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?

If you can find hard stats about how many birds are killed by domesticated cats, then you might have an argument. As it stands not even the RSPB recognise cats as a threat to our bird population.

I've got one cat who would be really really unhappy if they weren't allowed to go out and hide under a bush somewhere in the neighbourhood - and one that would be entirely cool about it, as long as they could join me in the garden sometimes. I think if a change like that was going to happen in the UK, it would need to take place over many years, to allow cats that were used to life outdoors time to, effectively, die off. Otherwise it'd be very close to animal cruelty. It would also allow people like me, who bought a house where it's impossible to fence off the garden (shared path between house and garden), time to move house or, again, wait for existing cats to die..

I have a cat. I love cats.
I won't be getting another after our current one though. The food and insurance are so much these days. Also this one tries to get birds. I'm keeping her fat as it slows her down.
Previous cats haven't been interested in birds but I won't be taking the risk again.
Also she would go bonkers if I tried to keep her inside. She was a semi feral kitten and really only sleeps in the house. It might be different if a cat was brought up as a house cat from a very young age.

I have two cats and they've both been indoor cats since they were kittens and first came home. All the cats I've ever had have been and all have lived to a healthy happy old age.

Unlike the many cats a year I see squashed at the side of the main road I live near, or the wildlife outdoor cats kill.

The article mentions how much feral cats kill, assuming there's a direct link to domestic cats, which is daft as pets get fed so won't be hunting for food (not saying they don't hunt). Sounds like they may have a feral cat problem with they aren't dealing with.

Cats kill songbirds and do the damage they do because humans want to have cats. They aren't part of nature. The destruction they cause is destruction caused by humans wanting pets.

I mean, I agree that humans do a lot of damage. Having pets is part of that.

Yep it's animal cruelty. My boy with his missing leg manages to balance his paws on the door and cry to go out. I very much doubt he has ever caught a bird hes disabled. Some cats cannot ever adjust to being indoor only .

My in-laws couldn’t believe cats aren’t allowed to just roam free over here. We have the local ranger drive by a few times a day checking cat traps and picking up any cats roaming free. I know some councils are a lot stricter than others, ours seems brutal. Hefty ‘release’ fee too so unfortunately a lot of owners just don’t collect their cats, who are then re-homed.

Cats do destroy native wildlife though and I suppose keeping them in the home does prevent them being attacked by wild dogs and snakes, and also means they cannot be hit by cars.

🤣🤣🤣 Very good point

Microchips.

And yet the number of dog poo bags hanging in trees and nearby bushes has risen exponentially 🙄

My cat is a self-proclaimed indoor cat. He was a stray. I got him neutered and was then planning to re home him somewhere with a garden. But he wanted to stay with me. Even with doors and windows wide open, he's just not interested in going outside. I think he lived on the streets for so long that he's like "no thanks, been there done that."

My friends in Aus voluntarily had a custom built catio installed for their cats. Brilliant idea but not cheap and makes the backyard a bit ugly.

This is being implemented in my suburb
Shortly in Melbourne, so is accurate!

The feral cat problem is huge. 'Dealing with it' is made much harder by the dumped kittens, abandoned cats, cats who went for a walk and didn't come home. They do enormous damage.

But there's also a good evidence base on the amount of damage done by domestic cats - 340 million native animals killed by domestic cats each year

There we're no cats in Australia until Europeans rocked up; it's been devastating for the wildlife population. At least 22 mammal species gone mainly because of cats.

www.whittlesea.vic.gov.au/about-us/news-publications/latest-news/taking-action-to-keep-cats-and-wildlife-safe/

Policy to commence from 1st August- for those saying it doesn't exist here.

And they can roam in your garden- just not the street- you are expected to provide appropriate fencing to keep them co trained to your own garden, same as dogs.

Our street has fields with a river behind it, there are lots of rats. We used to have them living under our decking and burrowing in the borders. We have cats now and there are no rats on our side of the street. Up the other end where they all have dogs a neighbour counted over 20 rats in an hour the other day.

The only time I've seen one of the cats with a bird it was still very much alive and he dropped it when I told him to and it flew off unharmed. I don't think he had a clue what to do with it!

I'm not keeping my cats inside, certainly not whilst dogs are still free to go about attacking sheep/other dogs or bothering people like they do. And certainly not while hunts up and down the country are still free to tear around the countryside ripping foxes/hares/deer/pheasants etc to bits.

This annoys me more than (nearly) anything.
I walked round for over an hour with my full poo bag on Monday (no bins over the fields and in the woods) and saw so many of them discarded everywhere.

Why bother to bag it, just to chuck it. It's the stupidity that gets me.

One can only hope.

I’m Australian and I have a cat. This is not news, it’s been around for years in various parts of the country. I fully support it generally as a normal part of life going forward, but I do think it’s cruel to try and force a cat who is used to being outside to be an inside cat, that’s something to get them used to at a young age. You can however get containment systems to keep them in your yard but they’re expensive.

My cat was programmed from the time we got him as a kitten to understand inside is his safe place. He was kept inside only for the first few months after we got him. He always has had access to an enclosed outdoor cat run and once he was about 6 months old we started to lead train him.

So now he’s allowed to go outside in his own garden when he’s on his lead which he likes to do for an hour or so a day and we just check on him from time to time in case his lead gets stuck. Even on his lead he’s managed to catch mice and lizards and bother frogs, he’d certainly be killing birds and larger lizards if he was off lead or free roaming. But if he was uncontained he’d eventually get killed on the road or by a neighbour’s dog, or by a snake.

I wonder if they were kept in for their first year, would it help. We got a one year cat who had never been outside and once she had settled in we allowed her outside. She loves going out but doesn't go further than the gardens on either side, we have bird feeders out and lots of birds in the garden and she never gets anywhere near them, she just doesn't have developed any hunting skills so I wonder of they learn them early on? My dd has moved back in with us with her indoor cat and she seems to be the same, she couldn't catch a cold.

We have a cat proofed garden and there's no way I'd stop him from going out there whether he catches anything or not. We did it to protect the cat from cars and bastards with catapults rather than being bothered about the wildlife though.

I don't encourage birds to come into the garden but he still managed to catch a couple last year but as that's only 4 in 14 years I'm not too bothered. He probably yawned and they flew into his mouth!

I think it should be an offence to own a small, yappy bastard dog though. 'm sick of hearing the fucking things and having to avoid their shit on the pavement.

I think having indoor cats is a bit cruel (unless there is a specific reason).

I have seen some beautiful cat runs though and if it came over here I would definitely turn my garden into one big cat enclosure.

My cats rarely choose to go out so it wouldn’t bother them but I used to have a cat that never stayed in and it would have been cruel to try and keep him in.

None of my cats or family’s cats have ever killed birds (that we know of).

I think there needs to be much stricter rules when buying pets anyway and maybe it’s time some rules are brought in so less people buy pets without thought, especially having them neutered so they’re not going and having kittens all over the place.

I don’t know what this would mean for feral cats or farm cats as they’re always outside but I guess getting them neutered would help this problem.

That's actually very incorrect. Many studies show that even the fattest, best fed cats will kill multiple birds and animals every night.