this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2023
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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.

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[–] JonsJava 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'll just harness my cat up, and take them for a brief morning drag....

I get what you're saying, but you're just wrong. In my unscientific and anecdotal-driven opinion, there are too many cats outside as-is. They upset ecosystems. If you don't have the space for a cat to wander inside, you shouldn't be adopting a cat.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is just more bad faith, binary arguing. Why do cats upset ecosystems? What are the actual problems we are talking about here? Pretending cats just magically cause damage the second they step outside is stupid.

My family has two cats. They are trained to come when called. They have an enclosure they can sit in without supervision at any time, day or night, if they want to be outside. If family members are outside during the day and not preoccupied with something else, the cats are also allowed to join them. If they begin to exhibit behaviour consistent with hunting, we intervene. We pay attention to the native animals in our backyard and work around their nesting cycles. Our cats get to experience the outdoors and our garden is absolutely thriving with small birds and reptiles.

In short, we actually put time and effort into the well-being of both our pets and the native animals they share our property with, instead of just moral grandstanding on social media about how we are "responsible pet owners" while doing absolutely nothing to back that up.

[–] JonsJava 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean, a couple seconds of googling gives you actual data, rather than your butt hurt feelings...

https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2380

https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pan3.10073

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/91280/8-ways-domestic-cats-are-serious-threat-nature

I can keep going, or you can actually do a little reading. Just because you don't like my point, that doesn't make your point valid.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Read my previous comment. "Data" about "free ranging" cats is completely irrelevant if we are talking about cats that don't free range.

Next time read both comment you are replying to and the studies you are linking, you'll appear a little less braindead.

[–] JonsJava 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Cool. Doubling down is your call to make.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

Your contributions to the thread so far have been "you're just wrong bro" and a strawman, so I'm not sure why you'd expect me to change my position. Especially when I have actually explained it in detail, unlike you.