I think cats are great. IMO, a cat is the best and most economical tool for rodent control. Why would you say I don’t like cats?
I have a couple cats that hang around the barn and henhouse. They never come in the house and seem to like it that way (pretty sure most of them actually live in the barn.) I leave food and water out for them and they kill the rats that like to eat the chicken feed. Seems to work out OK.
I’d think they would attack the chickens, or at least the young ones.
We’ve had indoor and outdoor and just recently made our inny-outy an indoors only (after I saw him near the road). It’s best to keep them inside and heartbreaking if they get hit by a car, get the shit kicked out of them by something bigger, or get a horrible disease. It doesn’t make you a bad person if you prefer an outdoor cat, but be prepared for All Kinds Of Shit You Didn’t Bargain For.
I guess it depends on the person. I think cats are great tools, but I have no affection for them. As an example, one of our cats went blind last year. There was no heartbreak on my part… I just shot him in the head and threw him in our burn barrel.
I’ve known people who look at domesticated animals that way. But only a few.
I was reading Sam Harris’ The End of Faith and he writes about how in France in the Middle Ages it was really popular to burn cats for entertainment.
It just shows how far we have come that the outdoor issue is even an issue.
Is that you dad? heh. Sounds just like my family, they live in central ohio on a large plot of land. (used to be about 65 acres, some has been sold off over the years) We’ve pretty much always had outdoor cats, about the only indoor they ever did was that they could get into our enclosed back porch if they wanted. Us kids treated them like pets, named them, played with them, etc. Its just that they lived outside most of the time.
Almost every rural family I know has outdoor cats, its a very common thing.
:eek: :eek:
Guess I could never be a farmer!