Do you let your CAT outside?

[corbe]

How Bad Is It to Let Your Cat Outside?

Andrew Small
 
2 days ago
 
What does your cat do when it goes outdoors?

The question may linger in the mind of anyone who has an outdoor cat, and the answer has become quite a bit clearer in the age of YouTube and GoPro cameras. It’s not a pretty picture, though—just take it from this 2013 New York Times headline: “That Cuddly Kitty is Deadlier Than You Think.” An alarming study cited in that piece estimates that cats kill about 2.4 billion birds and 12.3 billion mammals each year in the United States. About 29 percent of those bird deaths and 10 percent of those mammalian deaths could be attributed to house cats in particular, according to the study. 

“Some cats don’t kill anything, some cats kill 20 animals a week,” says Peter Marra, a conservation biologist who co-authored the study as well as the book,Cat Wars: The Devastating Consequences of a Cuddly Killer.

So should you let your pet cat outside, whether it’s to hang out in the backyard or to wander around the neighborhood? CityLab spoke with Marra to find out just how much damage these “cuddly killers” can do, and why he thinks it’s time for outdoor cat owners to do what many outdoor dog owners did about 50 years ago. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

So this starts as a kind of kitchen table debate: If you own a cat that you normally keep indoors, should you ever let it outside?

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http://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/pets-animals/how-bad-is-it-to-let-your-cat-outside/ar-BBVxZsa?ocid=ientp

[Elderberry]

Growing up, our tomcat, Puss in Boots,  would disappear for a couple of weeks at a time. He would come back, battle scarred and all tired out. He'd stay home and recoup and then disappear for a while again. Once he brought my sister five live baby rabbits and she bottle fed them. None of the dogs in the neighborhood would mess with him. When he got older he stopped disappearing as much.

[corbe]

   I went on strike last week and refused to clean my young Cat's litter box, It worked. She accepts my demand that she do her business outside (I have a doggie door).

[EdJames]

My old gal likes to go outside for about a 1/2 hour or so most days.

If she wants to catch the sun in the back she can go out herself through the dog's door.

If she wants a bit out time out in the front, she let's me know.

When out front she won't leave this property or the two adjoining, doesn't want to wander far, just check up on what is going on.

She doesn't chase any prey, too old for that, content to just stare them down!

[Free Vulcan]

Sorry, don't let it in the house.

[corbe]

   @EdJames
   I have pack rats living behind me and on one side.  Terrible varmint problem.  The dogs take care of the possums and the coons but the Cat is necessary for the rodents.
   If I see a mouse in my house I'm dumping the cat near Peking Restaurant.

[EdJames]

   @EdJames
   I have pack rats living behind me and on one side.  Terrible varmint problem.  The dogs take care of the possums and the coons but the Cat is necessary for the rodents.
   If I see a mouse in my house I'm dumping the cat near Peking Restaurant.

Well that young'un needs to earn her keep!

[ABX]

We don't 'let' them. They have learned to open doors and trick us like two velocoraptors. One distracts us as we walk in while the other bolts out. They take a stroll around the hood and come right back.

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

   @EdJames
   I have pack rats living behind me and on one side.  Terrible varmint problem.  The dogs take care of the possums and the coons but the Cat is necessary for the rodents.
   If I see a mouse in my house I'm dumping the cat near Peking Restaurant.

[Sighlass]

Farmers know the trick to getting a good cat, keep the ole grandmother cat (she teaches the younger cats how to eat and kill mice instead of just playing with them)....

Now we have an uneducated cat that plays with her food... but she sometimes will kill a bird or mole... but in the day, grandma cat in the barn kept the other cats in the killing business... used to take a 22 rifle and thin the herd down every so often (yes, we shot the extra cats from time to time). Grandma cat though was treated as royalty.

No barn now, just an in and out cycle... pretty good cat but I let the wife and kids baby her, I love my Beagle dog most.

[corbe]

[Cyber Liberty]

Nope.  If the 'yotes don't get them, a vulture will.  Both of them set my driveway alarm off regularly.

[Gefn]

no no no no no

@Hopalong Ginsberg 

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

No.

A few problems with letting cats outdoors:

1) They get hit by cars.

2) They pick up diseases.

[thackney]

My cats' job is outside so they stay outside.

[Hopalong Ginsberg]

All my cats are/have been inside cats. They live longer that way.

[roamer_1]

IMHO, and no offense meant, locking a cat up indoors is nearing cruelty. How can a cat be a cat in that condition?

Barn cats are always outside, but even the house cats are free to come and go. They keep the mice out of the house alright, but they go hunting every day. It's what they do. 

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

IMHO, and no offense meant, locking a cat up indoors is nearing cruelty. How can a cat be a cat in that condition?

Barn cats are always outside, but even the house cats are free to come and go. They keep the mice out of the house alright, but they go hunting every day. It's what they do. 

See my post.

[Cyber Liberty]

IMHO, and no offense meant, locking a cat up indoors is nearing cruelty. How can a cat be a cat in that condition?

Barn cats are always outside, but even the house cats are free to come and go. They keep the mice out of the house alright, but they go hunting every day. It's what they do. 

Our catz have always been indoor catz, and have been very firm abut staying away from outside doors when they are open ever since they first heard the 'yotes howling when we first made the move to the Castle.  Protecting them from the predators is the height of loving them, not cruelty at all.

Mrs. Liberty had several resin statues of lions that we put outside, and I think they might be scaring the little desert rats away.

[roamer_1]

See my post.

Nah. As a general rule, cats are not only extremely resilient, they are also pretty smart.
There is pretty good traffic coming by our place, where folks often exit off the bypass...
Lose way more cats to eagles than to cars - and those lost to eagles are still few.

As to disease, not much. Even barn cats, which require little maintenance and are treated as expendable, similar to guinea hens... Even our barn cats are sleek and healthy, and seldom require treatment beyond the once-a-year visit by the vet for general purposes.

[roamer_1]

Our catz have always been indoor catz, and have been very firm abut staying away from outside doors when they are open ever since they first heard the 'yotes howling when we first made the move to the Castle.  Protecting them from the predators is the height of loving them, not cruelty at all.

Mrs. Liberty had several resin statues of lions that we put outside, and I think they might be scaring the little desert rats away.

That's why the dogs. Ain't no coyote setting foot on our place, nor any cats other than our own. Anything foreign does not live long.

[QueenCatofAragon]

See my post.

Yep.  I don’t have a cat right now, but I had two who both lived into their teens.  Wouldn’t have happened if I’d let them out.  Growing up, we had a big screen porch, and they were happy with that.

[QueenCatofAragon]

We don't 'let' them. They have learned to open doors and trick us like two velocoraptors. One distracts us as we walk in while the other bolts out. They take a stroll around the hood and come right back.

Lol

They do learn fast.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Nah. As a general rule, cats are not only extremely resilient, they are also pretty smart.
There is pretty good traffic coming by our place, where folks often exit off the bypass...
Lose way more cats to eagles than to cars - and those lost to eagles are still few.

As to disease, not much. Even barn cats, which require little maintenance and are treated as expendable, similar to guinea hens... Even our barn cats are sleek and healthy, and seldom require treatment beyond the once-a-year visit by the vet for general purposes.

This may be true for rural Montana, but it's a whole different ballgame for suburban Boston. I"ve seen enough cats either dead or actually struck by cars to know that they don't understand the true speed of automobiles. And we have a lot of rats eating out of garbage around here, hence disease.

If I lived in a rural area fine... although cats are preyed upon, successfully, but all sorts of predators like hawks, coyotes, etc.

[Restored]

   I went on strike last week and refused to clean my young Cat's litter box, It worked. She accepts my demand that she do her business outside (I have a doggie door).

We call those "Skunk doors".