this post was submitted on 24 May 2025
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"Outdoor cats" are an invasive species that kill billions of animals every year, are a significant contributor to dozens of species' extinction, and live shorter lives than cats properly cared for (i.e. kept indoors) including nearly 3x the risk for infections.
It's a plague. We can't keep normalizing this.
"Outdoor cats" are just cats. They are not a domesticated species, hunting is their instinct, and should just not be introduced in places where they wreck havoc to the environment. Where they are endemic (Europe and continental Asia) they don't cause troubles to the ecosystem
As long as you spend time providing your cat proper enrichment to express their hunting instincts, an indoor cat will be just as happy as an outdoor cat.
In my experience it highly depends on the cat. Some are perfectly content with proper scratchers and toys inside, some just visibly suffer staying inside, it might help we are far from the busy city with plenty of green and huntable animals, but most of our cats spend ~80% of time outdoor during summer and ~30% during winter.
put a camera on them if you think they're not killing birds. seriously.
edit: they won't, because they don't want to admit their precious baby is out there mauling the shit out of the bird population. what a coward - insists their carnivore isn't hurting anything, but won't verify it because afraid of truth.
I'm not saying they are not killing birds, or mice, or small preys in general. Cats are predators and amongst the best. What I'm saying is that they are invasive only in places they never were in before human brought them (like Australia or small islands). In continental Eurasia (except areas where they are explicitly been controlled), they have always been there, and the environment is adapted to their presence and will not significantly suffer, not more than any other predator.
ah ok cool
KEEP THEM INSIDE THE FUCKING HOUSE YO.
DO YOU WANT IT TO LIVE?
https://scitechdaily.com/bird-flu-is-now-killing-cats-at-a-90-fatality-rate-experts-warn-it-could-jump-to-humans/
300 dead cats in 20 years in 18 countries? I'm guessing that house fires kill more cats than that.
I don't knoe why people are obsesse with keeping cats inside. In a less urbanized area, they are perfectly safe staying outside.
pfft sure bud, perfectly safe.
https://scitechdaily.com/bird-flu-is-now-killing-cats-at-a-90-fatality-rate-experts-warn-it-could-jump-to-humans/
I understand the concerns in the USA, but where I live, burd flu seems to be pretty much a non-problem for now because of very strict controla and low volume of aviary farming.
you do you mate. but honestly chiming in as if the rest of the world shouldn't keep their cats inside is silly when the concerns - predation - and spreading bird flu around are actual genuine issues.
no one can make you care. doesn't mean I won't keep spreading the word so others benefit from the knowledge.
edit: lemmy, you're turning into reddit. someone says they want to help people protect their pets and stop spreading disease and you downvote because you're so fucking selfish you'd rather silence dissent than let people spread information that may save a loved pet or their family members.
you're fucked in the head.