I can't take anyone seriously on cat welfare if they have a cat mutilated just to prevent furniture getting some scratch marks.
this post was submitted on 21 May 2025
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It is better for the bird population, too.
Bigger issue imo is cats destroying wild life not the wild life destroying cats. Either way, keep your cat inside.
Some of us live in countries that don't really have dangerous wild life and cats have been allowed outside for over 1000 years.
Yeah I always found the argument absurd as I live on a paved over rectangle with a few square feet of grass my cat likes to poop on while he hangs out with the local squirrels. He is far too lazy to hunt anything, he killed a mouse that was actually inside the house many many years ago but has been a pacifist since. He is 15 he literally wants to sit in the sun and do nothing.
Of course there are some cats who will hunt, and their owners should not allow that. But the blanket statements about environmental impacts, while they cool their house with AC, burn fossil fuels to heat food and go to work, order crap on Amazon...just lacks perspective.
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cats have been allowed outside for over 1000 years
That's simply not true. There were never as many outdoor cats as there is today and cats used to have natural predators everywhere to keep environmental balance which is lost today. Keeping all of your pets indoors (or at least backyard) is the only ethically viable position.
Downvoted by people who don't like facts. There isn't a country in the world with a domestic cat population that wouldn't see a huge benefit to their native wildlife by keeping those pets inside or in a pet run. But people don't like the change or the effort of doing so, so they ignore this inconvenient fact.
Indeed, pet owners simply don't want to hear the truth which is incredibly irresponsible.
Even if you really must let your cat out there are things you can do like colorful collars with an attached bell which:
The BBScc reduced the number of birds brought home by 37% (probability of reduction of 88%). The number of mammals brought home was reduced by 54–62%, but only with the additional bell (probability of reduction of >99%)
https://zenodo.org/records/15210938
I've never seen a cat owner who cares enough to even do that when we have clear evidence this works. The naturalist argument of "oh they are local animals" is such an irresponsible cop out where they can't even bother to put a collar on to diminish the damage. It's inexcusable laziness, nothing else.
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Humans can sustain a large density of cats that wasn't possible in the wild. If it's a pet cat, don't let it hunt. It will imbalance the ecosystem by adding too many predators who don't depend on the prey for sustenance
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Keep your kids inside too. Kids keep screeching and playing in the middle of the fucking road. Like, get out of the damn road, dumbasses. Someday, a car is gonna hit them.
Leash your pets, leash your kids. Be responsible. Smh
This gets downvoted but it hits the truth, though maybe in macaber way.
Why do we blame cats for killing wildlife while its ok for humans to pave huge pieces of land with concrete and brick or kill biodiversity with pesticides and farm equipment? Maybe humans are the problems, not cats? Or is everyone here living off the grid, does not own a car and produces their own food? Ah and if you have kids you have no argument at all.
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I've had to chase the neighbor's cat away several times in the mornings before work because the scrub jays that had a nest in our bushes would be screaming at 5 in the morning because the cat would be out there
I set up motion detector sprinklers in my yard this year for pretty much the same reason. Has worked really well. I definitely forget they are on sometimes and get blasted but worth it otherwise.
As a coyote, this hurts me more.
My Nextdoor app = 1000 I lost my cat posts daily.
I lost my cat for a week once but he wasn't an outdoor cat, he just snuck past as I was coming home in the dark once. It was so difficult to try to explain to people that no, he is not an outside cat, and please please help me get him back home because he doesn't know how to get home. So many people in the neighbourhood saw him but they just assumed he was an outdoor cat and didn't bother.
Thankfully I found him after many nights of going out to search for him, but I really can't imagine people would've reacted the same to a lost dog.
This was like 15 years ago but I'm still in the habit of opening my door foot first now to make sure I push any curious kitties back before I walk in.
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I had a idea of how to stop them but my wife wouldn't let me.
Respond with a picture of a coyote, bobcat, mountain lion, great horned owl or other predator with the caption, "Thank you for dinner, it was delicious."
I have a friend whose neighbour literally watched their cat get eaten by a coyote in their backyard. The friend still let her own cat out in that same neighbourhood after that happened cause "oh he just keeps getting out, we don't know how..."🙄 Poor guy got hit by a car some months later.
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🤣 Dead!
I witnessed basically this exact conversation once. We were in the exam room, and our vet stepped out to the computer in the hallway to show a woman her cat's X-rays. Apparently it had been attacked by a dog and wouldn't make it.
The vet literally said, "So what did we learn today? Don't let your cat outside if you want it to live."
Funny.
In Europe we've the same discussion for the opposite reasons.
Do not let the cat outside, it will kills other animals.
But that's the point. I don't want mice around the house.
This works for people with empathy who care. The former works for people who are selfish. Both are good to tell people. One may work where the other doesn't.
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It's really both. Eventually cat will get into an accident, but on the way there it will take a whole bunch of smaller animals and birds with it.
Wow, that's ruff
Holy crap..yes. leash your cats for the love of all that is fuzzy.
The anger people have when you tell them it's neglect when you just let a cat roam free. It's insanity. Your cat can easily just never come home or be found dead to many things, and they also destroy lots of wildlife and crap on people's property with no respecting owner to clean up.
No one would take this from dogs..so why cats? It's literally for their safety and the safety of other animals...its mind boggling and the downvotrs prove it
My neighbors had a skunk that lived in the garage. Her name was Petunia. The neighbors never got rid of her because she harmed no one and was never problemativc and "where else is she going to live we dont use the garage." Her or one of her kids who we all assumed was Petunia lived there from at least 1978-2004 (RIP). Petunia literally controlled the block because she was very large. Despite the neighbor hood telling every newcomer about Petunia someone would think their cat can handle it and be surprised that a 15 lb/6kg skunk is in fact terrifying to kitties.
The anger people have when you tell them it’s neglect when you just let a cat roam free. It’s insanity.
If you want to see people loose their mind, suggest that the way we dominate these animals to please us is the root cause of all that suffering and neglect.
*I live with a cat and am having beef for dinner. I'm a hypocrite, not PETA.
Peta is also Extremely hypocritical but I agree.
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