Keep Your Cat Indoors
Posted on May 31, 2007 by
I’ve been reading about domestic cats disrupting the bird population quite a bit lately. It ‘s a topic on a lot of my favorite eco-conscious websites.
Our cat is an indoor cat. When I got her, the ASPCA made me promise to keep her indoors for her safety. But I had outdoor cats as a kid, and they loved to bring us “presents.”
According to Ecology Fund:
Domestic cats kill over one billion small birds and animals every year (1 outdoor cat averages 40 kills per year). They upset natural predator/prey balances and eliminate ground nesting birds.
Trying to keep an outdoor cat indoors may cause you to lose your sanity, but if you’re getting a new cat, commit to keeping her indoors.
Or, you could walk your cat on a leash.
You can out-stubborn a cat; just takes a long time (and earplugs). Thing is, most people don’t really take the time to provide their cats with companionship, so the cat gets bored and starts doing “stuff” (scratching, yowling to go out, etc). And then they kick the cats out.
But apparently, outdoor cats spread toxoplasmosis, which kills sea otters (haven’t found any verification of this), so that’s another reason to keep them inside.