AIBU to think cats should not roam unsupervised like dogs?

Doesn't the US have some kind of charitable programme where they trap, neuter and release feral cats?

OK i will reword it.

Get a couple of dogs who are not afraid of cats.

You are wrong about having a cat being a great deterrent. I have had cats and ive witnessed cats bullying other cats and going into their territory. Having a cat is no guarentee.

My two dogs guarentee no cat hangs around in our garden.

Aye, I do often find bird remnants in my garden.

I do wonder about some cat owners, I admit - I have a neighbour whose current cat has survived for a few years, but her previous animals were lucky to last for two - our front gardens look onto a reasonably busy road road and the back gardens lead to a path leading to an even busier hill road.

Each cat has been put out at night and just left to get on with it - and then she's been distraught when each cat has gone missing/been hit by a car. The current pet seems to be a bit better at picking routes across garden fences and along window sills.

I notice that on US dominated online boards, the norm seems to be to have house cats. (I think that it might be different in rural areas where they used to keep down mice and rats.)

I do have a couple of friends in the UK who have house cats which were rescue cats.

Occasionally some cats walk on lead. Cats protection say “taking your cat for a walk on a harness and lead is not recommended. It is likely to be very stressful and scary for them”.

If it worked I’m sure I’d see more cats on leads. I don’t see them.

The one cat I saw in a catio, it was adopted from Spain. It seemed ok in the catio but it couldn’t get anywhere else beyond that.

Why are cats the only animals we routinely put at risk?

Why do you keep asking this question when many people have already given you very reasonable answers?
You may not like the answers but that is just something you are going to have to live with, you do realise other people are actually allowed to have differing opinons to yours.....

Because it's rather galling?

I would be willing to bet everything I own that more humans die in road related deaths per year than cats!

I totally agree. Keeping cats inside is like keeping animals in a zoo. Except at least zoo animals have some outside space.

How on earth do you supervise a cat?

My personal view is the keeping cats inside, except the most docile and pliant, is like keeping caged birds.

I know people with house cats and I’d never express this to them, but I have strong sympathy with indoor cats

If nobody has quoted you as saying something you haven't then what's the issue?

Try putting the average cat on a lead.

Weird thread. It's cats' natural behaviour to roam at night. Dogs, not so much.

And the hypocritical concern for wildlife - are you vegan, OP?

Cats hunt, kill and eat their prey. We humans are responsible for the industrial slaughtering of trillions of animals kept in terrible conditions without having to lift a finger.

Plenty of dogs are terrified of cats and plenty of cats are totally indifferent to dogs. My cat loves my ndn’s garden and there are two very barky dogs there that he ignores. My cousin’s dog is terrified of her neighbours’ cats because they’re nearly the same size as her and they arrive by jumping over the fence, which is not something she can do and really freaks her out.

The best way to stop cats coming into your garden is to get your own cat.

🤣🤣 dogs are far more trainable than cats!

I don’t think cats need to roam, they just need to practice their basic feline behaviour which is stalking and hunting. If you have a garden that’s all they need as they can chase flies etc. Unfortunately they do get the very occasional bird. Our solution is to make sure our cats don’t leave our garden so they can’t be a menace anywhere else and can’t get run over.

Cats are natural roamers and indoor cats don't live such a full life as cats with open access to outdoors.
Having said that, cats decimate our native wildlife which is already struggling due to food scarcity and habitat loss. I have already decided that any future cats I have will be kept in at night which is when most killing takes place.

No the responses I am reading have quoted me directly. Nowhere have I advocated either of those things.

One of our neighbours cats was roaming yesterday morning. It walked our perimeter fence and then decided it would be ok to drop down into the garden. It was quite amusing when it hadnt spotted my 2 dogs literally waiting quietly for it to come around the corner. It got the fright of its life and managed to escape at the last second.

Would i wish harm on the cat? - Nope i dont.

But i did want it to get a lesson in life for its own safety. Come in my garden and theres a good chance 2 dogs are coming for you.

If you dont want cats in your garden, dogs are the best deterrent

Cats are a different beast to a dog, they don't have any similarities in mental state to a dog. Cats would hate being on leads and it cruel to start trying to force that on to them. It's very dangerous because they'd be defiant and panic and try to get out of that lead / harness and othey get out of it somewhere, they've gone! They are lost! The nearest walking place to me is a beck and it's always got lots of dogs on there so why would I do something so cruel as to drag my cats down there on a lead / harness and subject them to the terror of dogs and potential to be attacked! My cats pretty much stay in my garden and cause no issue and I have no intention of ever inflicting that sort of cruelty and danger on my cats!

Cats are crepusculer animals. Their prime hunting time is dawn and dusk. That's why they like to out at those times. It's just nature.

A number of postera on here have this morning demanded that all pet cats be locked up for life and all strays and ferals should be killed! The responses you are reading are in response to those people.

Cats have always roamed. Cats is not the biggest threat to wild life even if I do get sad when my cats mostly hang kills a bird too.