I should be going to sleep but I’m a sucker so I’m going to break this down instead.
Cats require exercise, this is integral to both their physical and emotional wellbeing. Permitting them unrestricted outdoor access can absolutely meet their exercise needs, but it is not safe to do so, and as their caregivers we must balance their health and their happiness instead of choosing one over the other.
The reason there’s this misconception of indoor cats being bored and depressed, which can lead to inactivity and weight gain, or destructive is because cat owners do not play with their cats enough.
Only 64% of the owners in this study played with their cats twice a day, of that a meager 25% reported 10 minute play sessions. It was also reported that the cats with 5 minute play sessions displayed fewer behavioral problems than those with 1 minute play sessions.
Engage your cat! There’s this huge misconception that cats are low maintenance pets, they’re aloof and independent and they’ll take care of themselves and that’s not true! They need more from than to leave out some toys and scoop their box.
Jane Ehrlich, from the cat division of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants, recommends multiple 20 minute sessions of real interactive play each day. A key term here is real, behaviorist Pam-Johnson Bennett has an article on proper interactive play with cats, it’s important to be involved and to let them complete the sequence of the kill.
Environmental enrichment matters too! Outdoors your cat doesn’t just get exercise stalking prey [or running from loose dogs, fighting other cats, etc] you’ll often see them climbing trees, atop of fences, and so on.
They need this indoors too! A study at the Waltham Research Center found that after being provided with vertical territory unfriendly behavior increased when the vertical territory was removed, this may be a huge contributor to the problems some experience when trying to bring free-roaming cats indoors for good.
“”Not everyone can do this!”” Interactive play and environmental enrichment are the minimum standards of care for a cat, if you’re unable to meet the bare minimum standards of care for an animal you should not have that pet. You are not owed a cat, you are not entitled to one, if you’re unable to adequately provide for a cat than do not have a cat.
There are people who work full-time jobs, who work multiple jobs, who attend school, who live with mental and/or physical disabilities, who live in small apartments, who have a low income, etc. and are still able to meet their cats needs. I know because many of my followers fall into one, or more, of the aforementioned categories.
Cats are a menace to the environment. This pertains to the persons tags, the damage domestic cats do to the environment is so well documented I can’t believe people still try to deny it. Them again, there are still people who deny climate change, so I guess it isn’t too suprising.
There’s not only the issue of mortality due to predation, but cat saliva is full of pathogens that birds, reptiles, and rodents are sensitive to. Even if a captured prey-item is alert and unharmed to the untrained eye they may still die later as a result of being exposed to these pathogens, as a result of the stress of being predated upon, or as a result of internal trauma that can’t be detected without being seen by a wildlife veterinarian.
The mere presence of free-roaming cats is also known to have sub-lethal effects on bird populations, resulting in parents visiting the nest less frequently reducing the amount of feeding juveniles receive and leaving them exposed to other predators.
You’ll often hear outdoor cat proponents claim it’s feral cats that are an ecological disaster, not their beloved Fluffy, but I’ve broken down before how owned free-roaming cats are far from blameless.
