#outdoor cats

[todaysbird]

as a huge lover of birds, 90% of the concern against wind turbines being used for energy is literally just pro fossil fuel propaganda. birds ARE at a risk however there is a lot of strategies even as simple as painting one of the blades that reduces a lot of accidental deaths. additionally renewable energy sources will do more in favor of the environment that would positively impact birds (and all of us). one study found over one million bird deaths from wind turbines. while that is a shockingly high number and we should work to drastically shrink it, at least 1.3 billion birds die to outdoor cats on a yearly basis. it was never about caring about birds

#animal death #climate change #outdoor cats

[rebeccathenaturalist]

A study that just came out demonstrates that outdoor cats are known to prey on over two thousands species of wild animal, from mammals to birds to insects. That includes 347 species that are endangered, threatened or otherwise of concern, and they've been a key factor of the permanent extinction of over 60 species. And while cats may not always bring home what they catch, chances are if your cat is allowed to roam unsupervised outside, they're killing your local wildlife.

Why is this so important? Worldwide, wild animal populations have decreased in number by 69% in the past fifty years; that means that in my lifetime (born in 1978), the sheer number of wild animals in the world has been decreased by over half. Even "common" wild species are less numerous than before. While habitat population is the single biggest cause of species endangerment and extinction overall, outdoor and indoor/outdoor cats are a significant cause as well. In fact, they are the single biggest cause of human-caused mortality in wild birds.

Most importantly, it's very, very simple to fix this problem: keep your cats indoors, and spay and neuter them. If your cat is bored, they need more enrichment, and there are plenty of ways to make your home more exciting for them, from bringing home cardboard boxes for them to explore, to playing with them more often. If you want your cat to get some outdoor enrichment, leash train them (yes, it can be done!) If you have the space and resources, build them a catio where they can be safe from outdoor dangers like predators and cars, while also keeping local wildlife safe from them.

If you just give into their whining and pawing at the door, then they know that that's what they have to do to get their way; I know it's a tough transition, but it's worth it in the end for everyone involved. Cats are domesticated, which means they are not native anywhere in the world; there are exactly zero ecosystems in which they belong, save for the safety of your home. It is your responsibility to give them an enriching environment without taking the shortcut of letting them go wreak havoc outside.

#cats #outdoor cats #feral cats #nature #wildlife #animals #ecology #environment #conservation #science #scicomm #birds #endangered species #extinction #domesticated animals #domestication #biology #animal behavior #animal welfare

[kittykichi]

Supes says the good thing to do, not the popular one eheh 🐦

#maws #my adventures with superman #superman #Clark Kent #Jimmy Olsen #my comics #outdoor cats

[absentlyabbie]

i'll tell you what converted me to being all-in on keeping cats indoors only:

living for a year and a half in a rural area with a sudden feral cat colony explosion on the property.

i moved in with my folks for a bit and at that time, one (1) stray cat mama had taken up residence on the property, but was too feral to let my mother anywhere near her. but especially after she brought three kittens around, mom fed her and the kittens in hopes they'd grow trusting enough she could catch for spay and neuter at the minimum. momcat stayed mean and hella wary, but the kittens would hang around a little nearer and play with my mom via long stick, but still wouldn't come close enough to touch or catch.

unfortunately, two of the three kittens were girls and started having kittens of their own before further progress was made, shortly after i moved in. and that was pretty much instant doom.

there were so many kittens. SO MANY. multiple litters. every time we turned around, more kittens.

we fed them. we hunted for and located the kittens every time anywhere on the property and would move them to a repurposed doghouse anytime a mama cat had them somewhere else, so that they could grow up human-socialized and we could spay/neuter them when they were old enough. (also it was a handy tactic to push the issue of the mamas getting more used to/trusting of us themselves. only really worked with one of them, though.)

and we watched them die.

we watched litter after litter of kittens never make it to the age they could be spayed or neutered. the moms stayed, for the longest time, too skittish to more than briefly touch, much less catch and crate for a vet visit.

it sounds like a silly joke to say i have kitten-related ptsd, but i absolutely do.

too many goddamn times i'd walk out of the garage and find the carport and gravel drive strewn with tiny bodies. others simply went missing, never to be found.

one in particular, i wish i hadn't found, and the visual literally haunts me still, almost a decade later.

i saw so many kittens die of snake bite, spider bite, wild dogs, birds of prey, hit by cars, respiratory illness, covered in fleas and eyes crusted with infection.

and we loved them all. scrimped for antibiotics if the vet could be convinced to give it to us despite our being unable to bring them in. bought flea collars and ointments. we cared for them and fed them and petted them and played with them, brushed their fur and cleaned up their little faces, put ice in their water in hot summer, rigged a heating lamp in their house in the winter.

and they died. horribly. that property is pocked with unmarked graves of kittens and cats.

all the best intentions, not enough resources, and it didn't matter anyways because the population went from three to almost twenty (at times, over thirty) in the blink of an eye.

they died and died and died. our hearts broke over and over again. the stress and anxiety wore us down like sandpaper. i think, by the end of it all, we managed to find less than 10 of them all homes, including batman the disabled kitten i found a home across the country through tumblr.

it was carnage and tragedy, frankly. and we were helpless.

it only ended because they started dying faster than they could be born, and because we finally caught the two remaining mom cats in traps and got them spayed.

the points about outdoor cats being invasive predators devastating to local wildlife populations is true and valid and important.

but i know cat people, and cat people who don't know better than to let cats outdoors. what matters to you is the cat itself, generally. the cat being happy and taken care of.

keeping cats outdoors, letting them outdoors, is not taking care of the cats. it's not protecting them. it's not giving them any happiness or invigoration that couldn't be provided to them as indoor-only pets with just a little research and effort.

they die. they get ill. they get hurt. they're at risk of predators, and cars, and disease, and carelessly cruel children and deliberately cruel adults. they're at risk of disappearing on you because someone else saw a cat outdoors and intervened to give it a better, safer life not in conflict with the local environment.

and if that offends and angers you that someone would just take a cat they saw roaming outdoors, even collared, and that it sounds like i'm endorsing that, i am, but not if you intervene and be that person yourself for your own cat.

if what matters to you is doing right by your cat because it's family and a living creature whose happiness and health and safety is important to you,

keep them indoors. not part time. always. exclusively.

edit: since apparently i need to clarify this, i'm saying cats should live inside, that they should not live outdoors, even part time. visiting the outdoors supervised on a leash or in an enclosed catio is not the same as even part-time living outside, and i am certainly not advocating against it.

#long post #cats #indoor cats #outdoor cats #keep your cats inside

[t3rrortoff33]

outdoor cats should be illegal. I don't care that it's gonna make it impossible for some people to have cats, I don't care that it would make more cats have to be put down because they can't be kept indoors. No, barn cats aren't a valid excuse. Barn cats are useless, get a damn ratting dog it won't give your livestock diseases or shit in their feed like barn cats do. I don't give a shit that your cat tears the house up if you keep it inside, maybe you should actually care for your cat and not expect all it's enrichment to come from being tossed outdoors. Stop making up excuses for neglecting cats.

#cat #cats #outdoor cats #cute cats #cute #uwu #barn cats #warrior cats #wildlife

[justawanderingfan]

The Hidden Problem of Outdoor Cats: Ecology of Fear

As a huge cat lover who grew up with cats and adores every part of them, outdoor cats are a problem. You’ve probably already heard this, but domestic outdoor cats are responsible for a staggering number of extinctions in local bird populations, even if someone thinks their “sweet little baby would never hunt” because the cat definitely has. But that’s old news, and I’m here to present another (probably already done) theory on why these cats cause problems, and that is a concept called “The ecology of fear.”

Ecology of Fear is a semi-recent concept coined by ecologists that talks about the indirect impact predators have on prey species. Basically, besides directly influencing prey populations by killing prey, there is a broader impact caused by just the presence of a predator that causes defensive changes in behavior. This change usually involves being much more cautious, meaning there’s more energy devoted to being alert and weary and less energy spent on growth and reproduction. There’s also less food consumed because the prey cannot spent large amounts of time in the open. So what does this mean for cats?

It means that even if your cat has less than one brain cell and doesn’t know how to hunt and is scared of grass like mine is, it doesn’t matter. Just the existence of a cat in the area causes local animals to chance their behavior, often with negative impacts for themselves. Birds and other prey species already have to deal with natural local predators, and adding the pressure of cats into the system tips the natural balance too far against the prey.

So please keep your cats indoors, both for their safety and the safety of local animals.

Sincerely,

An aspiring ecologist

(Also: if you’re interested in more details on the ecology of fear, a good documentary to watch is “Nature’s Fear Factor” on PBS. It’s about the reintroduction of wild dogs to Gorongosa Natural Park)

#cats #kittens #outdoor cats #cat lovers #ecology #biology #birds #outdoors #cats are babey but they do not belong outside #invasive species #nature

[the-adventures-of-dave]

Around tumblr lately I’ve seen people with the opinion that not only are free roaming cats bad (correct) but also supervised cats in catios or on leashes (????). I assume it must stem from that “ecology of fear” post from a few months ago, but to me the sudden appearance of these kinds of posts just strikes me as odd. I’ve seen multiple posts like the below one in just this week.

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If your cat is contained to your yard/catio/the sidewalk, then it still allows for predator-free safe places in your neighbourhood for wildlife, and creates predictability for them too. That’s one of the reasons why hiking trails ask people to stay on the trail— so you (and your dog, horse, cat, etc) can safely enjoy nature while still giving it space. It is possible to exist outdoors in natural spaces like that while maintaining wildlife comfort. If it wasn’t possible to do that, dog-friendly or (even just hiking trails in general, since humans are predators too) simply wouldn’t exist.

The problem with free roaming cats is that they break boundaries between human area (ie. trail, back porch) and wildlife area (foliage, etc) and there is nowhere the wildlife can go to exist that is safe from predators.

Idk, this is just my opinion but I just think there can be more nuance to the outdoor/free roaming cat issue than “never let your cat step outside under any circumstance”.

#also it’s just dog double standards again #no one’s calling for people to stop walking their dogs 🙄 #arguably a dog barking at and chasing a rabbit is way more stressful than Kepler sitting in his backpack on the porch with me #it’s possible to coexist with wildlife you just have to be smart and respectful about it #anyways ignore my 8am rambling #I got woken up by the fire alarm at 5am and then immediately saw some bad takes on tumblr once that was sorted #so now I’m like :/ #outdoor cats

[themoonking]

*outdoor cat owner voice* weep for poor mr mittens, taken too soon. he lived for 3 years before being struck and killed by a car. and only weeks after he narrowly survived being ripped apart by a fox. would that there were a way to prevent such tragedy, but alas, i cannot deny the 2007 toyota land cruiser its natural prey. off to the shelter, to obtain another animal to let loose around the neighborhood. perhaps this one will live as long as my late madame tuna, who reached the ripe old age of 6 before injesting rat poison and dying.

#i speak #outdoor cats #animal welfare

[great-and-small]

#dune 2022 #memes #cats #outdoor cats #indoor cats #real animal lovers keep their cats and wildlife safe

[todaysbird]

happy earth day. don’t forget that someone else’s outdoor cat is your indoor cat

#I’ve had enough #outdoor cats

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Me: Cats are an invasive species that, when allowed to free-roam, slaughter massive numbers of native wildlife worldwide, are frequently subjected to horrible diseases, injuries, and deaths outdoors, and should only be allowed outdoors on leashes or in catios.

Also me: *trills to Random Outdoor Cat in the hopes it will come over so I can pet it*

#cats #outdoor cats #invasive species #wildlife #animals #the duality of man

[agro-carnist]

Stop calling stray and feral cats "community cats." They are not members of a community, they are neglected and invasive animals. Failing to even try to home these animals is not cute. They shouldn't be uplifted as a feature of a community. It fails that community, the cats, and the environment they are a part of. We don't do that with dogs, don't do it with cats. Cats aren't special.

#animal welfare #outdoor cats

[is-the-snake-video-cute]

okay important to ask, do barn cats eat snakes????? is it safe for them to do so????? my cats usually go for the rodents, we really did not expect a whole ass snake to be in her jaws, the poor guy :') i didn't know cats actually hunted snakes

Cats will hunt any and all wildlife in the area that's vaguely smaller than them. Birds, lizards, snakes - everything. Cats are efficient hunters and hunt for fun as well as for food.

If it's at all within your power, I'd like to ask you to please consider keeping your cats inside. Barn cats are actually pretty awful at rodent control - in actuality they do more to hunt and scare away the natural predators of rodents (like snakes). This behavior can also be dangerous for the cat - they're at risk of predation themselves, and may get bitten by venomous snakes while hunting.

Domestic cats are also extremely devastating invasive predators, responsible for the extinction of at least 63 species worldwide and negatively impacting local ecosystems everywhere they are found.

Even allowing cats to roam outside is a net negative for all parties involved. Cats belong inside!

#not a rating #cats #outdoor cats

[erzvolnes]

Assume that "exclusively indoors" also includes cats who live indoors full-time, but get time outside on a leash, in a catio, or in another secure area with adequate supervision.

For bonus points add in the tags what you voted, and what country you're from.

#i'm CURIOUS what the actual percentage is #cats #indoor cats #outdoor cats

[peoplegettingreallymadatghosts]

yet another reason to keep your cat indoors

#cars coyotes molemen where does it end #cats #outdoor cats #animals #cw animal death #encounter story #paranormal #cryptid #cryptozoology

[acti-veg]

In total, cats eat 981 species of bird, 463 reptiles and 431 mammals – comprising about 90% of species consumed. They were also found to feed on 119 species of insects and 57 amphibians.

Cats are particularly damaging on islands, where they eat three times the number of species of conservation concern compared to what they eat on continents. For example, they are known to have eaten species that are now extinct in the wild, including New Zealand’s Stephens Island Rockwren and the New Zealand quail.

#outdoor cats #cats #indoor cats #articles