AIBU to think cats should not roam unsupervised like dogs?

Domestic cats are “intrusive species” though. Albeit they’ve been here longer.

Perhaps don’t accuse someone of relishing cat poisonings then if it’s not the person you are quoting. Very indicative of the hysteria on this post though. I have ever been quoted or misquoted so many times on a thread for a perfectly measured post.

I would have thought loss of natural habitats were much worse for the bird population including new intrusive species like those green parrot- things which fly around where I live. Also people not planting trees and places for birds to nest.

Wear welders’ gloves. You’re going to need them.

There is no proof of that in the UK. The RSPB doesn't consider cats a significant factor in declining bird populations.

Thank you. She wasn’t hurt, but she was traumatized for a couple of days. She’s fine now, except she associates the harness and lead with bad things.

It makes an enormous difference to bird populations

My garden would in no way be possible to cat proof, nor would it be possible to build a catio. As it happens, I only adopt cats who need an indoor life for some reason (e.g. health).

I noticed someone up thread commented on squirrels being killed - you mean those "native" (grey) animals that were imported from the USA almost exactly 150 years ago, and have competed with & almost completely replaced the native (red) squirrels throughout most of the UK?

Domestic cats may be of only a couple of thousand years vintage in the UK, but Lynxs were around for thousands of years before that and only went extinct in the UK later than cats were introduced here. Larger, more dangerous, still felines. Plus of course we always had wildcats here, of which there are a couple of very small communities remaining in Scotland after humans tried to kill them all.

Oh and someone commented about those dear little foxes who are only killing to eat. Have you ever seen a hen house when foxes have got in over the night? Corpses everywhere, no fox or even a hungry family of foxes can eat over 50 chickens in a night!

You are a nutter….

My apologies, I should have made it clearer that I was quoting a different post. I was responding in my first paragraph to your post

It was a different poster who said "If we have a stray and feral cat problem as you suggest, then the magic wand is to cull them." They were the ones I was commenting my last paragraph to.

That's precisely why I keep mine i at night and let him out in the morning. It's not great for the local wildlife population to find half a dozen birds, rodents etc all lined up on the doorstep in the morning.

I read that female cats tend to stay closer to home. Older cats too. A young male cat being let out is a much higher risk because they wander far.

With the fragmented habitat that we are constantly having to deal with, cats can add substantial predation pressure where wildlife hasn’t evolved alongside such high numbers of predators!

If your cat is killing countless voles, then no doubt neighbours cats are doing the same. They have natural predators alongside your cat, and in some areas this would have an effect on the ecosystem for that area!

Water voles are of huge concern, and this is a warning of possible things to come for the bank and field voles! With ever shrinking habitat, increase of domesticated cats, alongside predators such as the introduced Mink, as well as natural predators, who do rely on this food source, it’s one to watch.

He does climb on the fence actually. He was likely eating grass along the fence as he does all the time. But please continue to make some more stuff up regarding my poor neglected cat that you do not know 👍

Exactly. A catio is just an extension to a house. it's not even remotely comparable to being allowed out to actually behave like a cat.

You’d have a heart attack if you read about Tilly The Adventure Cat on Facebook! 🤣

In any case a catio is simply a very small zoo enclosure.

I'm 68 and dogs were just allowed out alone when I was a child.
Mum would just open the front door and they'd come back when they were hung.

I think it phased out in the late 60's but can't recall why particularly - perhaps for the same reason people stopped wearing hats (unless they were over 60)

Expecting a cat to act like dog, eg going on walks etc and not being expected to roam, is the equivalent of expecting humans to act like dolphins. They are different species.

Just to talk about the catio argument, catios won't get rid of instincs either, I wouldn't my cats drawing blood trying to claw a hole in one to her out, neither would I want them stuck on a cage with no trees for shade. Also the joker cats that live round here would be wind up merchants and sit on top so again I wouldn't want my cats going berserk in a catio!

Also there's a big difference between people say living in a new build with a back door and small square garden abs those of us with large irregular gardens and houses, my detached home doesn't have a front door, it has a side door and a conservatory on the back, I can't attach a catio to my side door because it needs to be accessible by people, deliveries etc. For cats that don't go very far out of my garden, I would not be messing about with catios as it's just not doable.

What a ridiculous idea. Cats are cats and dogs are dogs.

Probably, we have it here too because there's no point them taking in entire feral cat colonies that are nowhere near going to be pets.

But you are saying nobody has quoted you as saying anything you haven't. You seem to posts are refering to you when.you are admitting that nobody has quoted you!

I think a dog walk is mutually enjoyable for dog and human. We are more compatible. A cat walk is going to involve a lot more compromise, I presume on the cat's part. Generally they have quite small territories that they don't like to leave and like to do a lot more 'hanging around' than actively travelling. Even if you could get them trained to a harness, which I know is sometimes possible but definitely not for all cats.

I wouldn't keep mine in all the time as he gets too much enjoyment out of it, I couldn't cut his quality of life so dramatically. He's usually shut in at night though. With the area we live, I judge the risk of being run over to be low but of course not zero, but the benefits outweigh the risk to my mind. When he's been kept in temporarily for whatever reason he doesn't stop asking to go out. I know he'd be miserable if he couldn't ever get out for a sniff and a mooch.

Cats roam and need to do so. They are semi-domesticated, too, so not like dogs at all. Cats come and go. You need a cat flap.