AIBU to think cats should not roam unsupervised like dogs?

[estrogone]

AIBU to think that if you dont leave your dog to roam streets unsupervised, then you shouldn't let other pets (cats), for the same reasons.

It blows my mind that people let their cats out because their sleep is disrupted and I wonder why they think its OK, when its highly unlikely they would put Fido outside if he kept the family up.

🤣🤣 dogs are far more trainable than cats!

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.

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.

Try putting the average cat on a lead.

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

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

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

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

Because it's rather galling?

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.....

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Cats roam and need to do so. They are semi-domesticated, too, so not like dogs at all. Cats come and go. You need a cat flap.

I think a dog walk is mutually enjoyable for dog and human. We are more compatible. A cat walk is going to involve a lot more compromise, I presume on the cat's part. Generally they have quite small territories that they don't like to leave and like to do a lot more 'hanging around' than actively travelling. Even if you could get them trained to a harness, which I know is sometimes possible but definitely not for all cats.

I wouldn't keep mine in all the time as he gets too much enjoyment out of it, I couldn't cut his quality of life so dramatically. He's usually shut in at night though. With the area we live, I judge the risk of being run over to be low but of course not zero, but the benefits outweigh the risk to my mind. When he's been kept in temporarily for whatever reason he doesn't stop asking to go out. I know he'd be miserable if he couldn't ever get out for a sniff and a mooch.

But you are saying nobody has quoted you as saying anything you haven't. You seem to posts are refering to you when.you are admitting that nobody has quoted you!

Probably, we have it here too because there's no point them taking in entire feral cat colonies that are nowhere near going to be pets.

What a ridiculous idea. Cats are cats and dogs are dogs.

Just to talk about the catio argument, catios won't get rid of instincs either, I wouldn't my cats drawing blood trying to claw a hole in one to her out, neither would I want them stuck on a cage with no trees for shade. Also the joker cats that live round here would be wind up merchants and sit on top so again I wouldn't want my cats going berserk in a catio!

Also there's a big difference between people say living in a new build with a back door and small square garden abs those of us with large irregular gardens and houses, my detached home doesn't have a front door, it has a side door and a conservatory on the back, I can't attach a catio to my side door because it needs to be accessible by people, deliveries etc. For cats that don't go very far out of my garden, I would not be messing about with catios as it's just not doable.

Expecting a cat to act like dog, eg going on walks etc and not being expected to roam, is the equivalent of expecting humans to act like dolphins. They are different species.

I'm 68 and dogs were just allowed out alone when I was a child.
Mum would just open the front door and they'd come back when they were hung.

I think it phased out in the late 60's but can't recall why particularly - perhaps for the same reason people stopped wearing hats (unless they were over 60)