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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to think that not allowing a cat out, is cruel?

69 replies

StuckInTheMiddleWithYou · 01/07/2010 14:35

An aquaintance of mine lives in a third floor flat. It is quite small and has small, high windows.

She has a cat and wonders why it is incrediably clingy, in between trying to climb out of the windows everytime they're opened....

Get a goldfish for god sake! grr.

OP posts:
AgentZigzag · 01/07/2010 15:00

It's easy to pass judgement on why people have pets, sometimes in not the best circumstances.

For me I was having mental health probs and was very very isolated and lonely, she was the only thing to keep me here some days.

Not saying it's the same with your friend OP, but it's not always black and white.

Jamieandhismagictorch · 01/07/2010 15:00

My Nan had a rescue cat that was an indoors cat. It suited her very well as she lived on the 8th floor and was agoraphobic. It was a very loving moggy and sat on her lap most of the time.

scurryfunge · 01/07/2010 15:00

My cat does that too....never convinced he has anything whatsoever to do with the death of a mouse.

JacobBlacksBitch · 01/07/2010 15:01

STARZZ if you were kept indoors all your life, are you saying it wouldn't be cruel just because you've never felt the sun on your whiskers skin?

expatinscotland · 01/07/2010 15:02

Our vet was very disapproving of people who breed cats like Persians. Because Smokey's faced was all squishy, he couldn't drink like a normal cat and he also developed terrible tooth decay due to his compromised jaw. And he as a classic Persian, the vet said there is an extreme form that's even more squishy faced.

We don't know how old he was when we had to put him down due to cancer in 2007, but hte vet said he was a teenager.

Touch wood, both of us have had very long-lived cats in our lives.

AgentZigzag · 01/07/2010 15:02

Yes, perhaps I could have been seen as demented Jacob, my cat cared not a jot though.

BendyBob · 01/07/2010 15:04

A cat choosing to stay indoors a lot is different to being made to stay in and never having the opportunity to go out.

Missus84 · 01/07/2010 15:06

No more cruel than letting it out to decimate the local wildlife population. I'd say it was responsible cat ownership in fact.

starshaker · 01/07/2010 15:07

I had 2 cats. 1 is a house cat and shows no interest in going out (its in his breeders contract that he stays a house cat) and the other got out and was killed by a car. Id rather keep my cat safe inside where he is happy than to lose him aswell.

I do think it depends on the cats nature.

ipanemagirl · 01/07/2010 15:09

I LOVE people who keep them indoors.
It stops them CRAPPING ALL OVER MY GARDEN.
No deterrents work. We just sit and dream about shooting them.

Do their owners think they don't do poo-poo?
Do their owners think they are cuddly toys?

Mooncupflowethover · 01/07/2010 15:09

Letting a cat out is cruel to the thousands of birds, shrews, mice, baby rabbits etc that cats kill every year. Sorry.

A blue tit nested in Mum's garden one year, hatched about 5 babies and mum's cat killed them one by one as they fledged

MrsC2010 · 01/07/2010 15:10

My old cat (lives with my parents as I developed an allergy) has managed to kill 2 baby rabbits this year...not sure how he managed it as he isn't that quick!

Breton1900 · 01/07/2010 15:11

Not really cruel but understandable if living near a main road or where cat thieves operate to provide illicit skins for the fur industry or where there are just a lot of chavs who'd enjoy kicking a cat around for fun!

If living indoors - cats need plenty of toys and exercise equipment. I've seen homes where ceiling level runs have been installed complete with little hidey-holes and blind alleys for lurking and pouncing. Some owners also use such installations to secrete food - to give the cat a bit of practice in hunting.

De-clawing is, as far as I was aware, illegal in Britain except under exceptional circumstances.

flibbertigibbert · 01/07/2010 15:14

Not cruel IMO. Some breeds of cats aren't outdoor cats and are quite happy indoors. Then there are cats with feline AIDS etc.

JacobBlacksBitch · 01/07/2010 15:16

AGENT sorry if I was unclear but I ment the cats seemed demented. Though I do think it would make a huge difference to the cats if someone was with them indoors during the day.

MOONCUP that is true - bells help.

expatinscotland · 01/07/2010 15:17

My ex had two rescue cats that had been declawed. And it was pretty noticeable that one was more declawed than the other. It was sad, although they were both very happy cats, but the one that was more declawed would love bite.

He didn't do it himself, they came like that when he adopted them and it was purely a case of the cat finding him, not the other way round.

In fact, I was with him when he found the second one. He'd been looking for a female, thinking it would do better with his resident male.

In the US, at weekends, rescue centres and pounds come out to pet shops and do adoptions.

So we went to where the cat cages were.

Nope, no females that didn't have 'Doesn't like other cats!' on their tags.

Then, in the bottom left hand corner, was a card that read 'Newman' and a sleeping, grey tabby cat.

We asked the employee, why 'Newman'? She said, 'Wake him up and you'll see. We got him from Adams County pound the day before his time was up.'

So we did.

And his eyes were Paul Newman blue!

Well, that was it!

Newman is about 12 now, still living happily with the ex and 'Midnight', who is 16.

TheBride · 01/07/2010 15:20

I'd say keeping them in is "not ideal" but not cruel.

We have 2 indoor cats- started off fostering them as a favour to the completely overwhelmed local cat charity and were told to keep them inside so they didnt get confused and lost (because any unchipped cats found wandering got picked up as strays and put down). Tried and failed to rehome them. Then moved internationally again. Had choice to put them down or take with and prolong their indoor existance. Chose the latter.

Will hopefully get a garden next year or at least a roof terrace.

In the meantime they have lots of toys.

StuckInTheMiddleWithYou · 01/07/2010 15:22

Ok, other than cats that are disabled (usually because they have the misfortune to have been born a pedigree that has been "bred" that way), those who have been mutilated and those who are ill, I still think that it is cruel.

OP posts:
JenaiMarrHePlaysGuitar · 01/07/2010 15:27

The local RSPCA centre are always looking for people in flats to take on cats who carry cat flu/feline HIV.

It's not always cruel, imo. And there are plenty of lazy bastard cats who would like never to leave the house, ever.

TheBride · 01/07/2010 15:28

stuckinthemiddle

So in my case, do you think I would have been better to have them put down?

I did consider it tbh but they are only 3-ish so seemed a bit drastic

MrsC2010 · 01/07/2010 15:30

My parents have 2 cats, one hates going out doors and the other loves it. The first used to go out when it was younger, but has always been a bit lazy chilled out.

expatinscotland · 01/07/2010 15:34

Our cat seems to think she's the woman of the house!

She sleeps on MY side of the bed, so that I have to curl my feet up.

Even when I'm not there, she's curled up on my side!

StuckInTheMiddleWithYou · 01/07/2010 15:39

TheBride in your situation I would've rehomed them.

In fact that is pretty much what I've just done!

OP posts:
TheBride · 01/07/2010 15:44

i tried, but we were in Dubai and there were so many people leaving/ under threat of redundancy so not willing to take on a pet and not many people arriving. Unfortunately the rumours that people just left pets in empty villas are true. There were just more and more strays and it just proved impossible.

(oh god- is that a "by stealth" posting?"

My mum (farming background- unsentimental)told me to have them put down but i just couldnt do it.

StuckInTheMiddleWithYou · 01/07/2010 15:48

Could you not have rehomed them when you reached your destination?

OP posts:
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