51–60 of 139 posts
> This is a ridiculous point to waffle on: pet cats should no more be allowed to roam around at will than should pet dogs, horses, pythons, or pot-bellied pigs. Actually, my Dad grew up on a mountain where, every day after school, he would come home and gather up the pig and cows that had been let free to eat for the day. So there's certainly use cases for letting a pig roam free and gather some forage. By the time I…
That IS the problem.
We, as the dominant species, are always looking for ways to save the planet - but for the most part it is a blame game. Humans are what helped cats hit all corners of the world. Cats aren't responsible, so why target them?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Few years back, I moved to a place in the country where the previous owner fed birds. So there was a bit of a rodent issue. I had with a indoor/outdoor cat, not much of a hunter to look at -- big floofy Maine Coon, and not all that fast. Ran a bit like a bear, thundery, not graceful. In that first year, I found 23 small rodent bodies inside and out, I got 2 with traps. I found no bird carcasses. Pretty sure he wasn't…
> Ran a bit like a bear, thundery, not graceful. Maine Coons are the powerlifters of the cat world.
(edit: and yes, he did have that special skill of always being able to land right on your nuts)
> This is a ridiculous point to waffle on: pet cats should no more be allowed to roam around at will than should pet dogs, horses, pythons, or pot-bellied pigs. Actually, my Dad grew up on a mountain where, every day after school, he would come home and gather up the pig and cows that had been let free to eat for the day. So there's certainly use cases for letting a pig roam free and gather some forage. By the time I…
Are you suggesting we should ignore an ecological disaster because the perpetrators are "just doing their job"? Citing the historical reasons for their existence doesn't really help the case that they aren't a problem now because the exact reason that it's now and not then . Cats may have had a purpose when they were introduced but in most cases they don't actually serve that purpose anymore. And we can ignore that p…
> This is a ridiculous point to waffle on: pet cats should no more be allowed to roam around at will than should pet dogs, horses, pythons, or pot-bellied pigs. Actually, my Dad grew up on a mountain where, every day after school, he would come home and gather up the pig and cows that had been let free to eat for the day. So there's certainly use cases for letting a pig roam free and gather some forage. By the time I…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Grew up with cats that would kill mice, but weren't very good at it. Got a miniature pinscher, which were also bred to kill rodents, and it was amazing how lethal they were around mice. Grab, bite, dead.
I'll put a terrier up against a cat any day. As you describe: grab, bite, dead, move on to the next one. None of this "let's play with it for a bit" crap from cats, there's work to be done. Mole problem? Borrow a dachshund for a week, no more moles. For efficient, methodical obliteration of a local pest population, hard to beat a canine for Terminator-like determination and efficiency. Cats just dick around too much.
My cats kill moles and mice. They do a damn good job of it. Only thing dogs seem capable of killing: rabbits and themselves.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you suggesting we should ignore an ecological disaster because the perpetrators are "just doing their job"? Citing the historical reasons for their existence doesn't really help the case that they aren't a problem now because the exact reason that it's now and not then . Cats may have had a purpose when they were introduced but in most cases they don't actually serve that purpose anymore. And we can ignore that p…
Just stop. Stop bickering about cats being the problem. The problem is humans... We are the problem. Their existence is due to us. Their domestication is due to us.
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If you have an indoor cat it's not. Toxo is only shed by cats for a few weeks after exposure, and the toxo lifecycle can't be completed indoors so your cat will not be reinfected. Unless you have a mouse infestation, in which case I'd be more worried about hantavirus than toxo. Just keep your cats inside, everyone! It's better for the environment, it's better for birds, it's better for the cat, it's better for you.
Indoors is categorically not better for the cats. They're nocturnal predators. Let them hunt as is their desire and way of living. It's like keeping birds in cages and not letting them fly. Or chickens in battery farms. There are so many unhappy cats imprisoned for the benefit of their fluffy -loving captors. If you have cats, you must let them be cats. So here's the rub: we really have to stop keeping so many cats
The youngest straight up chose to be an indoor cat. He was a feral kitten, about 12 weeks when I first encountered him (based on the vet's estimate of 16 weeks when I eventually brought him in). I left food out for him for a month, as he progressively hung around more and more and watched my two indoor cats through the sliding glass door in the back of my apartment. After about a month he seemed to trust me, so I picked him up, took inside, took him to a vet to get him a checkup (he very badly needed to be dewormed), got him fixed, and now he doesn't even want to go outside, even if the door is left open. He saw how good my indoor cats had it, and he wanted it. He's the most affectionate cat I've ever had. He constantly wants to be touched.
My oldest cat is over 17 years old, and has arthritis. She's never been a good hunter, even as a young cat. She got out for a week when she was around 3 years old, and came back so thin you could touch your fingers together on either side of her stomach. She could have never survived outdoors, then or now.
The oldest cat is the only one I set out and said, "I'm going to get a cat," and adopted one. The middle cat was an abandoned kitten my mom rescued at 3 weeks (she waited all day after she found the crying kitten in the barn to see if the momma cat came back from hunting, but she never did, nor did she ever find the rest of the litter). Given the area my mom lives in, she would have been eaten by a bear or fox even if she hadn't starved.
Indoor is better for almost all cats. You just have a provide an enriching environment with lots of high surfaces for them to explore and exercise them with toys.
Even if you think cats should be indoor/outdoor, there's no way you can compare keeping a pet cat to chickens in battery cages.
It's a special kind of creepy when people decide that cats are a problem worthy of public attention. Yeah, they can cause real problems when introduced into closed ecosystems which lack a historical small-predator.
I am suprised no one else has said this.