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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Good, should be enforced world wide.
Along with mandatory spay/neuter. Make it a crime to intentionally avoid spaying and neutering cats and dogs.
Oh, you're a breeder? I used to work at a no kill animal shelter. You're the bane of my, and every stray animal's, existence. FUCK animal breeders.
Remember folks, adopt, don't shop. Not only is it just significantly more moral, mutts are far less likely to have health issues from inbreeding that will shorten their lives. You get more time with your four legged loved ones
And the pet stores that buy from those breeders.
I mean, if such a campaign is ever completely successful, along with one for capturing or fixing stray and feral animals, there would need to be some amount of breeding of them or they'd eventually go extinct. Perhaps with regulation on both practices that lead to unnecessary health problems (like inbreeding or breeding for harmful traits like squashed faces) and on numbers to avoid breeding more of a specific sort of animal than there exists demand for.
Maybe add a safeguard to it, so that when local animal shelters are at 10% capacity the regulation is temporarily lifted or something. Realistically, it would never be totally successful anyway.
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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:
- 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
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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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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.
Aww but lil Spencer was so happy and always knew how to avoid cars before he got run over
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Both domesticated and feral cats — like the one pictured above in New York — pose a threat to Australia's biodiversity, experts say.
I know what they meant by this, but I still find it amusing that a cat in New York could pose a threat to Australia's biodiversity.
They send a lot of hate mail.
Well you see, since its owner doesn't properly watch it, it likes to travel. It even travels to Australia to go hunting.
he's a shady fucker that one.
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.
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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.
Australian farmers have, unfortunately, had to find certain methods of enforcing curfews on cats. Keep 'em inside, folks.
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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.
Cats are just doing what they evolved to do, murder everything.
Murder Everything®
They're almost as good at it as people.
At the very least neutering should be mandatory and strict controls on where cats can be purchased to prevent breeding farms and suchlike.
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
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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.
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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
Won't stop them from getting themselves run over, or catching FIV or FeLV, or getting mauled by my German shepherd when they hop into my backyard. PLEASE just keep them inside.
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