AIBU to think cats should not roam unsupervised like dogs?

This is ridiculous. Everything has some degree of risk. There is a risk benefit calculation in everything. Crossing a road is a risk so is driving a car. Do you never do any of those things. By your logic I should never allow my children to leave the house because they are safer in it? A friends dog sadly died after being hit by a car, should we ban dogs from leaving the house too?

Agree with you. Also having male cats neutered keeps them from being aggressive and wandering too far from home but they need to be outside for their own health and wellbeing.

It’s clear you’ve never had a cat OP 😂😂

1. I already said I don’t have a cat
2. By telling you to stop attributing human feelings to cats I was already telling you that I do not care about animals’ feelings as much as those of humans.

I hate to break it to you, alot of wildlife kills other wildlife....

Also look at the front of your car after a long drive. You will have massacred thousands of bugs.

I kept my cat inside/in a garden for years. He got so unwell he needed multiple vet trips and daily medication. He regularly peed on the floor and would injure himself trying to get out.

How is that a better, happier life than being allowed out to roam with the slight risk that he might get hurt one day?

Oh, and since he's been out, he's never peed on the floor, never been injured and has been medication-free.

I don’t see multiple stories about children killed on the roads in my area every month. It is the case for cats. I’ve also had to take a dead cat to the vet for identification which was a deeply upsetting experience.

I have a cat and a dog. I will say the cat is the more intelligent species. I didn’t have to do much toilet training with the cat, have to worry about my cat with the high temperatures we have had over the summer (just made sure the cat had access to water) and the cat comes and lets us know when he is hungry or leaves when they please. Cats have always been independent creatures whereas dogs are pack animals. The dog is much harder work! We tried a harness with the cat when they were younger and we were waiting to have it neutered, they don’t like being on a leash. Yes, you can train them but they’re natural explorers.

Letting cats roam is not neglect. Oh I have a dog, I don't have a cat and I'm telling you this for the third time now.

We had free range rabbits too. One got killed by a fox when he was quite old but my goodness they had a fabulous life outside a horrible hutch.

A simple google shows why cats should not be allowed to freely roam. That
is of course unless you believe that your cat's right to roam is more important than the UK song bird population- because that is what it ultimately comes down to:

UK pet cats catch an estimated 27 to 55 million (or up to 100 million) wild birds and animals annually.
Studies show cats only bring home about a quarter of their prey, meaning actual kills are higher.
Frequent targets include garden birds like house sparrows, blue tits, blackbirds, and starlings.
Groups like SongBird Survival argue that ground-feeding species already in decline (such as greenfinches and dunnocks) face added pressure from cats.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/14/cats-kill-birds-wildlife-keep-indoors

Do you have children? Do you allow them to cross the road? You know you will have to let them cross the road on their own one day - will you allow that? How, if there is always a risk of injury?

see how crazy that sounds?

I hate cats. They kill for fun. Something like 50 million garden birds a year in the UK are lost to cats. They come and sit under the bird feeder in our garden. And they shit all over the lawn - I don’t understand why cat owners think it’s okay for their cats to roam around and do this. If a dog owner doesn’t pick up a dog poo, the local Facebook group is outraged!

That you can’t grasp the very basic differences between cats and dogs suggest that you @estrogone either

a) have bigger problems
b) hate cats and are on a wind up
c) a combination of both

I was just about to post saying to my mind a catio is just a big cage that happens to be outside! My cats would hate it , tantalisingly close to being outside but not quite.

Because it's not the same as letting them roam and it makes my cat miserable and unwell to be locked up (even if it's in a "pet proof" garden). I would rather he took his chances out and about than lived a risk-free but miserable life on medication.

I don’t find it uncomfortable at all, there’s risk inherent in everything we do - some risks more acceptable than others, and we balance risks against each other.

For me the risk that my cat might be injured in the community was much less than to risk he would be miserable and frustrated as a house cat. What point is a long life if it’s a miserable, anxious one? My cats were all prowlers and hunters, not really built for a catio - they had gloriously happy, long, life’s.

I’ll flip that question - why are you more worried about highly unlikely risk than the day to day happiness of your animals?

it seems like you are meeting your needs - your terror of any kind of risk - rather than theirs.

i would rather my animals have a short but natural fulfilled life than a long one with their metaphorical and natural wings clipped.

I'd argue that you don't care much about a rabbit, guinea pig, hamster, budgie, if you choose to keep one cooped up in a cage or run all its life. I'd far prefer to be a cat, free to roam, than a caged animal.

How do you have cat proof garden for the day?
Cats can jump higher than the maximum height for a garden fence in the UK.

What has letting cats out at night got to do with the difficult parts of cat ownership? I would never shut my cats out of the house at night. But they have a cat flap so can go out if they choose? It doesn’t make my life easier/harder either way! One of my cats wakes us up every night, one never does. There is no correlation with them being allowed outside. Sometime we do have to shut them in, they don’t wake us up more. I’m confused about your argument.

In uk cats have a right to roam, dogs don’t. Simple as that.