If you still do it, why do you allow your cat to free roam?

[TreacherousPissFlap]

To be clear, we had cats all through my childhood and early adulthood and they were always free to come and go as they pleased.

I've just seen yet another post on the local FB page of a cat being run over. Now we don't live in a massively built up area or have particularly fast or busy roads, but every day there is at least one post about cats that are either missing or have been run over.

DCat is the love of DH's life and doesn't leave the garden. She's naturally lazy, we have 8ft high walls and we've actively discouraged her going out. She wears a tracker in case she does make a bid for freedom but she doesn't really seem bothered (she was a stray from the RSPCA and had clearly been a much loved house cat that had managed to get out and get lost, so I think that maybe plays a part in her being such a homebody) She's therefore easy to manage and hasn't required a catio or additional fencing, although I absolutely would do that now if she was more determined.

I'm certain my previous cats have decimated the local wildlife and shat in my neighbours gardens and I'm a bit WTF that I ever thought that was ok. Personally the risks now feel too great to allow my cat to free roam so any future models I have will also be confined to barracks.

Ive just cleaned up cat shit from my front garden and it got me thinking, why do people still allow it and will you continue to do so when you have new cats?

My old girl is allowed out whenever she likes. She pootles around the garden for 10 minutes then comes in.

This. They love it. If I had a choice of safety versus freedom I would choose freedom. So that's the choice I made for my cats. The evidence of the impact on wildlife is contested.

Because it's a cat.

Hate having to empty, change and clean cat litter box every day.

If it gets run over, very sad obviously. But we're not really near roads.

i say this as someone who is a cat owner but not cat lover. I am a dog person but keep a cat as a rodent deterrent at my stables. Cats are inherently outdoor animals, same as horses. I wouldn’t restrict my horses to their stables 24/7 the same as I wouldn’t my cat or my dogs. Seeing my cat catch a mouse or indeed a bunny last week shows me exactly why I wouldn’t keep him in the house. Besides from the fact I wouldn’t have a cat in the house anyway but that’s another story. He’s here to serve a purpose and does it bloody well.

"Why do I allow my cat to roam?
Because cats should be able to express their natural behaviours (this is one of Cats Protection's 5 welfare needs for cats)."

My daughter's cat was the opposite, it needed a home where it would be able to stay in all the time and apparently took a while to find a home, even though it's very sweet. That suited my dd as she works quite long hours and is a bit anxious. The cat has never tried to get out and is quite content. On the other hand my son's cats go out all the time, you couldn't keep them in, it would definitely be cruel.

Cat I have inherited ( late mothers ) was from a litter from barn cats, hes hardwired to roam and hunt

We live on a busy main road - farm traffic and lorries , and in his 7 years hes never crossed the road

Our back is open countryside and he goes two fields up and no further

Right now hes here head butting me for attention and purring away, but I am allergic to cats so I cant cope with him too close to me, in the time its taken me to type this, Im beginning to itch around the face

TBH, when mum passed I did ring the Cats Protection in the hope of getting him re - homed and after a chat on the phone where they and I were totally honest , seems Ive got him for life. Because they say he would be hard to rehome and if they took him on he could spend years in a cattery . I couldn't do that to an animal so we are muddling along. Dh pets him but I just cant

He comes and goes, he comes home in the morning when he hears the toilet flush when I get up, yowls at me to feed him. When I get home from work hes sleeping somewhere , wakes up around 3, meows at the back door till I give in and let him out ( there's a cat flap ) buggers off for a wee while, comes in for feeding and away out again . If it's wet or cold he will come into the living room and put the dog out of the front of the fire, then away out for the night. Might wake me up at 1 or 2am bringing in a mouse - I catch and release with luck . Some mornings though I wake to the remains of a catch at the bottom of the stairs

This is more what I meant, if you have a kitten would you automatically allow it to roam? Previous cats of mine would absolutely not have stayed in the garden as that was not how they had been raised.

I thought this thread would be about the threat to wildlife. Do most people put a bell on their cat to reduce its success in hunting? I know many parts of Australia have banned allowing cats to roam due to the threat to native wildlife.

Mine has medical reasons for being indoors. Before that started, I was slowly introducing him to the outdoors but he ran back in at the slightest noise so in their case, it works. I have also had cats in the past that would hate the indoor life and it would have been cruel. If I had another I think I would go for an enclosed back garden for best of both worlds but I don't think either is wrong it depends on the cat

Once rehomed a cat who'd been only allowed into the house and the enclosed garden. One unhappy, violent cat with bad behavioural issues towards his housemates, spent most of the day walking from window to front door, howling.

I took him on. Allowed him his freedom after a couple of weeks of window and door howling at my house, walked him on a lead for the first week to show him around and even from that first walk, he started to calm down.

As soon as put the catflap in, all behavioural issues gone. A loving, confident cat, very chilled and pretty much all the neighbours adored him too. And we taught him not to hunt wildlife, over the years the local birds and squirrels trusted him, I even saw him and a couple of squirrels sniff noses. No issues.

Sometimes we have to remember they are animals, not a toy/possession. If a cat is itching to get out, out they should go, or if don't live in a suitable area, rehome somewhere suitable.

Oh, and when we moved last year, spent a fortune netting in the garden for the cat we have now. 4 months later she was withdrawn, hair falling out, not eating and howling. We took her for walks outside the front but being in a busy area we couldn't let her free roam.

Circumstances changed and I brought her home again to the house she knew, it was instant turnaround having her freedom back.

Sadly us humans are by far the biggest threat to wildlife. We destroy huge numbers yearly for our needs. I always find this thing about cats a bit hollow.

Because they are an animal and need to roam. Mine lived long lives and ventured across roads

My cats were outdoor cats for years, never had an issue. Their both male and neutered and don't go far. I got another cat and after 2 years he was run over outside my house. It was awful. After that I was so scared that I kept my other 2 cats in for 8 months. They hated it and were so depressed.

I've recently let them back out again and their both so much happier and more loving now / stopped fighting each other. During these 8 months I've had to take both to the vets as one got bit on the chin/ the other got clawed in the eye. One needed an operation. Their both 12 and 14 and these 8 months are the only time they've ever hurt each other

These two are bright ginger and the one that was ran over was all black + it was September so I think the dark / his coat colour played a huge part

I agree but I don’t really agree with keeping cats at all. They are awful for wildlife as their numbers aren’t controlled by food availability ( obvs as humans feed them), so they kill disproportionate numbers of wildlife. So it bad to let them roam but cruel to cats to keep them in. Solution, no cats!

Can we have the same apply to humans?! We're far more cruel.

Oh yeah cos getting rid of all cats, causing many breeds to die out wouldn’t be cruel at all

I've had cats that chose to go outside and one chose to live indoors, although it was a bit more annoying with the litter tray. I have a cat that goes out currently just in the garden and next doors, but she doesn't go beyond the driveway at the front. Road is very quiet as its a cul de sac, so there is a low risk of cats getting run over here. I still prefer to let them outside if they want to.

This. My cat is out all day, but if I call him he will come running so I'm pretty sure he must stay local. As a kitten, we kept him indoors for a while until he had been neutered and fully vaccinated and he jumped out of a first story window he was so desperate to be outside. We were lucky he wasn't hurt but I decided then that I'd rather he had a shorter happy life than a long miserable one. We are lucky that we live in a quiet area though and I do think you need to take that into consideration when getting one. I wanted a cat for years but we previously backed onto a main road so we waited

I’d rather not have a cat at all than keep it confined indoors.

I actually thought about the is the other day, there’s absolute uproar when a dog poo isn’t picked up or left on the path, rightly so, but daily I am having to pick cat poo up out of my garden. I have a small child and can’t just let them out to play outside without having to check for poo from an animal I don’t own!

Because it's cruel not to?

because i live in the countryside and having had both indoor and outdoor cats, outdoor cats are far more content. No one should be kept inside all the time.

Feel free to not keep cats, but accept that many people absolutely love and adore them. BTW given you seem to enjoy hyperbolic arguments that will never happen it's , far better if humans died out as we're the cruelest and most dangerous of all animals.

I know what you mean about the wildlife but isnt this is why animals / birds have several babies? 🙈 because some are going to get eaten / die another way?

There's a rat problem in my area and the neighbours were thrilled when I moved in with my cats 😅

Surely it’s better to just get rid of humans - we do far more damage than cats do!