The 1 to 4 billion animals killed by outdoor cats every year: X_X
Not to mention all the outdoor cats that are themselves killed or horribly injured.
I know a guy who went through 5 cats in a few months because he was getting them, letting them out, and they were getting hit by cars since he lives on a super busy road that has heavy semi traffic.
It really reminds me of that one joke "I keep having to buy a new car because my neighbors dog keeps eating it" " it sounds like you're just feeding cats to the neighbors dog"
Dude just didn't seem to grasp simple addition that his new cat + outside in a bad area = squish
Yup, fuck your outdoor cats.
Absolute environmental disaster, they need to be spayed and neutered and occasionally culled by any competent local government.
You'll also need to ban pet cats from walking outside without a leash. Our cats were neutered, didn't stop them from killing any mice or birds they could get their paws on.
The reason they need to be spayed and neutered instead of outright killed is because culls don't really work on animals that reproduce that quickly. Whenever a spot opens up for another cat to make its territory, it gets immediately claimed. There are a ton of research papers that show spaying and neutering is more effective at lowering stray populations, and that euthanization is more costly on top of being less effective.
I was talking about the cats that are kept as pets, not stray cats. I guess it varies from country to country, but most cats walking around outside in Norway are pets (~90%). Reducing the stray cat population to zero wouldn't fix the issue of cats killing all the small wildlife unless pet cats are also kept inside.
I wasn't saying anything against neutering cats.
I miss the internet where people could laugh at a silly comics instead of writing and upvoting this.
Outdoor cat: "today I killed 300 birds and permanently altered the local ecosystem"
Indoor cat: "hehe I shit in a box"
And so begins a new battle in the eternal war between Americans with indoor cats and others with outdoor cats.
It's pretty difficult to actually find an indoor cat in the UK. In the US it's common.
Of course it is difficult to find an indoor cat, you only see them inside a house.
Which is fitting because, in the end, when the hell have the British cared about the fallout of anything they do
I guess we in Finland are Americand now lol
We're more worried about the cats wellbeing though than the birds.
I'm not so sure both about Americans having their cats indoors, and "others" having it the opposite way. I have never been to the UK or the US, but most owners I had seen kept their cats indoors. Except for Georgia (the country), where cats seem to be treated as some sort of weed that grows on it's own
Our cats are indoors. They used to be outdoors then some cunt shot one with an air rifle.
Our 3 cats kill maybe a total of 5 birds and 10 mice a year. They can't reproduce and prefer to stay inside for most of the year. They're not a problem, as many new studies have found out. At least in northern Germany. It might be a bigger problem elsewhere though. Just trying to point out that your criticism may only apply to certain areas.
That’s what you know they have killed. Who knows how much more. They also still get hit by cars, mauled by dogs, attacked by other cats, piss and shit in other people’s yards.
A stranger outdoor cat just walked with me for a few blocks on my way home from a dinner party. It was fun to have a five minute feline friend. It's sad to know they will very likely die long before my indoor cat of a similar age.
You just made me realize I haven't seen the sweet ol girl by my buddy's place in a while and now I'm sad :(
I cannot imagine having an indoor/outdoor cat. I'd worry so much about them while they were away. And if they just disappeared and didn't return...I don't know how I could stand it.
We have 3 indoor-only cats. Obviously I'm pretty attached to them.
Never seen any cat that chose to stay inside even 50% of the time when given a choice. I'd rather they enjoy their life than make me feel better be cause they're penned up all the time.
Sometimes, you gotta do what's best for your cat. We have one that just couldn't handle being indoors full-time. We put a Tractive GPS tracker on his collar. It gives peace of mind and if anything happens, at least we'll know when to find him. He's living his best cat life.
I really understand that fear, and I do experience that with my outdoor cats. However cats tend to stick to their established territory and patterns and at least for mine, never go far and barely ever out of sight. In the summer being outdoor cats pretty much just means they sleep all day curled up in the garden.
Yeah, I can't do it. We have fox around, and plenty of community cats (one evening, I walked down the ravine looking for our dog after he ran off, and I shined my flashlight upward to see about 6 pairs of eyes staring at me). We had a cat get some sort of blood borne disease, we think she got it from a tick that was in the house when we moved in (it's our only theory, we have no idea what actually happened), and she spent a few days in the animal hospital, and barely survived. (It also cost several thousand dollars.) Unfortunately she passed away from multiple medical issues a few years later. :(
(We adopted another cat after she passed - we've never had more than 3 at once.)
Realistically, outdoor cats don't travel much. They just hang out in their neighborhood, chill in their favorite spots, etc.
Cats have their territory and that's where they spend their time, doing cat things. It's just that an outdoor cat's territory isn't limited by walls.
There was a BBC documentary a few years ago where they gave GPS tracking collars to a bunch of cats in a neighbourhood and tracked where they went. Each of the cats had their own territory and favourite locations.
Working in the office vs working from home.
Indoor cats still move a lot around the house, destroying stuff.
This is, I think, the most passionate controversy I've seen on Lemmy.
Live in Sweden and have 3 cats. Two are outdoor cats and one wanted to be an outdoor cat but he kinda realised he is fat and lazy and wants to stay home. So this felt very accurate for the cats who live with me!
Oh and in Sweden all cats are tagged and registered in case any should go missing. I could not imagine a world where I would deny my cats the right to go outside. Then again I did move to the countryside just so my cats could have a better life far away from traffic.
Cats commit genocide on the avian population. If they would learn to behave they would get outside priviliges.
My cat's quality of life was dogshit indoors. She had bad allergic reactions all the time, would stop eating, Vet bills piled up with no explanations. I let her roam the neighborhood now, shes happy as a pig in shit. Her weight is stable, shes not breaking out in rashes all the time, and she entertains the neighbors. Cry me a river about all the mice and bunnies she kills.
Wow, today I learned people think it's better for the cats to keep they locked in... I pity birds who have that kind of life, now I pity those cats too
Now today you can learn that outdoor cats kill wildlife for fun. You can also learn that outdoor cats have half the life expectancy as indoor cats
I love that the outdoor cat is missing an eye. A for accuracy.
We have 3 indoor/outdoor cats because we've just always had indoor/outdoor cats and I never really thought about it.
Being on more cat-related Reddit and Lemmy communities, I've seen more and more of the arguments for keeping cats as indoor-only, and it's been making me think more about how to care for cats we adopt.
From what I've seen of the discussions, a lot of them seem to center around urban areas and towns, where there's a high population density. Some arguments also seem to be based off the assumption that the pets aren't spayed or neutered.
We live in the middle of nowhere and all our cats are fixed as soon as possible (we've had kittens sometimes and they stay inside until then).
Is there different logic for this situation, or is it the same advice to always keep them indoors?
I'm genuinely asking.
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