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Post by yezziqa on May 12, 2017 16:49:44 GMT
I should buy a lottery ticket or something. 3 years ago one of my cats were stolen, and I got her back months later after seing her picture on a private website. Then two years ago she disappered again. I've been looking high and low after her without any luck. Today I got her back. A neighbour caught her when she was pestering his cat and came here with her to ask if it was mine. And it was. First I thought that it was one of her sons (one of them is the spitting image of his mother), but I noticed that she was lacking the male parts.  She on the other hand is not a happy kitty at the moment, she has become a bit wild, so she is going to be behind bars until she becomes tamed again. I better sleep with one eye open in case she tries to kill me. She has always had a strong will.  |
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Post by xystophoros on May 20, 2017 23:11:48 GMT
Maybe it's time to keep your cats indoors. Seriously. Feral cats live 3 to 5 years, house cats live 15 years on average and can live well past 20 if they're healthy, fed quality food, and taken to the vet for check ups.
Among people who let their cats roam free, a disturbing number of them get run over by cars, end up abused by assholes, or die from poisoning by other assholes who put toxic chemicals in their flower beds to keep cats away.
When you keep a cat indoors you have to play with him/her to prevent boredom and strengthen your bond. Lots of people think you can just get a car and ignore it, but that's not true.
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Post by yezziqa on May 30, 2017 18:52:37 GMT
Maybe it's time to keep your cats indoors. Seriously. Feral cats live 3 to 5 years, house cats live 15 years on average and can live well past 20 if they're healthy, fed quality food, and taken to the vet for check ups. Among people who let their cats roam free, a disturbing number of them get run over by cars, end up abused by assholes, or die from poisoning by other assholes who put toxic chemicals in their flower beds to keep cats away. When you keep a cat indoors you have to play with him/her to prevent boredom and strengthen your bond. Lots of people think you can just get a car and ignore it, but that's not true. You got your numbers mixed up. It's non spayed male cats that live that short of a time, not neutered ones (mine are not able to make kittens). One of my free range male cats lived to be 24 years old, and he was put to sleep. I have had to put two young cats down, got liver cancer after Tjernobyl (we got the radioactive cloud here) and one accidentaly got poisoned, otherwise they have more or less died from old age. I live in another country than you, where the animal protection laws are more strict, so it is hard to compare. I run a ecofriendly smallholding, I need cats as I don't want to poison the ground, mice are a problem if you dont keep free range felines. |
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Post by xystophoros on Jun 2, 2017 21:20:06 GMT
You're talking about anecdotes while I'm quoting real data from studies that show the lifespans of indoor, spayed/neutered cats are 3 to 4 times as long as their outdoor counterparts: pets.webmd.com/cats/features/should-you-have-an-indoor-cat-or-an-outdoor-cat#1If you live in a rural area there may not be as much danger to cats from traffic, but they can still be killed or seriously injured by other cats and other animals, natural hazards, pesticides in gardens and fields, and hundreds of other dangers. It's not so much the animal welfare laws that make the difference, it's the environmental hazards to cats. In any case, the key to having a happy indoor cat is to make sure they get lots of interactive play time and have toys they can play with on their own, as well as frequent attention and affection. Lots of people think you can just ignore cats and that they're not social animals, but that's not true at all. When you see a great cat owner you can see the difference immediately in how their cat(s) behave and interact vs cat owners who essentially ignore their pets. |
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Post by yezziqa on Jun 4, 2017 4:30:28 GMT
You're talking about anecdotes while I'm quoting real data from studies that show the lifespans of indoor, spayed/neutered cats are 3 to 4 times as long as their outdoor counterparts: pets.webmd.com/cats/features/should-you-have-an-indoor-cat-or-an-outdoor-cat#1If you live in a rural area there may not be as much danger to cats from traffic, but they can still be killed or seriously injured by other cats and other animals, natural hazards, pesticides in gardens and fields, and hundreds of other dangers. It's not so much the animal welfare laws that make the difference, it's the environmental hazards to cats. In any case, the key to having a happy indoor cat is to make sure they get lots of interactive play time and have toys they can play with on their own, as well as frequent attention and affection. Lots of people think you can just ignore cats and that they're not social animals, but that's not true at all. When you see a great cat owner you can see the difference immediately in how their cat(s) behave and interact vs cat owners who essentially ignore their pets. No, i'm not. I have read the scientific report sites, like the one you linked to, have misinterpreted (It was male, non-nudered cats without owners). They also seem oblivious to the fact that indoor cats are more prone to get diseases like diabetes. I think it's terrible with people that of their own selfish reasons keep animals trapped indoors permanently. And it is even more terrible that the world is getting poisoned, when cats could keep the mice in control. And you thinking that animal welfare laws don't make a difference, just proves that you don't know anything about them at all. |
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Post by xystophoros on Jun 4, 2017 5:59:09 GMT
That must be why all the major animal welfare organizations recommend keeping cats indoors, and why veterinarians tell people to keep their cats in their homes. Look at your own situation with your cat going missing twice, and all the people whose cats get run over, accidentally poisoned, or killed/injured in fights with other animals.
The data shows indoor cats live three times longer than outdoor cats. How can you argue with that?
It's also worth pointing out that wild and feral are not the same thing, just like tame and domesticated are not the same thing. Your cat is a domesticated animal who went semi-feral while on her own for three years.
And finally, my cat likes to dash outside whenever there's a delivery man at the door...and he always comes right back after a minute or two. He spends his summer days on my balcony, with no leash and a railing he can easily squeeze through. He doesn't. He stays right on my balcony and comes inside either by himself or when I call him. He loves his home. And why not, he lives like a king. If you care for your cat and give him attention and play time, he won't be bored indoors.
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Post by yezziqa on Jun 4, 2017 12:01:32 GMT
That must be why all the major animal welfare organizations recommend keeping cats indoors, and why veterinarians tell people to keep their cats in their homes. Look at your own situation with your cat going missing twice, and all the people whose cats get run over, accidentally poisoned, or killed/injured in fights with other animals. The data shows indoor cats live three times longer than outdoor cats. How can you argue with that? It's also worth pointing out that wild and feral are not the same thing, just like tame and domesticated are not the same thing. Your cat is a domesticated animal who went semi-feral while on her own for three years. And finally, my cat likes to dash outside whenever there's a delivery man at the door...and he always comes right back after a minute or two. He spends his summer days on my balcony, with no leash and a railing he can easily squeeze through. He doesn't. He stays right on my balcony and comes inside either by himself or when I call him. He loves his home. And why not, he lives like a king. If you care for your cat and give him attention and play time, he won't be bored indoors. Really? They do? Let see, nope, the ones here don't. Is it that you still dont understand that I live in a animal friendly country? And no, the data doesn't show that, you haven't read the study have you? As I told you, I have. You see, those animal welfare laws that you doen't think helps animals at all, tells me to give my animals good lives. In order to give them good lives, I need to know a lot about caring for the species and as a scientist what do I do? I read the studies and not the layman interpritation of them. So I say it again, the cats in danger is the male non-nudered cats with no owner. You see, cats have sexually transmitted diseases to, and male non-nudered cats tend to fight and fighting can give infections, and as they have no owner, they don't get to go to the vet. In my country, we don't have a problem at all with homeless dogs (we actually have 0 homeless dogs), so getting chased by one of those is unlikely and we are nowhere near your problem with homeless cats (the majority of cats in my country are nudered). Cats also gets real food here (in the US it is perfectly okay with giving your cat vegan food, which science have proved to be bad for them) as that non important animal welfare laws states that I need to feed them a meat based diet twice a day. So our cats are healthy and strong (people from your country are often shocked by their size) and we also are legally required to take them to the vet (so most cats are vaccinated to the point that many diseases are almost non existing here). But let's say I would start having my cat's inside, then I would also need to keep my poultry indoors to, to minimize the mice problem. That would mean that I would need more fodder for the poultry (they graze as free range during spring, summer and autumn), so more land would need to be farmed, killing even more wild animals. You think that is the future of our planet? All animals locked inside and a sterile planet? And you don't seem to realize that english is my third language. So what if I used a slightly wrong term? |
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