a lot of people, and a lot of dickhead liberals just expect poor people to not have pets if they can't keep $10,000 USD in the bank at all times to cover emergency vet expenses (legit shit you'll see bandied around as advice for "responsible" owners). An effective response would be offering free spay, neuter, and chip services for all pets, alongside people keeping their pets indoors, and maybe offering stuff like pine litter for free to address some reasons why people might want their cat to be outside.
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I'm one of those dickhead cat owners who seemingly can't keep their cat inside. We adopted our cat when he was 3 after spending a lot of time on the street, and ever since taking him in, he'd constantly howl to be let outside. We tried a few methods like an outdoor cat run, but nothing seemed to work.
We've got a GPS collar (and bell) on him and he seems to just stay super local, like within 100 metres of our house.
We've started to gradually transition him inside more but it's tough. We know it's a problem, but really need help getting him to accept inside life.
and he seems to just stay super local, like within 100 metres of our house.
That's pretty much how far most cats roam. Cats with such a small territory still kill a lot of wildlife.
Growing up we always had outdoor cats and my first cat was outdoors and the more I learned that wasn't great I tried to transition inside after moving house, I figured it would work best alongside of change of scenery and like you described she just howled at the door constantly and stared out of the window.. I gave up after 6 months.
She is ok with being in at night though so at least there's that.
Have you tried a harness? Some cats that demand to be outside seem to be satiated with walks. Can take a while to normalize the harness with them, though.
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all the other animals in Australia need to step up their game
Outdoors is dangerous for cats anyways. There is a reason indoor cats live longer, there are predators and cars outside. Cats can be perfectly happy indoors.
If your cat likes being outside, you can either grab some lumber and chicken wire to make a catio or just get a cat harness and leash. Yeah, there is a chance a cat can escape from the latter if it's not properly sized and secured, but once in a while an indoor cat getting loose is much better than having many outdoor cats outside most of the time hunting random fauna.
Hi New York here, we will take all of them thanks.
Indoor cat owner here. I will say I think if you really want your cats to be outdoors you can buy special collars that will prevent them from killing birds. I did 15 minutes of research so this might not be entirely correct but it appears that putting a bell on them is not enough. It needs to be a special collar specifically designed to prevent them from killing birds.
Source: https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/general-science/should-i-attach-bell-my-cats-collar
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Absolutely, I feel bad because people love them but they are decimating wildlife and ecosystems everywhere.
american police can fix it with one simple trick, pet owners hate it.
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Generally they used to live twice as long 2 decades ago. It's more like 4-times now.
Good luck forcing cats to do anything.
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