Cats banned from going outside in Australia, could it happen here?

[JamBiscuitBun]

I'm interested to hear thoughts on this. Article here I can't ever see it working in the UK. I also remember Australian farmers having apocalyptic mice problems on some of their farms, so I'm not sure how this fits in with that. Though there are many people who'd love to never have the neighbour's cat pooing in their garden again. What d'you think?

@JassyRadlett I actually wasn't being PA - I'm flipping between a few threads and though we were done - I know you'll comment again disputing that as you clearly can't be wrong or not have the last word.

However I have experience of talking about indoor cats on here where posters get nasty because they don't/won't understand I'm not denying them outdoors - they'll misread what's written and even make out catio and leads are cruel.

Something I did post about earlier as misunderstanding about what indoor usually is.

So you do need to watch what you say about indoor cats because people do jump in with their perceived ideas and won't take anything on board and will twist what you say. Half the reason I won't let ours out is traffic other half how people behave towards cats - here there cttv of people walking towards cats and kicking them and stories of hedgehogs being set alight.

I have feral cats to control the rat population. Not sure how that would work really, they would have to be put down if it allowed the roam they would not tolerate being inside a house

Haha! I literally laughed out loud at that. For the love of God, people, get some bloody perspective!
Any excuse at all to justify your cat shitting in someone else's garden.

I have said it depend on the environment clearly countryside is safer as I posted earlier.

However I do question when posters who had repeated road losses and get more cats allow them to roam and then get told oh here its' fine as its a short and merry life - as if that make s it okay then those poster vilify otehr whop keep cats in.

I really don't think I'm the one confused here or struggling with understanding - mostly people let them roam because its traditional in UK even in heavy traffic areas and frankly I do think some locations owners should re-evaluate and keep cats in even when that means they will be more work.

@WhisperingAutistic To be fair, you could (& should) have regimes some of them

Our tom cat took out a hawk the other day. Hawk had swooped down to eat one of our baby chickens. We have a huge composting system, I shudder to imagine the rat population without the cats. If you think a preditor will be happy , forcefully kept inside, then youve completely departed from looking to nature as any kind of guide.

No, I'll apologise. I took it as a direct dig as you hadn't responded to me directly but it was more or less straight after my response to you, particularly given the tone of your original reply to me which I'll admit I was a bit taken aback by. I was wrong, I'm sorry.

I once got caught between a very passionate and angry argument between American and British cat owners and cat lovers on the question of indoor/outdoor cats and each group was equally convinced that the other group was wrong and abusive. You're right, it's an incredibly fraught space.

A dormouse came into our house last year. Not that helpful if you have indoor cats?

Either way my outdoor cats were both standing on the sofa terrified of the mouse, waiting for a human to catch and remove it for them

You may be right - foxes are very agile and a 6 foot fence is nothing to them. And their excrement absolutely reeks!

I do think that if you are banning cats for wildlife then it would also make sense to ban plastic grass, ban people concreting/using resin/gravel over their gardens. I would wager that in suburban areas people destroying their gardens in the name of 'low/no maintenance' is a far bigger problem than cats.

Yes it is
As this results in less food for birds as the ecosystem underneath is completely killed off.

I think cats should stay indoors.

A few years ago I was driving down the road on my estate and a cat shot out in front of my car.

I wasn't going fast and there was nothing I could do. Sadly the cat died.

I got such a lot of hassle from the owners teenage kids as they knew where I lived.

I now think cats should be kept inside. I wouldn't let my dog or young kids run around outside and then blame the driver if they ran out in the road!

My cats do stay indoors and always have

/virtuous.

You do all know that you're getting upset by a post that referred to an article from a year ago that was concerning a couple of local councils in Australia and wasn't Australia as a whole? There's no law against cats roaming in the vast majority of Australia.

See this is where I think it's an attitude difference.

All of my cats have decent road sense. The oldest was an adult farm cat when we got him and I swear he taught the others. And we live on a quiet cul de sac backing on to wild land. The risk is minimal and in ten years of living here I've never lost a cat.

However if one did suddenly take it into their heads to leap out in front of a car I would be sad but not blame you (as long as, obviously, you were driving safely). I am aware that is the risk I take.

What you're essentially arguing is "no one should be allowed this ever because if it goes wrong someone might be a dick about it" but we cannot insulate life against the possibility of someone being a dick.

I have plastic grass and to be honest I hate it. I only have it as my lawn is only 6' wide and half of that is in the shade of the fence (the whole garden is only 8' wide). Nothing grew, it was permanently muddy and not wide enough for a decent path. Because the garden is cat proofed I don't really want to encourage wildlife as it's a bit like inviting them into the lion's den so I'm not too worried about that. I try to have bee and butterfly friendly plants though and hope they can make a quick getaway!

Genuine question to those saying cats are outdoor creatures.

What makes cats outside animals, yet dogs ate inside animals?

Dogs aren't inside animals really. They need access to the outside and most benefit from time off lead being a dog.

Would you like to be confined to your house forever?

I’ve always used the same belief regarding meeting new people.
Always surreptitiously find out if they like cats. If they don’t, would never trust them. I guess cat haters feel the same way about me, not bothered.
If I lived on a main road, (which I never would) I would absolutely keep my cats indoors.
Always keep them in at night as advised by Veterinarians.
If I had to keep my cats in by law, it wouldn’t bother me or them. They sleep virtually all day anyway.
My cats are litter box trained as I don’t wish to engage with angry neighbours about poo in their gardens. Costs me a fortune, but worth it as I love them & all cats.

Yeah, he probably does piss my neighbours off.
But then again, their dog constantly barking in the garden pisses me off, along with lots of other things that humans do.
However, I don’t lose sleep over it though, live and let live and all that.

'Always surreptitiously find out if they like cats. If they don’t, would never trust them. I guess cat haters feel the same way about me,'

I'm not a cat hater at all, well I'm not a fan but I wouldn't say that means I'm a hater. I just believe pet owners should be responsible and actually look after their pets. Letting them roam freely causing damage to neighbour's gardens isn't that.

People who have cats seem to want the cuteness, the strokes without having to get off their arses to care for their pets.

'But then again, their dog constantly barking in the garden pisses me off'

In their garden. You'd have a point if they let the dog jump over the fence and let it do as it pleased in your garden.

I'd love it. No more cat shit on my garden. They can poo inside their owners house instead!!

But, barking affects my ears, it doesn’t affect my sight or invade my garden.
And again, although it pisses me off, i appreciate their right to own a dog.
As it’s my right to own a cat and let it roam.
Live and let live.

What rot.

Seriously? Can you imagine the impact that would have had on the mental health of their owners? Especially the elderly and children? What a terrible idea.

Not that it could ever have been implemented successfully here anyway!