To think cats shouldn’t be allowed out without owners

[DoBeDoBeDooo]

The other thread about cats vs dogs has made me realise I’m not alone in my feelings about cats being allowed to roam freely, kill wildlife, and crap all over the place.

Why is it one rule for dogs and another for cats? It’s doesn’t make any sense really, when you think about it.

Shouldn’t the same rules apply: cats can be walked on leads and owners must pick up after them or risk fines etc?

Aaahhh - so this is just about which animals you don't like. Gotcha.

I agree with you and I'm a cat lover. The awful statistic is that 25% of free roaming cats are killed on roads. I've lost three that way, one out in the country with 4 cars an hour passing, one roaming a mile away from home on an A road, one on a small dead end road of houses.

Other people's cats shitting in your garden is infuriating and vile. They do kill a lot of small animals. Mice and rats may be fine, birds not so.

I'm not happy to keep the active kind of cat that I like confined to a house, nor do I want litter trays in the house.

And that's a major reason why my current cat, a home loving little thing who never leaves her own garden, will be my last.

That might not be long of she persists in thinking that my new double recliner is a good scratching post 🤣

Maybe look up what the actual law says before spouting this nonsense.

Absolutely - people who let their dogs defecate on sports pitches for instance - it can cause blindness.

TBH, whilst I don't like cat poo either, at least it's small and generally out of the way. When my sister had a dog, the lawn was covered in it, and I often see leftovers on pavements, massive poos just in the verge (the person who mows the verges in the village had to beg on the village whatsapp for people to pick up after their dogs), etc.

55 million birds annually in the UK according to the most widely cited study. Google is free.

I can't even put collars on my cats so there's no chance of walking them.

But my cats stick to my garden and the surrounding car park. When one didn't she was missing for 6 weeks so she's not allowed out of the garden.

They try and catch birds but are about as good as a chocolate teapot. They really aren't the smartest of cats and aren't particularly harmful.

However if anyone did anything to my cats to harm them I'd go bloody ballistic.

Someone put one of those cat detterant things outside our bin store, all it did was give my cat cystitis from stressing her out (and it wasn't her doing the crapping) and me an expensive constant vet bill (once they get cystitis it tends to come back). I never found out who it was but that thing was swiftly removed and binned in a bin far away. How dare someone put one of those cruel contraptions near my property.

Tell that to the gorgeous Bengal who lives down the road from us. Everybody knows him, he stops for smooches and then after a little walk on his lead, heads home with his parents who are almost too doting!
He won't get lost. As someone will grab him and put it straight on the estate fb page. Every other cat , including my 2 , are indoors ( except my 16yo who I let out of a morning to sun himself, always in the same spot)

I keep my cat indoors not because she'll kill wildlife or shit peoples garden. But because people run cats over, sometimes deliberately, some set their dogs on them and some hurt them themselves. I agree with you but for completely different reasons, the cats safety not anyone or anything elses. Cat's are very different from dogs though, you can't train them really. I tried getting a harness and lead on my cat, I can confirm she did not find it amusing.

I didn’t say you couldn’t do it I said the RSPCA advise against it.

What’s your take on foxes and badgers shitting in your garden @DoBeDoBeDooo with whom does one take up grievance?

Why are you comparing cats and dogs? Why not dogs and rabbits or hamsters? Why are we not keeping dogs in hutches? Or buying them huge wheels to run around in? Why not ask why we don’t treat tigers like dogs and take them out for walks on leads? The answer is…because they are different animals, with different needs, different instincts and different behaviours.

And Google tells me that up to 100 million birds are estimated to be killed by window strikes in the UK each year.

All this pearl clutching about cats being cats from people who live and work in buildings is just a little bit hypocritical.

@marmalade007 Poor cat. Sorry but they are not doting owners. They probably only give the cat a short walk as that’s all it will tolerate on a lead.

Absolutely! My two cats are indoor cats by their choice. The first two that have been indoor. Previous cats over the last 45 years+ have always come back indoors to poo in their tray. Lazy little things! Lol

Sorry to hear about your cat.
I totally agree with you. My cat has a cat flap and comes and goes to his hearts content. Obviously I’d be upset if anything happened to him, but he has to be allowed to be a cat and exhibit natural behaviour. The stress alone if he was to be kept permanently indoors would probably kill him.

Which is also not quite what dogs are "built for" either, to be fair...😏

More divisive nonsense.
So many people on this thread sound so intolerant of ...cats, dogs, people, whatever.
I have enjoyed some of the funny posts though.

Well yes, but the most widely cited study seems to be a guestimate based on 79 cats around Reading, and the prey they brought home.

What gives me pause, is saying that it's 55Million birds, when the RSPB tells me that there's nearly 200million birds in the UK, and the Natural History museum says we've lost 73M birds in the last 50 years https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2023/may/britain-has-lost-73-million-birds-over-the-last-50-years.html

So I'm struggling to square those sources (who I think we can probably agree are experts) with the idea that domestic cats are killing 55Million birds a year.

In fact, I'm reading it now, and I do enjoy:

These figures represent an estimated 23% of the total prey caught (following Loyd et al., 2013). Therefore, the remaining 77% was extrapolated for the total, boundary and non-boundary means to give the total annual cat predation rate for each.

So they multiplied anything brought home by 4. They extrapolated from cats in and around Reading to the whole country (I mean, I know southerners get a bad rap for ignoring the rest of the country, but I think this illustrates one reason for it).

55Million is a gross overestimate clearly.

That's like me counting how many biscuit crumbs are in front of the larder and extrapolating that to the rest of the house to persuade my kids to hoover.

People do, you never heard of dog baiting?
And the post wasn't supposed to be ridiculous, it was supposed to be funny, which sadly went over your head. Ah well, made me laugh.

Different animals. To put a cat in a harness and lead, you would in most instances have to do this from kittenhood. Most cats won't tolerate being touched on the tummy, let alone tolerate a harness around them. Cats like to climb, dogs generally don't. Dogs can easily be trained, you try training a cat, and see how far you get!!! Cats have different temperaments, and some are much more easy going than others. Not all cats kill wildlife- our cat hasn't ever killed anything, he doesn't know what to do. Our dearly departed Poppy died aged 17, having never caught anything in her life, she had no clue what to do either. A good proportion do have that natural instinct but not all. Our Poppy, had a 'toilet' area in our garden, which we cleaned out and replaced soil, she didn't use other gardens. So again, not all cats use other people's gardens to poop in.

Really not funny. It happens in dog fighting circles, surely you know that?
Yet another reason why I have a catio/enclosed garden for my cats and dogs.

People who let their cats free roam, bar farm cats, are stupid. Poisonous plants, rat poison, loose dangerous dogs, cruel people, cars accidents (and not so accidental running over), cat fights, list goes on.

It's cruel. Yes, the cat wants to roam - your toddler also wants to roam, and run across the road without warning, and stick his/her fingers in the plug socket. You don't let them do any of those things, because it's dangerous.

Dogs also want to roam. We don't let them do it, because it's dangerous... A caring dog owner wouldn't dare let their dog roam the roads.

I love cats and couldn't really care much less about them shitting in the neighbours flower beds (care a bit more about them pooping in places a neighbours kids could get, that's not really fair ofc). But whilst I lack care for my neighbours, I care a whole lot for my cat lol.

I keep them inside, but have put up a "catio" attached to the house in the garden so they can play, sunbathe, eat grass. They have an indoor litter tray and outdoor litter tray. Have cat mint growing out there too.

My cat used to be an outdoor cat when I lived with parents, and has the scars to show for it. He is much, much happier and settled now. Used to be an angry growly thing, now he's a total love bug and very settled.

The reason the law is different around cats is because they weren't really considered pets the same way dogs are. They are considered, at most, property. They're legally allowed to roam because for a long time, they were just around for mousing.. And thought of as they may as well be wild. Now we have cats the same way we have dogs, even though we don't have a rat problem, the law should change and there should be some standard of responsible cat ownership.

You'd never get my cat on a lead though. Maybe my next one will.

Don't be ridiculous. Im not aware of The Dangerous Cats Act. Never seen a cat in a muzzle. HTH

People who let their cats free roam, bar farm cats, are stupid.
In your opinion.

Personally I think cats have a far more fulfilled life being allowed outside to roam - but, because I'm not a dick, I don't call people like you 'stupid' simply because you disagree with me.