Remember what I was saying before about how microtransactions are geared specifically to exploit addicts and “If you don’t like it don’t buy it” isn’t an argument?
For those of you who don’t know, I’m a specialist problem gambling financial counsellor. This means that I’m specially trained, qualified and experienced in aiding the rehabilitation of people struggling with problem gambling, and working with people who are affected by others’ problem gambling protect themselves and rebuild their lives. I spend 30% of the hours of my day job working with these people.
I’m going to focus on lootboxes in Overwatch, because it’s the game I know the most about. I also know a lot about how poker machines are psychologically designed to be highly addictive, specifically exploiting known psychological triggers to reel people in and keep them spending.
Overwatch lootboxes do the same – you know that feel of seeing a purple/gold coin flipping in the air??? OMG! Is it going to be THAT THING YOU REALLY!!!!-oh.
Bright colours, exciting lights, the visceral feel of pushing the button/spinning the wheel is important to addiction. Blizzard has does the same with lootboxes – by vibrating your controller. By shaking the camera. By having the lootbox rATTLE AND EXPLODE!!!! with your reward. The sounds and specially engineered to build excitement and tensions and remind you of wealth. The ‘coin’ system of the lootbox reminds you of wealth. This is all super deliberate – it’s not a mistake. Using subconscious cues like exploding money boxes!!! the sound of money, the shape of money – that’s likening the process to a lottery.
While it’s quite unlikely someone could actually spend ENORMOUS amounts of money chasing that ‘jackpot’ (the skin they really want for their character, for example), it is possible. HOWEVER, it’s much more likely that the person will have this sort of reward system normalised, will find the element of chance ‘exciting’ (because, dude, we’re psychologically engineered to be more interested in ‘chance’ events than certain/impossible events), and seek out and enjoy other similar passtimes. Like actual gambling with real money.
Every time you gamble, you change the structure of your brain. I’m not exaggerating. Every time you take a chance on that lootbox, you flood your brain with adrenaline and dopamine. The presence of those two neurochemicals changes the density of the receptors of them minutely. After a few boxes, it’s unlikely you’ll become addicted. However, if you keep doing it, your receptors change density so that you need more adrenaline and more dopamine to get the same excitement and pleasure from the hit.
Worse, this rush of adrenaline and dopamine is much, much more addictive to people with mental illness (or a susceptibility to mental illness), as the presence of these chemicals is a very unhealthy (but unfortunately effective, at least in the extremely short term) way of medicating mental illness. Unfortunately, because of the escalating changes in receptor density, it eventually makes mental illness much worse in the long run. There is a strong link between gambling and suicide.
Compare your first lootbox with the lootboxes you get now. Are you getting the same enjoyment? Nope.
Think how many times you bought 11 lootboxes…. only to buy another 11 and another 11 and another 11. It becomes mechanical, pressing that button, opening another lootbox. Kind of like sitting at a poker machine.
Think about how normal the lootbox system seems now.
Chance-based gambling reward systems in games are dangerous, and should be replaced either by work-and-reward systems (you get 10 credits per level, and you can spend these on rewards of your choice), combined with micro-transaction-based currency for people who do not have the time to commit to leveling 300 times for that epic Christmas skin.
Remove chance. Just remove it.
I play a game with loot boxes, Transformers: Earth Wars. My system:
Never pay for loot boxes.
NEVER pay for loot boxes.
Do not wait for, expect, or hope for anything particular from the free loot boxes. Whatever comes, comes, and it’s better than nothing.
Research the probabilities, e.g. mined data. Math = calm.
Chill. Take a breath before opening a loot box. Endorphin over dopamine.
Hell yes you’re doing the right thing. Declawing is mutilation (because it’s literally amputating a joint on each toe) and cats are often in pain their entire lives. Soft paw nail caps are expensive and a pain and the cats might think they’re annoying, but they’re by far the better choice. Props to you for standing up to him about it.
^THIS^
oh God, just do a little research on declawing and see the horror stories! Most vets these days won’t even do that anymore! My jerk co-workers son took his doberman in and said he wanted his tail docked and ears clipped and the vet was like, we don’t do that anymore. It’s unnecessary and mutilation.
I am pro-declawing as long as the vet is good. I have three healthy, lovable fur babies and they are all fixed and they don’t have front claws (Their back claws are still in tact) they are all indoor cats with no danger of getting out doors (If they were out door cats hell yeah they’d have all their claws)
My eldest cat is almost 15, she has had NO health problems for a cat her age, her paws are perfect she has had no pain in them. Same with my other two babies.
My vet did stitches and we used the special litter. Contrary to what you’d be led to believe declawing is a common surgical procedure done under anesthesia and if
done
correctly, there will not be any lasting effects. It is just like any
other
surgery: there are some risks from the anesthesia and blood loss, but
most of
the times and if done by a competent veterinarian, there are no lasting
effects
from the surgery. Contrary
to some opinions, declawing is not likely to drastically change their behavior or
personality, nor does it necessarily predispose him to future behavioral
problems. On the other hand, it creates a more rewarding experience
between cat and owner because you don’t have to scold kitty all the time
for clawing inappropriately.
Another pro-declawing is when rough-housing between kitty and another pet results in a scratched
cornea and the risk of the other pet (my dog) losing an eye. The choice
for the owner then becomes either to
declaw or give up a cherished and loved pet, so it is pretty obvious
here what
the most humane choice would be. A person that decides to declaw his/her
cat
should not be vilified, instead encouraged to give the cat a home and
love as
long as the cat lives.
If you check the internet, you can find one of those sites about the
“horrors” of declawing a cat. They have
pictures of an actual surgery of declawing a black cat. I have two
things
to say… Despite many warnings of how graphic the pictures are, there
is not
much blood to see. This proves that the declawing surgery is not as
bloody as
described, and even when the pictures where taken by an anti-declaw vet
tech
which most likely attempted to make the surgery look a gory as possible.
Second, I can see where all the horror stories come from. This surgery
was done
very poorly. Using a nail clipper to remove the claws is a procedure
that is not done very often anymore. It can leave bone splinters behind
and the possibility of nail regrowth. The procedure done most often
involves an incision behind the claw and continuing against the bony
structure until the last digit falls away from the paw
using a scalpel (called disarticulation method). This method does not
break any bone and insures that no bone
splinters are left behind and that there is no possibility of nail
regrowth. You can see that the claw is removed carefully and would
only remove the claw along with the distal phalanx (the bone where the claw is
attached to) as shown on the picture below. In the pictures presented in the
anti-declaw website part of the middle phalanx is being crushed.
The above is an image of what actually declawing looks like.
Declawing is also recommended to be done to cats before they turn 2 years of age and to be done the same time as spay/neuter. Some vets also put an anesthetic block in their paws so they won’t feel pain when they wake up. And they heal very quickly! It is recommended also by vets that you only remove their front claws because the back ones are important in their grooming and god forbid if they did get outside.
So yes, declaw your kitty @lepetitselkie just make sure you research your vet first to find out what kind of procedure they do. Just like with any surgical choice the doctor is key.
It is NOT hard to do some damn googling people!!!!
It takes a hell of a lot to piss me off to where I respond to it in public, but this, this actually makes it hard to engage a civil fashion. Especially because you also had the gall to send a pretty condescending note about how I should do research before I consider myself an expert. Here’s the thing about academic and practical knowledge – it’s often far more complex than what people find on a google search. So, let’s break this down for you because I know a hell of a lot more about this than what comes from ‘just google’. In fact, if you actually took the time to do a couple google searches, the first thing you’d find is that declawing is considered animal cruelty and banned in at least 22 countries.
Okay, so there’s two different topics to dig into here: the science and the ethics. Let’s start with the science, because that’s easier to break down while I try to stop raging internally.
Here’s a much more detailed image of what the inside of a cat’s paw actually looks like, because the one embedded above leaves out some rather important details.
Okay, so what you’re looking at here is the cross-section of a toe with the claw retracted. Cats walk digitigrade, meaning that their weight is borne entirely on the toes rather than on the internal bones of the foot. The last bone that the claw is attached to is called the distal phalanx (plural: phalanges). You’ll notice that there are two tendons and an elastic ligament attached to it. For a cat to be declawed, that bone must be removed, which means all three of those connective tissues must be severed. That’s going to impair mobility even after it heals (tendons work because of their attachments) and that’s incredibly painful.
Here’s an image of a cat’s paw actually bearing weight. Notice how, because cats walk digitigrade, literally all of it’s weight is on the distal phalanx? Cats walk with all of their weight on the bone that declawing removes. Look at the position of the middle phalanx – it’s perpendicular to the ground and not in an orientation to bear weight comfortably in the slightest. When you declaw a cat, that’s the bone they’re left to put all their weight on and it’s understandably uncomfortable. It’s possible to help cats adjust by leaving part of the distal phalanx in the paw, but that a) means cutting the bone in half and having it heal and b) risks claw regrowth out of the bone and through the extant soft tissues.
At one teaching hospital, between 50%-80% of cats had post-surgery complications. Numbers from other studies vary – the ones cited on the declawing wikipedia article provide a decent sample range, and the complication rates were: 24%, 53%, 1.4%, 82.5%, 51.5%, 80%. All over the place. Reported medical complications include: pain, hemorrhage, laceration of paw pads, swelling, reluctance to bear weight on affected limb, neuropraxia (transient motor paralysis), radial nerve damage, lameness, infection, abscess, tissue necrosis, wound dehiscence, incomplete healing, protrusion of 2nd (middle) phalanx, claw regrowth, scurs (growth of deformed claw segments), retention of flexor process of third phalanx, chronic draining tracts, self-mutilation, dermatitis, lethargy, palmigrade stance (walking on wrists), chronic intermittent lameness, chronic pain syndrome, flexor tendon contracture, and cystitis (stress-associated bladder inflammation).
Long-term lameness is common, but also understudied. One review of related studies reported long-term lameness in 1% of cats, but another with a different sample size and source found that 13.6% of cats showed at least mild lameness long after healing (source).
Chronic pain in declawed cats is incredibly hard to assess. It hasn’t been well studied, cats are cryptic (quiet) when in pain, and most owners are notoriously bad at accurately identifying or reporting behavior in cats that indicates pain. That doesn’t meant that we have evidence that most declawed cats aren’t in pain – there’s just literally no data. We do know that there are frequently observed avoidance/pain behaviors such as walking oddly, not stepping on litter or similar surfaces, paw shaking, and paw biting that correlate highly with cats who have been declawed. Claw growth and arthritis from being declawed are obviously painful chronically.
Okay, so there’s your science. Now let’s talk ethics. In fact, here’s an anecdote for you.
My father’s toenails destroy bedding like little demons. No matter what he does, how much he clips them, how short they are, his toenails will inevitably shred the bottoms of sheets pretty quickly. It’s annoying as hell and my mother keeps mending the sheets or buying new ones when it gets too bad. Now, tell me, should she have the last joints of his toes amputated because it’s an inconvenience she doesn’t want to deal with? Of course not. She knew when she married my father that it would be something that came with the territory and she accepts that fact. Sounds stupid, right?
Voluntary onychectomy is, when simply put, the amputation of a cat’s weight-bearing digits for the convenience of the owner. Most people cite the reasons they declaw cats as behavior problems (scratching furniture) or aggression towards humans. Both of these problems are entirely resolvable through management and/or appropriate training with a little bit of effort on the part of the owner(s).
When you declaw a cat, not only do you put it through an entirely unnecessary, painful, and potentially traumatizing procedure, you forever remove from it the ability to engage in all of it’s natural behaviors. The simplest natural behavior is just walking on it’s feet correctly. Evolution creates certain physical structures for their specific efficacy and when you lop off your cat’s toes for your own convenience you forever force it to walk in a way that is unnatural for it. You also remove it’s ability to scratch, climb and stretch.
I do not believe that people should be allowed to have pets if they are not prepared to handle what comes with them. Scratching and using their claws for communication are natural behavior for a cat and therefore should be assumed as part of the price to pay for the luxury of cohabitating with one. If you’ve accidentially encouraged claws-out aggressive play or if you’re pushing your cat so far past it’s comfort zone that it keeps scratching you, that problem is entirely on you. If you’re declawing your cat because you prioritize the state of your furniture over the cat then you don’t deserve the luxury of getting to own a cat. If you need to mutilate an animal to make it fit into your life, don’t get the goddamn animal.
I have said this a million times and I will say it again: If you want a pet whose welfare you are willing to sacrifice for your own ease of care, you are not responsible enough to own any living creature. As sentient beings who make the conscious choice to take on the care and welfare of a living creature (or six), it’s an ethical imperative that we provide the highest quality of welfare possible even no matter what the expense or time investment required.
It’s entirely possible, as we’ve shown numerous times on this blog, to use planning and appropriate management to eliminate the irritations that come with a cat having and using claws. Cats can be trained to play without hurting, humans can learn to read cat body language, claws can be clipped or dremeled as an entirely positive experience, and soft-caps can be applied. All it takes is time, dedication and forethought.
So, @fat-and-nerdygirl, it is for all of the above that I am appalled that you are actively advocating for unnecessary declawing procedures. This girl does not appear to have any of the severe medical conditions that would make it vaguely acceptable to consider declawing for her safety. It’s simply that her cats are being cats – that’s the only problem. You’re advocating she put her pet through an unnecessary surgery for basically no reason when she’s already found a much more appropriate solution and is implementing it correctly.
More importantly, I am pissed that you are spreading misinformation while advocating for accurate research. Many of your ‘facts’ are flat out wrong. Nail-clipper declaws are still incredibly common, awfully enough. Declaws do not always heal fast – most studies report lameness still present after 8 days and sometimes even up until two weeks after surgery. Just because a voluntary procedure is common does not mean it is good for the animals or ethically okay.
Now, look, I understand. You have four cats who have been declawed and at the moment they don’t appear to be having any issues. It sounds like you did do your research to find someone to do the surgery whose skills and techniques would provide the highest rate of success for your cats. I’m not going to attack your choice to declaw them because at this point it would be moot and I don’t know what your reasons were for making the choice at the time you did. I understand how, after putting four animals through that procedure, it can be incredibly hard to hear newer research come out that indicates that declawing isn’t great for them and questions the ethics of doing so. That’s rough on any pet owner, wondering if you made the right choice for the animals whose care you’re entrusted with. That’s enough to cause anyone to defend their choices more heavily – it’s a pretty common type of cognitive dissonance. But please, please stop spreading misinformation and backing it up with phony requests for ‘better research’ and misleading diagrams. I’m glad your cats are doing well post-surgery, and I sincerely hope they reach the ends of their lives without any complications surfacing.
Not all cats will be as lucky as your four cats.
Some cats will be declawed and forever live walking on bones that were never meant to be in contact with the ground or support weight that way. Some cats will develop claw shards or infections or arthritis. Some cat owners will be devastated to find out that they caused their babies to suffer by choosing what has been touted by peers as a ‘simple, safe, elective surgery’.
Help me stop that from happening to more animals and their humans. Stop spreading misinformation and defending an archaeic solution to the problems that arise when humans are lazy about caring for the animals they take into their homes.
If you have ever been on tumblr, you have likely stumbled upon seemingly adorable animal photos such as these.
While these photos of frogs riding on a crocodile look innocent enough, the reality of what these animals went through for the sake of a cute photo is anything but humane.
This photoset will be a great example of cruel photography. You may notice that the frog’s mouth is open in these photos. In the wild, frogs usually only open their mouths to release a distress call, or to eat. This frog has his mouth open in every one of the photos. It’s clearly not eating, and if it was making a distress call it would be in a defensive position.
So, why is it’s mouth open?
Easy. This entire photoshoot is fake.
This frog was likely put in a fridge to cause it to become lethargic. The barely moving, and likely extremely stressed frog was placed on the beetle and was posed. In the first photo, the fingers on the frog’s extended hand are curled. While engaging in a hand movement tree frogs keep their fingers straight so the hand can land properly in the chosen spot. Frogs don’t make fists, so the most likely answer for the frog’s hand “movement” is a wire. Another thing to note about putting herps in cold temps is that it causes their muscles to weaken. The frog’s mouth was very likely pulled open, and the frog didn’t have enough energy to close it due to being exposed to cold temperatures.
So, how can you identify which pictures are real or not? The easiest way to tell is to simply look at the behavior of the animals pictured. For the frogs and the crocodile, the easiest way to tell is to look at the species pictured. An arboreal frog such as a white’s tree frog has no reason to be on the back of a crocodile low to the ground, and it’s even more unlikely that multiple happened to be posed in that exact position.
Many of these photos seem endearing, but think about what you’re looking at before sharing it.
I will now leave you with this cruelty free frog photo to show you that frogs can be cute without being forced into a fridge.
I did the math to figure out how many furry forest critters my one hunter cat actually killed. Here are the numbers:
She’s 10 years old, but she’s spent the last year as an inside only cat, so let’s mark her down as 9 years old. As an indoor-outdoor cat, she averaged around 4 kills a week. According to this study, she was probably killing 16 per week. At least.
There are 52 weeks in a year, so my cat was killing around 832 moles, voles, rats, and mice per year.
At 9 years old, her kill count was most likely around 7,488.
I’m lucky that she only went after rodents and not endangered animals. With a kill rate like that, this one cat could’ve wiped out an entire species.
This is very irresponsible inter-species interaction. The owl could really hurt the puppy, and in this video, the owl looks significantly unhappy with this interaction.
You are absolutely correct. Any video like this with a bird of prey interacting with another animal, even another bird (for example that video of a barn owl and a cockatoo) are extemely unsafe for both parties.
In this case, yes the owl looks very uncomfortable with the puppy’s curiosity, and could definitely severely injure or even kill the dog if it wanted to. The dog at this size would be pretty defenseless compared to a snowy owl, but could definitely also hurt the owl if it tried.
Please 1. never own owls and 2. never allow and encourage inter-species interaction like this
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.
If you can’t make the indoors enriching and fulfilling for them, then don’t get a cat.
Peace. ✌🏻
Cats are natural hunters. Bred from wild felines. They are outside animals.
Yes, dangers exist.
If you live in the middle of a busy city with crazy roads, obviously keep them in. If you live in a quiet suburban area, collar track them if you must, but…
…Rae, this is one thing we disagree about. I completely respect your opinion; frankly, after Mika, mine is changing, but…
I do think it depends on the environment. Suburbs, city, country…
Cats are outside animals to me. Inside-outside. They can rest in my bed, cuddle with me, and still go out.
Just be careful. Every cat is different, as is every neighbourhood. My boy recently died from anti-freeze poisoning, in autumn. No need for anti-freeze in cars yet. This was after ten years.
Just be safe. Keep your babies safe. You are their caregiver, after all.
There’s nothing “natural” about domestic cats, they’re domesticated pets.
They are not outside animals just because they can survive outdoors when forced to. And if you let your cat outdoors, you should contain it appropriately.
What other domestic pet do you allow to run wild?
Dangers to cats exist outside of big cities; wildlife will kill cats. Diseases. Injuries. Other human beings. Weather. Poisonous plant life. There is no need to expose your cat to that many risks.
I am that most despised of creatures (on tumblr). One who has had free roaming cats, outdoor cats, indoor cats, and an indoor cat who was ejected into the great outdoors.
Oh, and I worked for a vet who adopted three very friendly barn cats.
Chickens are a livestock species, they were not domesticated for companionship and therefore were not housed inside. You don’t house your food inside. And, I don’t know about you, but I don’t let my chickens freeroam without supervision because I know they can get injured or killed if I am not watching them and I prefer to keep my animals alive.
I don’t see how your vet adopting three barn cats has anything to do with outdoor cats? I had outdoor cats for most of my life. Out of the three I had, two disappeared, never to be seen again and one disappeared for 18 months before coming back. She has been an indoor cat since even though she was born and raised an outdoor cat.
YOUR cats might have lived outside for a long period of time, but mine didn’t. They died. Dead. I will never see them again. Why does your experience mean more than mine?
There are hundreds of people that claim that cats are, in fact, wild animals and that they belong in the wild. This is false. The domestication of cats began around 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent, from F. s. lybica, a subspecies of the Wildcat known as the African Wildcat or the Near Eastern Wildcat. We have since selectively F. s. lybica and turned the old species into our modern day housecats. We have directly changed their genetic level and changed their biological tendencies. Through selective breeding and domestication, we have impacted the temperament of the domestic cat and made them marginally better at utilizing plant-based proteins. Cats are domesticated and no longer have a natural role to play in the ecosystem.
Cats have a huge environmental impact that most people don’t realize. Since they are domesticated animals, they are considered an invasive species. Not only are these animals features on the Global Invasive Species Database, but they are considered one of the top 100 worst invasive species in the world. It is estimated that free-ranging domestic cats kill 1.3–4.0 billion birds and 6.3–22.3 billion mammals per year. Free-ranging cats have been introduced all around the world and have even been known to cause extinctions on islands. Free-ranging cats on islands have caused or contributed to 33 (14%) of the modern bird, mammal and reptile extinctions recorded by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. It’s not limited to the United States, either. ln under a year British cats killed between 85 – 100 million animals, according to one study, and is considered to be of sufficient magnitude to affect populations of preyed upon species. European songbirds are too afraid of cats to breed, for example, and in Italy they threaten bat populations. It is also well documented that European free-roaming cat owners are disconnected from the realities of their cats’ impact on the well being of European environment and conservation efforts, even reducing the effectiveness of protected parks.
When humans domesticated cats, we took on the responsibility for their health and welfare. This includes protecting them from all possible dangers. When outside, cats are exposed to diseases, cars, and deadly wildlife. They also have the chance to maim or kill OTHER cats that are also outside.
Feline Immunodeficiency Virus or FIV is just one deadly disease that cats can get if they are allowed outdoors unsupervised. FIV retrovirus in the same family as the human AIDS virus, with a few significant differences. It is estimated that in the United States, 2% of cats are infected with the FIV virus. This is not the only disease that outdoor cats can catch; they are also at risk for FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitis), Panleukopenia (Feline Distemper) and Zoonotic Diseases. Not to mention that mice your cat may eat or bring home can also cause a host of other dangerous diseases that not only threaten cats, but the humans they live with as well.
Cats kept indoors are safe from predators such as coyotes, dog packs and other stays. The average lifespan of an indoor cat is 12 – 15 years; the average lifespan of an outdoor pet cat is 2 – 3 years less. Outdoor cats are below wildlife predators in the food chain, and they are sitting ducks for owls, raptors, coyotes, and native big cats. Dogs running in packs will consider a cat fair game; even one large dog can easily overpower and kill a cat. Even dogs that are owned by people can cause a cat harm. Many dogs carry a high prey drive and cannot be blamed when they see a cat run and their instincts take over.
Indoor cats do not get hit by cars. Period. Cars kill about 5.4 million cats per year which is a million more than are killed in shelters. Most of these cats are hit at night because the beams of cars can confuse and disorient them and they don’t have enough time to move.
There are more reasons not to let cats outside. Such as monitoring cat’s urinary tract and bowel health, not going in neighbor’s yards, getting abscesses from fighting, human abuse, getting lost, getting stolen, or freezing in the winter.
Some argue that their cat is depressed or bored when they are forced inside. Cats will sleep an average of 15 hours per day, and older cats may sleep as many as 20 hours without it being abnormal. Cats are naturally crepuscular, meaning they’re activity peaks at dawn and dusk. It is important to distinguish lethargy, an actual a symptom of depression, or merely your cat doing a normal cat thing. A cat that is kept inside will never be bored if they are being provided enough enrichment. Enrichment is the most important part when bringing cats inside. If a cat is not provided enough enrichment, then that is on its owner and not the cat. Going outside should not be a cat’s only enrichment. If the cat’s owner can not provide the enrichment a cat needs, then the owner should not have a cat. If a cat absolutely needs to be outside, then they can be outside in a secure and supervised environment or on a harness. A catio, which is a patio specifically made for cats and fenced in, can be built.
Cats are the only domesticated animal that is let outside unsupervised. People do not let their dogs, ferrets, gerbils, chinchillas and rabbits free-roam because of the dangers toward them and the impact they create. Even though dogs, also natural born hunters and predators, are not allowed to roam free. Why? To protect them and the environment. Cats should not be the exception. This needs to stop to improve the environment, protect the animals that live there and promote the safety of our own pets. Humans should not be advocating against the protection of their own pets and education efforts to warn of the dangers of outside cats should be more prevalent. Leaving cats outside and unsupervised is irresponsible and needs to change. It is irresponsible and damaging to the ecosystem and frankly, there is not a single good reason to keep them outside.
Oh, also?
Nature sucks. Especially for those involved in it.
Even if cats were wild animals, they’d still die horrible, painful, early deaths, because that is what wild animals do. Wild animals fight other animals, wild animals kill other animals in violent, painful ways, and wild animals die violent, painful deaths. Do you really want to expose your cat to that?
Yep, that’s nature. Coyotes and raccoons are both a lot more ferocious than people realize.
My mom once took an indoor/outdoor cat to the vet for deep puncture wounds, wondering what had fought him, and was told by the vet that it was probably another cat rather than the local raccoon. Why?
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