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Keeping Cats Indoors
Stuart Dent
Sophia Learning
Foundations of English Composition
March 11, 2024
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People with cats all love their fuzzy friends and want what is best for them. However, there is
disagreement over what is best for them. Some want their cats to be safe inside, while others want
them to have a full life more in line with their nature by letting them roam outside to explore and hunt.
It is understandable that people want this for their cats, and furthermore cats with outside time tend to
be better behaved inside. However, it is irresponsible to let pet cats roam freely because it is
dangerous for cats, harmful to local wildlife, and leads to overpopulation.
The first reason pet owners should not let their cats roam is that there are too many
dangers their pets can face, from cars to predators. Cats who roam outside usually cross at least
one street, meaning there is always a chance of traumatic injury or death (Tan et al., 2020). If
you live in an area without much traffic, your cat will face threats like coyotes, feral hogs, owls,
and other predators. In any setting, an outdoor cat will be subject to ticks and other parasites.
Besides making the cat sick, these parasites can spread to humans in the home. For example,
ticks that infect cats with Lyme disease can then find a human host.
Another reason for keeping a pet cat inside is that the cat is not the animal at risk.
Animal lovers should care that cats present a danger to natural wildlife. For example, cats kill
billions of birds a year (Kays et al, 2020). These birds are crucial to many ecosystems and are in
sharp decline. The variety of songbirds is also threatened throughout the country. Households
that used to enjoy seeing dozens of birds visit their feeders may find that only a few dominant
species now visit. But birds are only one highly visible species among the many cats prey on;
they hunt thousands of different species including rodents, reptiles, insects, and amphibians.
Some species even face extinction due to cats, such as the woylie, a mouselike marsupial native
to Australia (Kays et al., 2020). Some people argue that cats hunting is part of nature, which is
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only partly true. Cats are natural hunters, but their numbers are not natural, and they are not
native to most of the world. Furthermore, in nature, a predator will subside in numbers when
their prey is over-hunted, leading to a resurgence in the threatened animal’s numbers. But cats
are also fed at home, defying the law of nature that keeps ecosystems in balance. In short,
there is nothing natural about the way cats are interfering with wildlife in most of the world.
Finally, the harm done by letting your cat roam extends even beyond that cat’s lifetime.
People who want their cats to have “natural” lives as hunters are also less likely to neuter their
cats—particularly male cats, since these pet owners will not have to worry about the
consequences (that is, they do not have to find homes for the kittens). The pet owner may even
know their tomcat has sired a few litters and regard this with pride. However, contributing to
the overpopulation of cats is nothing to be proud about. There are three times more stray and
feral cats than pet cats in the U.S. (Kays et al, 2020), and this overpopulation not only leads to
the direct suffering of cats who starve, freeze, or are euthanized, but expounds upon the
problems described above. That is, a pet owner is not only responsible for the wildlife their own
cat hunts, but that of its many descendants. Since cats only need to be a few months old to
reproduce, a single outing by your unneutered boy cat can easily mean that in one year there
are a dozen more feral cats as a result.
Cat owners whose cats are used to going out may wonder how best to make a change.
One way to keep cats active is to play with them. It only takes a few short play dates a day to
keep a cat happy. Owners who do not have time may look at automated toys or get another cat
of about the same age to play with them. If a cat really loves to be outside, their owners can
buy a cat playpen so they can enjoy being outside without getting into trouble. Adopting any
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animal is a big responsibility, and making sure they are safe, ensuring that they are not harming
the local wildlife, and minimizing the overpopulation of unwanted cats are all part of that
responsibility.
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References
Kays, R., Dunn, R.R., Parsons, A.W., Mcdonald, B., Perkins, T., Powers, S.A., Shell, L., McDonald,
J.L., Cole, H., Kikillus, H., Woods, L., Tindle, H. and Roetman, P. (2020, March 11), The small
home ranges and large local ecological impacts of pet cats. Animal Conservation (23)5, 516-
523. [Link]
Tan, S.M.L.; Stellato, A.C.; Niel, L. (2020, February 6). Uncontrolled outdoor access for cats: An
assessment of risks and Benefits. Animals 10(2) 258. [Link]