Good.
Australian with three cats here - they’re all indoor and happy about it because i’m not a shitarse pet owner. An outdoor cat in Australia is ecological genocide
From the cats perspective I think it’s quite uncontroversial to say they’d be happier roaming free.
EDIT: I’d really love to hear the argument for why a cat actually prefers to live its enitire life indoors, despite this being something we’ve only done to them for the past few decades or so.
I mean even if they would rather be outside, they live longer inside, they are healthier and they would have better deads
I could literally leave my back door wide open and Cerys would not step foot out it. She hates the outdoors. Punkin’s stuck his nose out a few times, but it holds no real interest for him and Misha - who was an abandoned cat that literally decided to move in with us and has lived an extensive part of her life as an in-out cat could not give a shit about going outside.
Needs are met - food, safety, security and entertainment - they’re very happy.
But all of that is downright irrelevant. We are talking about an introduced species that wreaks unimaginable ecological damage if left to its own devices. Why the almighty fuck would a cat’s fee-fees override that? Not to mention the cat safety issues. I mean i’m sure punkin would be ‘happier’ with his balls intact merrily raping and impregnating his sister and mother but that shit ain’t happening either.
We’ve selected for traits that make some of them only really suitable at being indoor companions or mouse hunters.
Hairless cats for just one instance.
These aren’t wild animals.
Good, should be enforced world wide.
Along with mandatory spay/neuter. Make it a crime to intentionally avoid spaying and neutering cats and dogs.
Oh, you’re a breeder? I used to work at a no kill animal shelter. You’re the bane of my, and every stray animal’s, existence. FUCK animal breeders.
And the pet stores that buy from those breeders.
Are you confusing ‘breeder’ with ‘pet mill’? Ghetto breeding was horrible to my family involved in animal care and salvation. Actual breeders, though, not so much.
I’m talking about anyone who intentionally takes an unneutered male animal and an unspayed female animal and intentionally puts them together to make and sell babies. Especially inbreeders. The only purebred animal that I can accept is sheepdogs, because they aren’t bred for looks, they’re bred for intelligence.
I mean, if such a campaign is ever completely successful, along with one for capturing or fixing stray and feral animals, there would need to be some amount of breeding of them or they’d eventually go extinct. Perhaps with regulation on both practices that lead to unnecessary health problems (like inbreeding or breeding for harmful traits like squashed faces) and on numbers to avoid breeding more of a specific sort of animal than there exists demand for.
Maybe add a safeguard to it, so that when local animal shelters are at 10% capacity the regulation is temporarily lifted or something. Realistically, it would never be totally successful anyway.
Good luck getting the UK on board, something like 90% of cats are outdoor cats here
Both domesticated and feral cats — like the one pictured above in New York — pose a threat to Australia’s biodiversity, experts say.
I know what they meant by this, but I still find it amusing that a cat in New York could pose a threat to Australia’s biodiversity.
Im so mad with people not willing to put down feral cats, the live of a single cat is worth more than the live of the hundreds of wild animals that it will kill in its lifetime? Fucking not, but some people are delusional and only think in the cute cat pics. They say ignorance is bliss
You’re an entitled speciist! If cats are good at hunting, it’s just nature’s way of creating balance and it’s none of your goddamn business to prevent that. In my personal opinion people like you (entitled speciist scum) are redundant and we don’t need you on planet Earth.
CATS WERE NOT NATIVE TO AUSTRALIA IN THE FIRST PLACE!
Neither were 99% of australians, you illiterate dummy.
And we can decide to not decimate the ecosystem. Cats don’t know any better.
Who brought the cats?
I’m not really sure what your point is.
We brought the cats in the first place
I definitely think one pet is worth hundreds of wild animals. I even believe that one pet’s happiness is worth the lives of hundreds of wild animals.
Edit:
Buy biodiversity is more important than the happiness of all those pets. Something should be done if this is a real threat to the ecosystem.
If my dog has to stay inside my property, so can your fucking cat.
I’m surprised the cats aren’t getting eaten by Australia’s insane array of larger fauna.
There isn’t really anything here that would prey on a cat. Australia is pretty harmless comparatively. No bears, no ‘big’ cats or wolves of any kind. Crocodiles are limited to the tropics and most of Australia is not in the tropics. Nothing like anacondas and cats are too quick for snakes anyway. There are sharks but they pose no threat to cats. For all the press Australia gets about dangerous wildlife it’s actually a pretty chill place. The cities are pretty devoid of bugs if you live in a flat or keep your garden litter down, even more devoid of bugs since I was a kid (mostly due to massive logging in regional areas and overdevelopment in urban areas).
I would think cars would probably be cats biggest killer, especially in urban areas.
