How do you feel about outdoor cats? (or indoor outdoor cats. basically cats that are allowed to wander.) is it illegal where you live? if so, do people follow the rules? if not, do you think it should be illegal?

drferox:

First, I would like to relay a conversation that I have at least once a day.

Me: Is your cat a strictly indoor cat?

Owner: Yes, but he goes outside sometimes during the day.

That is not the definition of a strictly indoor cat.

Outdoor cats are permitted under some local council jurisdictions, but there is increasing push to restrict their activities. Some locations have a cat curfew, some estates have an indoor only policy (and all pets must be desexed), and some locations are pushing to prevent ownership of pet cats at all (mostly islands).

There is a large population of stray cats and semi-owned cats. These cats might get fed by multiple people on the street, but nobody steps up to claim ownership of the cat. Nobody gets it desexed or gets veterinary treatment. Nobody goes looking for it if it goes missing, they assume it ‘went home’.

Our local council is pushing for more people to take responsibility for these cats, largely cutting down on adoption paperwork. They’re also allowing businesses and factories to take ownership of semi-owned local cats so long as they’re desexed. The feral colony living of McDonald’s dumpsters is an example. The council can’t force these people to keep barely tame cats inside, but they’ll settle for seeing them desexed. Folks wont hand cats over to the council if they think they’re just going to be put to sleep.

The simple facts about cats permitted to roam outside are these:

• They devastate local wildlife populations. Even well fed pets will hunt. If you would like to see the approximately 50 animals removed from one feral cat’s stomach, there is a picture here. It’s a bit gore-ish. They kill a lot.
• They do not live as long on average as strictly indoor cats.
• This is mostly due to increased viral transmission and accidents – fights, dog attacks, hit by cars etc.
• There is a portion of the human population that deliberately go out of their way to harm cats. Shooting in rural areas, running them over with cars, putting out milk with paracetamol (acetaminophen), etc.
• People will also ‘kidnap’ friendly cats that they find on the street and ‘assume’ are lost so decide to keep them. I know one lady that picked up a cat on the street on holiday, drove four hours back home, and then presented it to me where I found its microchip. She did not get to keep the cat she kidnapped.
• Cats with white faces are far less likely to develop squamous cell carcinoma.

Cats are safer if they’re confined to their home or properly secured cat runs. Both safer for them and it prevents their devastating affect on our environment. I would prefer to see them all contained, though I doubt that will happen. Society’s view of cats and how we keep them would need to change before that happens. Currently they’re perceived as low value pets because they’re so easy to acquire.

Note that a cat on a harness still counts as contained, because they’re not able to free-roam, as do cats in a secure enclosure.

Society is perfectly happy to contain and entertain its dogs. We should be capable of doing so for our cats.

All good points, however I’d like to point out that the caption for the linked photo says “the stomach contents of over a dozen cats from far northern South Australia.”, and not from a single feral cat’s stomach.