# You’re wrong about your outdoor cat **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 14, 2019, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-re-wrong-about-your-outdoor-cat/841766 "2019-10-14T22:27:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-re-wrong-about-your-outdoor-cat/841766/41 "2019-10-15T12:37:02Z")
Our previous cats were indoor/outdoor. The only gifts they ever tried to bring home were mice and voles and once a rabbit. If only they had brought home starlings… That said, our current cat is strictly indoors as will be any future cats. ---
**Author:** ![shh1313](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shh1313/32/8020_2.png) [@shh1313](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shh1313)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-re-wrong-about-your-outdoor-cat/841766/42 "2019-10-15T12:59:42Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Nope. The outdoor cat kills mice and ground squirles and pack-rats and maybe a bird or two. Who the fuck cares? That’s what cats do. Life, man. It ain’t what city-folk want. I live in the country and they keep the rodent population down. I don’t want to poisen other animals. ---
**Author:** ![EscAlaMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/escalamike/32/4177_2.png) [@EscAlaMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EscAlaMike)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-re-wrong-about-your-outdoor-cat/841766/43 "2019-10-15T15:24:40Z")
I’m not a “pet” person, and I particularly dislike cats as I am allergic to them. My wife and kids however, love them. We have two outdoor cats that are forbidden to come inside. I have told my family that if I ever witness either of them inside, the cat will be “disappeared” Paraguay-style. Occasionally, we’ll find birds in the yard that the cats have killed. It makes me mad. I like watching birds, and they keep the insect population down. Both of our cats are fixed, so there’s that. A feral male used to come through my backyard every evening. Its route got somewhat predictable, so I’ve set up at the window with my .22 waiting for it. I’ve taken two shots at it, both missed :mad: ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-re-wrong-about-your-outdoor-cat/841766/44 "2019-10-15T15:53:44Z")
1. We don’t let our cats be outdoor cats – we have coyotes around here (in Massachusetts!) 2. We do, however, walk our cats. Sometimes we take them both out at the same time. We don’t use leashes (you CAN herd cats, it turns out.) But our cats don’t go out unsupervised. It’s not just the coyotes – I’ve had to rescue our cats from dogs. 3. Our cats aren’t contributing to the death of birds. I’ve watched our cats stalking birds and small furry animals. They’ve been singularly unsuccessful\* \*Midnight, our old arthritic cat, caught and ate toads and moths, and near the end of her life actually caught a live chipmunk. Wanted to bring it into the house to show it off to the other cats, too. She was pissed when we wouldn’t let her. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-re-wrong-about-your-outdoor-cat/841766/45 "2019-10-15T15:53:52Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > why wouldn’t she bring them in proudly like she does with mice? How is it we never see any bodies? She likes birds better than mice. So she keeps all the birds and you get all the mice. It’s just a theory but you have to admit it’s consistent with feline behavior. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-re-wrong-about-your-outdoor-cat/841766/46 "2019-10-15T16:16:57Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > Putting a bell on the cat does nothing to protect birds, but putting a brightly colored scrunchy on the cat in lieu of a regular collar absolutely does. The birds will see the bright colors moving around and react appropriately, whereas a bell means absolutely nothing to them. A scrunchy on the cat is pretty safe even if it gets caught on something cuz the cat can then wiggle out of it. Hit the dollar store and stock up on the brightest, gaudiest scrunchies you can find, the birds will thank you for it. Ours brought in birds until we belled her; she hasn’t caught a bird since, so I’m assuming the bell is doing something. Mice, on the other hand, are still on the menu (and there seem to be an endless supply). Sometimes she brings them in alive, which is always “fun”. Also: she is the nemesis of large moths. Oh the crunching sound they make… ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-re-wrong-about-your-outdoor-cat/841766/47 "2019-10-15T16:21:32Z")
I know my cat has killed a couple of birds. Living in Houston there was a species (grey body, white undercoat) that got real aggressive around nesting time, I saw them dive bombing her. First year she hid, next year she killed a couple. But I don’t feel too bad about her generally as she’s much more into catch and release- into the house. She could spend a sunny day bringing live geckos into the house and the evening bringing these giant tree cockroaches. Just last week, I was sitting on the toilet and she brought and released a live bird into the bathroom. I think I set a personal record on buttwiping speed. I know cats can be a problem but my fixed cat will help keep feral cats from moving into the territory and breeding. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-re-wrong-about-your-outdoor-cat/841766/48 "2019-10-15T16:55:19Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > House cats have just recently moved into an environmental niche that was formerly filled by young boys with BB guns. As a kid (age 6-12) I put a pretty sizeable dent in the bird population around our home, with a pellet gun. We had a an indoor/outdoor cat. Whenever he would see me with the pellet gun, he’d jump up and follow me around. He became more of a retriever in some sense. He’d just lay down near me when I was looking for birds to shoot, and when one would hit the ground, he’d run and pounce on it like he’d killed it. My primary target was blue jays, but I wasn’t too discriminatory. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-re-wrong-about-your-outdoor-cat/841766/49 "2019-10-15T18:16:51Z")
Nah…I’ve always known it. Forget sharks…cats are Nature’s perfect killing machines. Birds, snakes, mice, moles, chipmunks, and even fish are ALWAYS on the menu. I had one cat who would bring me at least a fish every day when he went down to the creek during the summer. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-re-wrong-about-your-outdoor-cat/841766/50 "2019-10-15T19:47:19Z")
So if I do a cursory look on Google, the US has 96 million house cats but a second site shows 50 million feral cats. I don’t think you can assume a house cat is going to eat the same number of birds as a feral cat. So the real approach would be to encourage spaying/neutering, and feral cat colony elimination. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-re-wrong-about-your-outdoor-cat/841766/51 "2019-10-15T20:49:04Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > Do all these dead birds have an adverse effect on humans? Here’s an article from the Audubon Society [What Do Birds Do For Us?](https://www.audubon.org/news/what-do-birds-do-us) Personally, my favorite things that birds do for ME is: 1. Eat bugs, especially mosquitoes 2. Clean up roadkill. Granted these are birds of prey and crows that do this, not the birds getting eaten by cats, but still those big birds eat little birds when not eating roadkill. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-re-wrong-about-your-outdoor-cat/841766/52 "2019-10-15T21:56:06Z")
most cats love to chase things, doesn’t matter what it is so even if they are not eating their kill they will still kill anythig that moves. mice, chipmunks, flying squirrels,baby squirrels, baby muskrats (yes my cat brought home a baby muskrat), birds birds birds, snakes, frogs, june bugs, butterflies, crickets! grasshoppers, spiders, lizards even flies. they are killing machines, dont make excuses for them, its what they do and its not nice. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2019, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-re-wrong-about-your-outdoor-cat/841766/53 "2019-10-16T00:05:44Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > The OP is going up against a pervasive belief that it is cruel/unnatural to confine a cat to a house or apartment and that it “needs” to roam.\* then why have a cat as a pet? I don’t get why cats seem to be the only animal which makes people lose their minds. we’ve all heard/seen stories about the “crazy cat person/hoarder” and it’s only cats which I’ve personally seen trigger obsessive behavior in people. You don’t hear about the “crazy lizard person” or “crazy guinea pig person.” ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2019, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-re-wrong-about-your-outdoor-cat/841766/54 "2019-10-16T01:09:33Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > then why have a cat as a pet? I don’t get why cats seem to be the only animal which makes people lose their minds. we’ve all heard/seen stories about the “crazy cat person/hoarder” and it’s only cats which I’ve personally seen trigger obsessive behavior in people. You don’t hear about the “crazy lizard person” or “crazy guinea pig person.” I’ve heard of reptile hoarders, bird hoarders, dog hoarders and horse hoarders. People have an amazing ability to obsess about anything, including animals. As far as why people have pet cats, for me it’s that they are good companion animals and I enjoy the time I spend with them. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2019, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-re-wrong-about-your-outdoor-cat/841766/55 "2019-10-16T01:21:10Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > then why have a cat as a pet? I don’t get why cats seem to be the only animal which makes people lose their minds. we’ve all heard/seen stories about the “crazy cat person/hoarder” and it’s only cats which I’ve personally seen trigger obsessive behavior in people. You don’t hear about the “crazy lizard person” or “crazy guinea pig person.” There are some dog hoarders - Google it and you’ll get hits - but as a practical matter, cats are probably easier to hoard than dogs are. As to why cats make people lose their minds, [there is actually some research to support a scientific basis for this.](https://www.dw.com/en/new-research-reveals-how-toxoplasmosis-alters-the-brain/a-46222116) The idea is that the brain is altered by toxoplasmosis; infected mice lose their fear of cats. Many humans have had had toxoplasmosis at some point - it’s only dangerous to humans if a pregnant woman gets it, in which case the baby can have terrible defects. But as I understand it, it’s like chicken pox - once you’ve had it, you are immune. With humans, there is a suspected link between toxoplasmosis and autism, schizophrenia, and depression, though I don’t know how robust the research is. I’ve also seen speculation that it maybe having had toxo is one reason so many of us are “cat crazy.” I’m not sure I buy it, but who knows. It is for sure true that some of us are wildly drawn to cats. Did we all have toxo at some point? Maybe, but I’m voting for a “cat gene” or cluster of genes myself. I know I’m loony about cats and my son is too, and was from about the moment his eyes focused well enough to spot the family felines. ---
**Author:** ![Qwakkeddup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/90ced4/32.png) [@Qwakkeddup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwakkeddup)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2019, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-re-wrong-about-your-outdoor-cat/841766/56 "2019-10-16T02:27:20Z")
Saphire was my dad’s Husky, and considering how many times he actually caught her in the act, she was a proficient killer of all things. Inattentive squirrels, and birds ON THE WING! running across the yard, leaping onto then launching from the picnic table. Blue, the male would occasionally try to steal the kill from her, but he never even tried to catch one himself. They were not allowed to roam though. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2019, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-re-wrong-about-your-outdoor-cat/841766/57 "2019-10-16T02:57:12Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > Do all these dead birds have an adverse effect on humans? What an odd question. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2019, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-re-wrong-about-your-outdoor-cat/841766/58 "2019-10-16T11:36:20Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > then why have a cat as a pet? I don’t get why cats seem to be the only animal which makes people lose their minds. we’ve all heard/seen stories about the “crazy cat person/hoarder” and it’s only cats which I’ve personally seen trigger obsessive behavior in people. You don’t hear about the “crazy lizard person” or “crazy guinea pig person.” I have a (fortunately distant) relation who qualifies as a “crazy horse person”. Horses are too expensive to “hoard” but her horses were and are her first priority. In fact, her husband eventually left her because it was clear he came third in her priorities behind #1) horses and #2) their children. She’d spend all her spare time out at the stables, and would want to vacation separately doing horse things. And then she wondered why he left. ---
**Author:** ![lilihob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a9adbd/32.png) [@lilihob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lilihob)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2019, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-re-wrong-about-your-outdoor-cat/841766/59 "2019-10-16T13:02:05Z")
I know this board is US centric, and there are those in the U.K. who worry about the bird population, but they’re getting little to no traction. [https://www.cats.org.uk/bedford/adopt-a-cat/indoor-cats](https://www.cats.org.uk/bedford/adopt-a-cat/indoor-cats) As you can see, the cat charities who rehome, don’t believe in indoor living for healthy cats. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2019, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-re-wrong-about-your-outdoor-cat/841766/60 "2019-10-16T14:53:09Z")
> [@lilihob](#): > > I know this board is US centric, and there are those in the U.K. who worry about the bird population, but they’re getting little to no traction. > > [https://www.cats.org.uk/bedford/adopt-a-cat/indoor-cats](https://www.cats.org.uk/bedford/adopt-a-cat/indoor-cats) > > As you can see, the cat charities who rehome, don’t believe in indoor living for healthy cats. My best friend grew up in Ireland, and moved to the US as an adult. She tells me that the concept of “indoor cats” is kind of alien to her; in Ireland, there’s just the assumption/norm that cats go outdoors (and spend a lot of their time outdoors), and from what I’ve seen in documentaries about cats, it sounds like it’s much the same in England. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-re-wrong-about-your-outdoor-cat/841766.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-re-wrong-about-your-outdoor-cat/841766.md?page=4)