Duh.

[rootofnewt]

You know, there's no excuse for sadistic behavior, but Keep your damned cats INSIDE and they won't be skinned by a sicko. And your cat won't kill songbirds. Or crap in someone else's vegetable garden. Or get hit by a car. Or get bitten by a dog.

Comments

[anmorata.livejournal.com]

Ergh. I know I'd read previously that some of those killed were feral cats. I agree with you 100%, though - my pets are indoor-only, and I only have cats. :)

[melody-rossiter.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Indoor kitties for me. You can't get angry at what happens to these critters if you let them outside.

[elnigma.livejournal.com]

I'm tired of the insanity of these "feral" trap-release people who tame cats they find but won't keep them safely inside with them.
If you like/love a cat, you find it a home, and keep it safe.

[paquerette.livejournal.com]

Not all ferals are able to become friendlies. The stance of just about every TNR program that I'm aware of is that friendlies should be found homes if possible, but non-friendlies should be released.

[elnigma.livejournal.com]

That could be the opinion/goal of the program, but it isn't necessarily how things are always done.

[elnigma.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking of my neighbor who after several days of a kitty trying to sneak into our house, I asked if she wanted him or knew someone who would. Instead of taking him in, she joined "Alley Cat Allies" and the cat roams outdoors. He's tame, always been tame, and hangs about me when I'm outside, craving human attention. He doesn't belong outdoors.

(The reason I didn't take him in was I had 2 cats and 1 dog who would all have been offended, the reason I asked her if she wanted him was she told me one of her cats had died.)

[sophy.livejournal.com]

I agree as a general rule that this is good advice. Some cats, however, are seriously absolutely frigging miserable being all-indoor cats and are best cared for by being allowed to go outside.

Not reading the link because I don't think I can handle reading about cat-skinning today.

[krasota.livejournal.com]

The cat need not be free range outside. Build an enclosure. Or walk the cat on a leash. Free range cats are a nuisance and are a danger to others AND in danger themselves.

[sophy.livejournal.com]

I'd love to see someone try and walk a cat like the one I grew up with on a leash!! Or try and keep her in any kind of enclosure that wasn't built by the Fort Knox people! I'm not trying to be obstinate here, I just have a different perspective, one that I hold from experience and knowledge. I'm not saying all cats should be free-roaming. At all. I'd never ever let my Cleo baby go outside without my eagle eye protection because it would be a bad bad horrible bad thing. But for the cat I grew up with? It was seriously the only option.

[alierakieron.livejournal.com]

Exactly. We have a cat that A) can. not. be kept inside. I've gotten hurt on a few occasions trying, and B) will get extremely destructive inside. It's let her out or put her down. It's not a scenario I'm at all happy about, and I really wish we could get her previous owners to take her back.

[mmymoon.livejournal.com]

Not all cats are happy being indoor cats.

I'm pretty morally on the side of feral management people, or people who run cat sanctuaries out in the middle of nowhere, because this is only counting the cats who are currently pets. (Although people try to make pets out of feral cats, and then wonder why Poopsiekins isn't as domesticated as the kitten who was raised indoors. Or worse, people have a complete PET domestic cat and throw it into the woods, figuring that they can survive, right?) I think it's a matter of personality, genetics, socialization, and all sorts of things -- just like us. I have some siblings who would be content never leaving the house...

[alierakieron.livejournal.com]

Exactly. We have another cat who doesn't go outside and never will. Future cats that we have from kittenhood never will. But Spitfire (who is aptly named) lived her first year feral, and while she stays in during the winter, come fair weather she'll literally chew your hand off to get outside.

[mmymoon.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly this. My first two boys were kittens I found, but grew up inside. Janey, the little girl, we found and grew up inside, but she was older and... I think possibly a bit dehydrated when we found her, and has always been rather insistent on BEING OUTSIDE NOW. (She's also extremely affectionate and sweet when she wants to be; they all are, but she's a licker. Ow! That's nearly as bad as when she's trying to kill you!)

[lightning-rose.livejournal.com]

We have coyotes in the neighborhood from time to time, but no feral cats and few free range cats.

Last fall there was a feral chicken in the tree across the street, but she didn't survive the winter. :(

[mmymoon.livejournal.com]

Not to squibble, but that's pretty much what I'm getting at with abandoned (species) versus feral (species). Cats freely survive and have litters outdoors, breeding generations of cats who, if not taken in, are feral. It's the life they've known... mixed in with the abandoned pets who are seriously confused why they aren't eating cat food right now. (Not that true ferals can't become friendlies; all of the cats I have now were feral baby kitties who walked up and went "Meow!") Of course, it's harder to know if a friendly cat who is an adult was a pet or not, or just a feral cat who dreams of the posh life.

... but chickens? I've personally never see a true feral-raised one, just one someone couldn't catch. ;9

I wouldn't bat an eyelash at turkeys or guineas, though. Chickens don't last long around the coyotes and foxes here, but guineas are MEAN!

[mmymoon.livejournal.com]

(Er, not that that's the dictionary definition or anything, but just in my experience with chickens. They do okay free-range for a while, but eventually Get Et. Which is why I'm not a big fan of "free-range chickens," either -- they need even MORE protection from predators than cats. Free-range turkeys... maybe... but I like chicken tractors/runs for chickens.)

WOOHOO FARM GIRL PHILOSOPHICAL DISCUSSIONS!

[mmymoon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, okay, this is a city/rural thing --

I personally have a huge fence around my house, because I'm paranoid. I do my best to keep my kitties from being Highway Chow.

But....

I have a 6' goat fence with electric hot wire on top. Janey still figured out how to get out, and will, always gets out -- and after months of trying different things, short of cutting muscles in her legs, I've just accepted it.

If she becomes road pizza or someone's decorative skinned coat, it'll be sad, but. She pretty much just stays by my house, though; the "loose" cats go all over the neighborhood, but she just sits in our field and catches mice. (BTW -- they'll still catch songbirds. Because songbirds are dumb and fly into the fence. I've tried to put all the birdfeeders far away from the house, but some still persist... on the plus side, my garden is well protected from the local wildlife.)


Personally?

Truly?

Deeply?

I think people who live in the middle of nowhere, yet persist in making their cats crap indoors and get sick from inhaling too many carpet fibers... well, their houses are less than optimal. Plus, once it becomes cats plural, they... often smell less than optimal...

I'd rather my cats get sunshine and die prematurely than be indoor cats if they don't have to be. Now, I'm not the "OH IT'LL BE FINE" people who let their cats run loose right by the highway; I am obsessive and built a six foot fence and such, but I really don't agree with the notion that indoor cats is the holy gospel.

Of course, maybe people should just, you know... refrain from cats. The stuff about how "clean" and "smart" they are -- oy. I love my kitties, but seriously? I'd rather clean up toddler poo than cat poo.

[sabethea.livejournal.com]

...In fact, if we all stayed in the entire time, we'd be a hell of a lot safer.

[krasota.livejournal.com]

Yes, but I don't go around killing songbirds and pooping in other folks' food gardens. So while I may take on risk by leaving the house, I'm not by my very nature a nuisance animal and garden pest.

This is a US-centric site, but it has good info:
http://www.hsus.org/pets/pet_care/cat_care/keep_your_cat_safe_at_home_hsuss_safe_cats_campaign/

It comes to mind that y'all have a very different view of cats over there and folks just don't conceive of not letting cats out.

[the-maenad.livejournal.com]

Yes, indeed. It always makes me boggle somewhat that the Americans who excoriate the British for (generally) letting our cats go outside, taking the risk of them killing birds or getting hit by cars in order to give them some freedom, are too often the same ones who will think nothing of crippling their cats by declawing them when the poor little mites scratch the furniture because they can't go outside to sharpen them on a tree... But I probably shouldn't go there...

[krasota.livejournal.com]

I think declawing is pretty horrid.

I also think that if you can't keep a critter safe and contained, you shouldn't be responsible for that creature in the first place. House-cats have no place in most modern (or not) eco-systems.

[paquerette.livejournal.com]

I'm so not clicking that. :(

[sheilamarie.livejournal.com]

A big part of the reason why we got a 6 foot fence around our backyard was so that our cats could go outside from time to time. They seem to have no interest in jumping the fence and all I have to do is poke my head out the door and say "inside" and they come running in. But my cats are REALLY weird. They act more like dogs than cats most of the time.

Poor Fred got stuck outside in a storm a few weeks back, he hasn't been wanting to go outside as much lately. Greg thought Fred had come inside with Peanut, but didn't physically check and closed the door. About an hour later, after a torrential downpour had been going on for at least a half hour, Greg decided to go look at the rain and spotted poor little Fred running around the yard looking for protection from the rain. Fred bolted inside when Greg opened the door and bitched at him for a while after. I wish I had see it.

[mmymoon.livejournal.com]

I have 6' goat wire with ELECTRIC on top... it's a large matter on if you get a climber/how devoted they are. Little Kitty can get out anytime, anywhere -- Middle Kitty does his best to throw himself under your feet and escape when you're bringing in groceries. They sit outside the fence for a while, then meow and come back in.

Big Fat Kitty thinks they're stupid to expend that much energy, when there is neither cat food nor AC out there.

I've often wondered, were I to adopt a cat, if I could specify "lazy slug" for a personality. ;9 (Not that I've ever had to ADOPT a cat; cats find me. I only ever wanted the one fat one! Heh.)

[inahappycrowd.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, this is making me cry. Not exaggerating. :-(

[krasota.livejournal.com]

Well, if it makes you feel better, they did arrest someone. :/

[inahappycrowd.livejournal.com]

Just read the story about the arrest. Hope it's the right suspect and that, if so, he is severely prosecuted.

I, too, believe in keeping my cats indoors. Ares (the one in this icon) really wants to go play outside, so I bought him a harness so that I can take him out in the yard on occasionally, but have some security. He just rolls around and chews on the grass and then we go back inside, namely because I get bored. That way, my worst threat is likely to be an annoying case of fleas.

[inahappycrowd.livejournal.com]

oops... meant "on occasion"

Wow

[pace.livejournal.com]

I'm amazed at how many people think it is OK for cats to roam around outside...sicko for sure in the article, but like you said, keep your damn cats inside.