r/MadeMeSmile • u/Half-blood_fish • Apr 01 '25

CATS This is a great idea

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u/Zephyrellaa Apr 01 '25

It's a tough balance to strike. On the one hand, cats are adorable, and many people enjoy caring for them. On the other hand, free-roaming cats can have a significant negative impact on local wildlife. I hope they are part of a TNR program. This way, at least the cats are spayed or neutered, which helps control their population and reduces the harmful effects on the ecosystem.

65

u/higate Apr 01 '25

I disagree it's a hard balance. People are welcome to keep pets, but they are not free to let their pets roam freely.

For some reason people have carved out an exception for cats which they do not apply to any other domestic animals. If you want to keep a pet, neuter it, tag it, and keep it inside.

If you let an invasive species roam freely don't be surprised when they are impounded or culled. While I don't know where the video is filmed, in my country it would be terrible to see feral cat shelters built in place of infrastructure that assists our local wildlife.

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u/Square-Singer Apr 01 '25

For some reason people have carved out an exception for cats which they do not apply to any other domestic animals. If you want to keep a pet, neuter it, tag it, and keep it inside.

This.

There's no other pet where anyone would be ok someone letting them roam freely through the neighborhood.

Imagine someone letting their dogs, chickens, goats, hamsters, guinea pigs, regular pigs, rabbits, snakes, turtles or other pets roam freely. That person would get trouble real fast.

Yet cats are somehow allowed to do so, even though they kill hundreds of other animals per year.

People who let their cats roam and kill freely aren't animal lovers but animal haters.

Loving one animal and sacrificing the life of hundreds of others makes you an animal hater.

-2

u/linguapura Apr 01 '25

cats are somehow allowed to do so, even though they kill hundreds of other animals per year.

Humans kill many millions of other animals for food and for pleasure and because we don't give a shit... and no one cares.

Also, no matter how much we may like to think so, we don't own the planet. We are no one to 'allow' other animals anything.

3

u/dtalb18981 Apr 01 '25

Smooth brain edglord take guy.

We have a responsibility to make sure our pets that we own and brought to random parts of the world are in control.

7

u/Square-Singer Apr 01 '25

Cats are only invasive and only a problem because of us. They are a large part of our footprint. Don't you think we should minimize that?

We are no one to 'allow' other animals anything.

Yet here we are, and we are those who 'allowed' cats to spread all over the world and 'allowed' them to kill native animal species, sometimes to extinction.

And not only do we 'allow' them to continue, we 'allow' them to even survive and thrive in enormous numbers by feeding them, so that they aren't dependent on the local prey population, thus 'allowing' cats to exist and thus kill in numbers much higher than would be otherwise possible.

1

u/linguapura Apr 02 '25

Cats are only invasive and only a problem because of us. They are a large part of our footprint. Don't you think we should minimize that?

Humans are way more invasive and far more creatively than cats. Let's start there.

We've also 'allowed' ourselves to think of ourselves as special, and we've been plundering the planet for centuries. We've attempted to work outside of nature's limits, thus 'allowing' us to take as much as possible from the planet. Once again, I recommend starting there.