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this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2023
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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:
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.
Of the mountain lion and bobcat variety, yes. Not of the small cat variety.
They've definitely got big cats (which seem to be named after Mac OS versions), though I'm not sure if they have smaller wildcats which occupy the same ecological position as domestic cats.
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.
The answer is to give them toys and playing with them
I think it depends where you live. Here in the UK, cats have no predators, and bird populations have survived predation by cats for thousands of years, cats mostly pick off the weakest examples. Maybe there are regions of the us where cats are not problematic as outdoor pets, I don't know for sure. I'm fond of my "furry killer" too, and occasionally she does take out a bird or small rodent, but I see it as part of the natural order.
This is the key. Just because it works in the UK does not mean it does elsewhere. There are plenty of places where cats are essentially very dangerous invasive species and are wrecking absolute havoc on the wildlife populations. This includes the majority of North America.