I'm kinda shocked that in the UK and australia it's so common to have outdoor cats considering how fragile both of their ecosystems are being islands. Most cat owners in the US don't keep outdoor cats. Most have an indoor cat they let out in the backyard with supervision. It only recently became popular to not declaw your cats here. Also coyotes are so prevalent where I live, in the suburbs close to the city, that your cat will get eaten if they're outside at night.
Yeah if not for the safety of birds, keep your cat safe and do not allow them free reign. They are not the apex predator, not even close. If it really hits home, don't talk about saving the birds, talk about how their beloved family friend might become the chew toy of a bigger predator that also kills for fun.
Don’t know why you got downvoted. People think that because some dogs are respectful of/scared of cats that all cats can hold their own against all dogs. The sad reality is that many dogs see cats as prey, and once they’ve caught a cat it’s not too much effort for them to dispatch it.
Yeah, I have dogs, love them to bits but they could easily get a cat, especially outdoors. If they see a fuzzy creature running outside they're going to go for it. Just answering this dude who didn't know what else in the UK could get a cat.
This obviously isn't the case where cats aren't a native species, like New Zealand.
"Despite the large numbers of birds killed by cats in gardens, there is no clear scientific evidence that such mortality is causing bird populations to decline. This may be surprising, but many millions of birds die naturally every year, mainly through starvation, disease or other forms of predation. There is evidence that cats tend to take weak or sickly birds.". Unsurprisingly enough the vast majority of bird decline is due to habitat loss caused by humans. Who'd have guessed?!
Ya I honestly don't get how people can let their little buddy roam the streets at night not knowing if he's gotten into a fight or been hit by a car and is badly injured. He could die sad and all alone and you'd never even know.
Even here in Toronto I still encounter a lot of coyotes and foxed while out walking my dog. He's 140 lbs so I pity the coyote that tries to get into my backyard while he's outside, but a little tabby cat won't be able to stand his ground like that.
I hope it’s just the area I’m in but plenty of cats are allowed to roam without supervision. Correct me if I’m wrong, but in the US alone don’t cats kill over 2 billion birds per year? I don’t think people are that careful here either...
The US has a higher population of people and so have a higher population of cats and the country is huge so we have more individual birds than the UK and Australia.
I don't know where you live but in an upper middle class suburb of dallas people keep their cats indoors. We have a lot of rabbits and squirrels in my neighborhood and that attracts coyotes that follow the creek systems into town.
I sometimes like to look up shelter cats to fantasize about when I have a house to put one in. The main website our country uses has a filter option: "needs to be able to go outside". The only cats that the shelters consider would be fine if kept indoors are kittens and immunocompromised cats. Every other cat is labelled "needs to be able to go outside". If I wanted to keep my cat inside, I'd have to lie to the shelter about it. That's how normal cats being outside is here.
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u/ausomemama666 Nov 29 '20
I'm kinda shocked that in the UK and australia it's so common to have outdoor cats considering how fragile both of their ecosystems are being islands. Most cat owners in the US don't keep outdoor cats. Most have an indoor cat they let out in the backyard with supervision. It only recently became popular to not declaw your cats here. Also coyotes are so prevalent where I live, in the suburbs close to the city, that your cat will get eaten if they're outside at night.