Wildlife.

[serafaery]

Coyote link (Portland-oriented) with good info: http://www.oregonlive.com/pets/index.ssf/2009/04/coping_with_neighborhood_coyot.html

I've been anti-outdoor-cats for years, even though I was raised with "indoor/outdoor" cats. This coyote info supports my suspicions that it is unsafe/cruel to allow cats to roam out of doors. For the cats, as well as for local wildlife. (Although in this particular case I'm sure the coyote would enjoy the free meal.)

Article on cats and wildlife in the Pacific Northwest.

Cats account for nearly 40% of the animal intakes at our Wildlife Care Center, the number one cause of injury by a wide margin. This statistic includes animals wounded in direct attacks by cats, animals orphaned after cats have predated on their parents, and healthy youngsters removed from the wild by citizens concerned about imminent predation by cats. Cats are also the number one cause of mortality at our Center. Because of the trauma and infection associated with cat predation, animals injured in cat attacks have only a 16% chance of survival, less than a third of the survival rate of all other causes of injury combined. Wildlife rehabilitation centers across the state and the nation report very similar experiences and what we see is only the tip of the iceberg; numerous studies conservatively estimate that cat predation accounts for hundreds of millions of bird deaths each year.(1)

...

Those who would dismiss urban wildlife populations as ecologically insignificant fail to understand that the warblers passing though our backyards, neighborhoods, and parks are exactly the same birds that travel thousands of miles from their breeding grounds in the north to their wintering sites in Central and South America. Too often urbanites fall into the trap of believing wildlife is something only to be protected “out there” beyond our urban growth boundaries. When it comes to migratory birds, we need to be just as concerned about what is happening in our own backyards.

...

We hear from many cat owners — often the same people who are bringing us injured cat-caught wildlife — that their cat is only happy if it is allowed to roam free. This attitude has perpetuated a sickening cycle of death not only for wildlife but for cats as well. The average lifespan of an outdoor cat is less than 3 years, compared to 15–18 years for cats that are housed indoors.(3) Cat owners who allow their cats to roam free are putting their pets at direct risk from cars, poisons, traps, conflicts with domestic and wild animals, and human cruelty.

Free-roaming pet cats are a primary source of feral cat populations (via breeding or going feral themselves). More than 7,000 stray cats were delivered to the Oregon Humane Society and Multnomah County Animal Control during 2005. The total number of cats delivered to shelters statewide during 2005 (strays and surrenders) was over 49,000 — the highest annual total since 1992. Of those, 48% were euthanized.(4) The American Veterinary Medical Association has referred to the proliferation of free-roaming abandoned and feral cats as “a national tragedy of epidemic proportions.”(5) The Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon has written that “despite outward appearances, generations of domestication” have left feral cats “without many of the natural adaptation necessary for life outside. They do not ‘regain their instincts’ and they do not thrive. Starvation, disease, trauma and the stresses of continual reproduction plague their lives.”(6) Animal advocacy groups including the American Veterinary Medical Association, Humane Society of the United States, Washington Progressive Animal Welfare Society, and Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon all recommend housing pet cats indoors.

Indoor cat campaign info.

Comments

[skyesidhe.livejournal.com]

I think that is all good info, but I have to disagree. I've only ever had outdoor/indoor cats and all three cats have lived well past ten. (miyu is eleven now and my other two cats lived to seventeen and eighteen). I also think that they are a part of the ecosystem, whether we want them to be or not, and their living outdoors and hunting is not unnatural. I think it is important to be informed about these things if you choose to let your cat outdoors, but I by no means think it is cruel to do so.

[serafaery.livejournal.com]

I think the 2-3 year average number might be for exclusively outdoor cats, not "indoor/outdoor" cats - most of my mom's cats live to around 10 as well.

It seems like a very personal/emotional reaction to want to let cats outdoors. My mom and brothers and all of my neighbors do it. We lost a couple cats to cars when I was a kid. On reflection, that's just irresponsible cat-parenting.

I think that maybe if you take the time to look at all the information from Audobon (and others if you want to dig further), you might get a different perspective.

The term "natural" is extremely subjective. Is it "natural" for me to be typing on a keyboard right now? For those of us who value the rapidly decreasing native songbird population, and see domestic cats as a newly introduced and a very suddenly dense explosion of predators for wildlife who need thousands of years to adapt to change, it seems that they are an excessively "unnatural" part of the ecosystem.

So are humans, by my standards. I've never hit an animal with my car, but I'm aware every time I drive that I'm threatening wildlife and air quality and quality of living for all the living creatures around me, including humans.

If you're down with the damage they can cause and the risks involved, then that's of course your choice. Some are much more responsible about it than others, and the strict indoor-only rules are probably best applied to people who don't bother to look after their cats or spay/neuter, who put bells on their cats or declaw them, rendering them completely defenseless, stuff like that. (Those people really shouldn't have cats at all, imo.)

You've got to be the judge of your okay-ness.

But I do absolutely disagree with the weird notion that it is more "natural" for domestic cats to hunt outdoors or that it is depriving them of some crucial part of their existence or happiness not to let them do so. I think that is just people's emotions getting the better of their reasoning, and projecting their feelings onto an animal that they don't really understand. Scientific research shows a different story. Cats are better off safe inside. So, in my opinion, it's the human's comfort that is being put above the cats, when cats are allowed outdoors.

Lots of people disagree with me about this, and I totally accept that I am in a tiny minority. But I am in good company, with animal behavioral scientists and wildlife experts.

[serafaery.livejournal.com]

Also I should concede that I don't think animal behaviorists actually know any better than anyone else what cats are thinking or feeling. Maybe some cats really are "happier" in some sense when they can play outdoors. I am quite convinced this is the case for the cats I mentioned in the reply to Michelle's comment below. It does seem like they're having fun. It's just not as safe as having them inside. If cats having fun is more important to people than cats being safe and wildlife populations being spared, then ya, you gotta let them out.

[coccinellidae.livejournal.com]

In terms of the happiness of cats, I've noticed that the cats that are exclusively indoors and live in very small apartments are far more needy than other cats. They often seem more confused, more easily amused/distracted/scared of/by random objects/movements/sounds. In general there seems to be something... not quite right with them. I've always assumed this was the difference between an indoor cat and an outdoor one, but now that I think about I suspect it has a lot more to do with available space. These cats never seem unhappy. They just seem like being cooped up in too small an area for years on end has driven them a bit mad.

I grew up in a house with a rather ingeinous pet door which allowed our pets not only 24/7 access to the outdoors, and, more importantly, indoors (unless we blocked it, which we only did when they were inside) as well as their own little den area in the basement. We aren't on a busy street (it's a very small culdesac with only a half dozen houses) so cars aren't a major problem and when we have had racoons or coyotes in the area we've been extra vigilant. We also never bell or declaw out cats (HORRIFIC!) Compare that to the only all indoor cats I've known, usually living 2-3 up in a small 1 bed room or studio apartment and it might be giving me a skewed perspective.

I certainly think that an outdoor only cat is... well. NOT GOOD. All pets should have access to a safe, warm, dry place at their convenience.

As far as natural... well. I think be able to go outdoors is natural for cats. Having access to the specific outdoors we provide them with may not be natural for the rest of the environment, but that's a human failure it seems. Maybe there's some way to provide both a cat and the outdoors with what's natural for each?

[skyesidhe.livejournal.com]

I agree that there are significant risks and I think it's important to be informed. If you aren't informed, I do agree that it is safer to keep a cat indoors, though I have little patience for uninformed people. ;) I also think that a cat who is the pet of a new animal owner should always be an indoor only animal because of the risks and because you need to learn to keep pets before you can accept the responsibility of choosing to let a pet outdoors. So yeah, we can disagree amicably, and I totally see your points, but I do make the choice to let miyu out an probably will with moneypenny too, though that's a few years and some leash walks out for sure. :)

[skyesidhe.livejournal.com]

also, yeah, outdoor only pets is just cruel...and....why have a pet?

[windfaerie.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting this! I'm of the ardent cats-belong-indoors club. I see too many neighborhood kitties with missing chunks of of their ears, mangy fur, sores.. even saw once get into a battle with a roaming raccoon one day, not to mention having to deal with fleas/ticks/disease.. AND coyotes!

[serafaery.livejournal.com]

Hooray, a friend in the cats-belong-indoors club! *high five!*

Yeah my mom's cats get pretty beat up, too. Territorial fighting mostly. I feel awful for the two that are locked in the basement all day and are constantly begging to be let out at night to roam free and play. In that instance, I can't really imagine not allowing them out - they're clearly so happy outside, and so miserable in the basement. But it's a result of a house with SIX CATS in it so they have to be sequestered away from other cats or else they're fighting and pissing on everything. There shouldn't be six cats in the house to begin with. Sigh.

[bobsully.livejournal.com]

I have 4 cats. 3 are content with the inside life, 1 escapes routinely, returning when she has had her fill of adventure. There is definitely a greater risk to them living outside. Lots of other "predators" which include cars, other animals, and people to name a few. Cats as well disturb my little haven for birds, rabbits and squirrels.

Cats raised inside seem fine with it. Cats taken from the outside are more of a challegne I have found.

[serafaery.livejournal.com]

I have noticed, too, that there are some cats who, if raised outdoors as kittens, can't let it go and constantly want to be back out there. I couldn't bear to keep them cooped up, either, but at least I know for the future to keep kittens indoors in the first place. That is an easy solution - all the cats I've known raised indoors have not even the slightest interest in going outside. They might sniff the breeze from outside or stare at birds through the window, but they don't actually want to go out.

People don't let their dogs roam around outside aimlessly. Because it isn't safe. It isn't any safer for cats than for dogs. Too bad cats don't bark. Maybe people would demand their owners keep them on a leash of they did.