zooophagous:

I never understood people who counter the “keep your cat inside” notion with “but what about barn cats?”

Yeah? What about them? Barn cats die horribly every day. They die buried alive in grain bins, full of parasites, crushed to death by farm equipment, you name it. They aren’t considered pets. They’re at best working animals who exist as pest control, and at worst barely tolerated ferals that receive no vetting or help simply because it’s impossible to approach them.

You don’t want your pet cat to be a barn cat. Why do you think a barn cat has a soft, easy life? Even the best kept farm cats I’ve ever met had some kind of scar and they almost always have fleas. The last farm I went to had both pet cats and “barn” cats, but they never let the pet cats free roam- because they liked those cats and actually wanted them to come back alive. The barn cats got food, and that was it, because they were untouchable.

Leaving your housecat outside and trying to wave it away as “the same as a barn cat” is like leaving your cocker spaniel to free roam because he’s “the same as a livestock guardian dog.” Unless your only solution to a huge rat problem is laying down impressive amounts of dangerous poison, you have no business leaving your cat to roam.