is-the-fox-video-cute:Sorry to drag up the topic of outdoor cats again, but this is a pretty good ex

is-the-fox-video-cute:

Sorry to drag up the topic of outdoor cats again, but this is a pretty good example of the attitudes to outdoor cats in the UK. People either refuse to believe that cats do any harm to wildlife, don’t care or even think it’s a good thing, claim any kind of criticism of outdoor cats is just lies made up by cat haters, or use whataboutism to ignore the issue. 

Are there other issues affecting wild animal declines beyond cats? Of course, but that doesn’t mean cats aren’t a big factor, or that the issue of outdoor cats can be ignored just because some things are worse. The cat issue is so easy to solve if people would just keep their cats indoors. Besides which, the issue IS a human caused one. We are responsible for bringing cats here and letting them decimate wildlife. No one is saying cats are bad for killing wildlife, they’re saying cat owners are bad for letting their pets roam free. Even if a cat isn’t killing much/any wildlife, just the presence of outdoor cats in the area can affect the breeding success of many bird species. Cats also spread diseases like toxoplasmosis to wildlife. 

I honestly don’t know what the answer is. The UK is classed as one of the most nature deprived countries in the world, and while cats are far from the only issue, they still play an important role in the loss of wildlife. Most cat owners in the UK just don’t want to listen to the facts and refuse to keep their cats indoors (around 90% of cats free roam in the UK). Many vets and popular animal welfare charities support and encourage outdoor cats. Most shelters wont even let you adopt a cat if you want to keep them indoors. It’s so ingrained in the culture, and I can’t see that changing anytime soon, sadly.

Not to bring up the same argument that I feel like I constantly have, but I genuinely cannot understand how someone who cares for an animal is just ok with them roaming around outside unsupervised. I really can’t understand it. I live in one of those areas that people like to say is magically ok for cats to free roam because it’s pretty rural and I still see dead cats on the road or super sick/injured cats found outside and brought to my work all the time. And I just. I love my cats so much I can’t even imagine just leaving them outside without any protection or supervision and justifying it as “enrichment” when catios and leashes etc are so easily accessible. Just the fact that it’s just accepted that your pet could just die traumatically outside somewhere and you might never know what happened is so insane to me.

And if I decided to do this with my dog or ferrets or literally anything other than a cat, I would be cited by animal control. Not to mention the backlash I’d face for doing something so stupid and reckless. But if I just let my cat outside? No one would bat an eye. I genuinely cannot understand how you can own and care for a pet and just be ok with knowing that they could just be hit by a car or eaten by a predator or poisoned or whatever and that’s just a normal part of owning said pet.

And because someone will inevitably jump in with their own unwanted opinions on their “outdoor cat that lived to be 25 years old” or whatever, I can guarantee my sample size is much bigger than yours. I really don’t care about a random person’s anecdote about their childhood cat or whatever. This is my job. I see these animals all the time and one person with a cat that didn’t happen to die a traumatic death doesn’t erase the dozens of others that I have to see that are super sick, injured, or dying. For real though, shout out to the people that pick up these super sick outdoor cats and pay out of their own pockets so they can do their best to make them comfortable, even if that means euthanasia. And screw the people that let them outside in the first place. Although to be fair, the overwhelming majority of outdoor cats I see are for sick exams or injuries so it’s not like I even get to see that many that are old and healthy and in for just a wellness exam anyway.