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.

In any case a catio is simply a very small zoo enclosure.

You’d have a heart attack if you read about Tilly The Adventure Cat on Facebook! 🤣

Exactly. A catio is just an extension to a house. it's not even remotely comparable to being allowed out to actually behave like a cat.

He does climb on the fence actually. He was likely eating grass along the fence as he does all the time. But please continue to make some more stuff up regarding my poor neglected cat that you do not know 👍

With the fragmented habitat that we are constantly having to deal with, cats can add substantial predation pressure where wildlife hasn’t evolved alongside such high numbers of predators!

If your cat is killing countless voles, then no doubt neighbours cats are doing the same. They have natural predators alongside your cat, and in some areas this would have an effect on the ecosystem for that area!

Water voles are of huge concern, and this is a warning of possible things to come for the bank and field voles! With ever shrinking habitat, increase of domesticated cats, alongside predators such as the introduced Mink, as well as natural predators, who do rely on this food source, it’s one to watch.

I read that female cats tend to stay closer to home. Older cats too. A young male cat being let out is a much higher risk because they wander far.

That's precisely why I keep mine i at night and let him out in the morning. It's not great for the local wildlife population to find half a dozen birds, rodents etc all lined up on the doorstep in the morning.

My apologies, I should have made it clearer that I was quoting a different post. I was responding in my first paragraph to your post

It was a different poster who said "If we have a stray and feral cat problem as you suggest, then the magic wand is to cull them." They were the ones I was commenting my last paragraph to.

You are a nutter….

My garden would in no way be possible to cat proof, nor would it be possible to build a catio. As it happens, I only adopt cats who need an indoor life for some reason (e.g. health).

I noticed someone up thread commented on squirrels being killed - you mean those "native" (grey) animals that were imported from the USA almost exactly 150 years ago, and have competed with & almost completely replaced the native (red) squirrels throughout most of the UK?

Domestic cats may be of only a couple of thousand years vintage in the UK, but Lynxs were around for thousands of years before that and only went extinct in the UK later than cats were introduced here. Larger, more dangerous, still felines. Plus of course we always had wildcats here, of which there are a couple of very small communities remaining in Scotland after humans tried to kill them all.

Oh and someone commented about those dear little foxes who are only killing to eat. Have you ever seen a hen house when foxes have got in over the night? Corpses everywhere, no fox or even a hungry family of foxes can eat over 50 chickens in a night!

It makes an enormous difference to bird populations

Thank you. She wasn’t hurt, but she was traumatized for a couple of days. She’s fine now, except she associates the harness and lead with bad things.

There is no proof of that in the UK. The RSPB doesn't consider cats a significant factor in declining bird populations.

Wear welders’ gloves. You’re going to need them.

I would have thought loss of natural habitats were much worse for the bird population including new intrusive species like those green parrot- things which fly around where I live. Also people not planting trees and places for birds to nest.

Perhaps don’t accuse someone of relishing cat poisonings then if it’s not the person you are quoting. Very indicative of the hysteria on this post though. I have ever been quoted or misquoted so many times on a thread for a perfectly measured post.

Domestic cats are “intrusive species” though. Albeit they’ve been here longer.

Yes I agree. I’ve lived in a leafy part of London since the 70s and there used to be many more smaller birds - sparrows, tits etc. The noise of the birds at dawn used to be much louder.

There aren’t more cats now in the area than in the 70s so that’s not the reason for the decrease in bird numbers.

And yes the green parakeets are everywhere.

Good point! 👏

If by 'a bit longer' you mean '1000s of years'.

The average cat life span is about 2, for an animal which should easily live to about 15.

The average cat lifespan is not "about 2". Where are you getting this absolute bullshit?

As for "intrusive" species, I'm guessing this means "invasive species"?

I never accused you. I accused the person who I quoted lower down in my thread separately, in italics and inverted commas. I thought that clearly indicated it was a quote - so as you know you didn't say that then I can't understand why you thought I was accusing you of saying it rather than someone else?

My only other option would have been to quote you and respond, then immediately do another post quoting the other person.

To be fair, the average time a cat lives out on the streets as feral or stray is estimated as about 2 years. Average life expectancy of a "kept" cat whether indoor only or outdoor is around 12.

That poster didn't specify feral or stray though!

All the (outdoor) cats I've ever owned have lived until 15/16.