Keeping cats indoors is a rare solution where everybody wins | Calla Wahlquist
www.theguardian.com
In the debate over protecting native wildlife from domestic felines, one thing is often overlooked: cats should be kept indoors for the sake of cats

I am not here to make the case that cats should be kept indoors for the sake of local wildlife – that case has been made over and over and over and over again. Cat owners know these arguments, and if they have not been persuaded by the fact that cats kill more than 6 million native animals in Australia a day they will not be persuaded by me.

There is a fairly tedious assumption that if you love wildlife you must hate cats, and visa versa. And nothing will turn cat people off faster than encountering a person who hates cats.

I understand this. I also hate people who hate cats. So let’s set the birds and the bettongs to one side for the moment, and consider the other, obvious fact: cats should be kept indoors for the sake of cats.

  • ZagorathEnglish
    34•1 year ago

    Indoor cats live longer, healthier lives. And they can even be harness-trained to be able to enjoy going outside on walkies!

    • glittalogik
      6•1 year ago

      Our two cats get supervised time in the backyard every couple of days - we used to put them in harnesses until we moved to a place with high enough fences that they couldn’t get out even if they wanted to.

      Mostly they just wanna chew grass for 15 minutes and maybe investigate a random plant bed, and they quickly learned that if they come back inside when called they get treats :)

        • glittalogik
          4•1 year ago

          about 2m-ish I guess? Our eldest miiight be able to make it up there if he wanted to, but he’s a timid momma’s boy with no interest in venturing out of his safe space. His little brother would if he could, but he’s built like a kitbull - all shoulders and stumpy legs, not exactly made for jumping :)