Category: Cats

Indoor cats are safer but are they happier?

Some animal behaviourists, animal welfare organisations and experts are advocating that cats should be kept permanently indoors as they will live longer, healthier and happier lives by being protected from external dangers and do not suffer any physical, mental or behavioural harm by doing so. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) even claim that an indoor cat can live four times longer. The Australian RSPCA have coined the catchphrase: “safer at home don’t let them roam” and calls the procedure “cat containment“. But is it another example of us imposing a lifestyle on animals that suits our requirements and interests rather than what is in the animal’s best interests?

The biggest favour we can apparently do an “outdoor” cat is to make it a permanently “indoor” one regardless of whether the cat necessarily agrees with the decision. By being indoors we protect them from being killed in road accidents, annoying neighbours, being attacked by other cats or animals, getting trapped, catching diseases, getting lost and stops them eating other animals. These are all practical and sensible reasons, particularly if you live in countries like Australia and New Zealand where you do not always have any choice but to keep them contained.

The issue is becoming very complicated and has developed into a situation where we seem to have a variety of categories or species of felis catus or domestic cat:

  • the purely outdoor cat;
  • the purely indoor cat;
  • the free to go as you please cat;
  • the inside cat occasionally caged outside to get a piece of R&R from indoors.

Some cats resist containment.

The problem is that some cats stubbornly resist being kept indoors and according to experts often persist in mewing and howling, pestering to go out or trying to dash out an open window or door at every opportunity and causing distress to the owner. In this situations it is advised we should do all we can to keep them entertained. If this fails we should put them in outside cages or enclosures for short periods to experience the great outdoors and satisfy their yearning for freedom. This seems to contradict the presumption that indoor cats suffer no mental or behavioural harm.

But being an indoor cat can also have its risks such as falling to its death from balconies or open windows which is well documented or in many countries being put through painful operations such as being declawed.

A contained cat is obviously safer but whether it is happier is another question.

Realistically most cats prefer to live predominately indoors out of choice and many have a nervous and timid disposition making confinement not a an issue as they love the seclusion and stability, but it is in the nature of most cats to want to roam or at least to have the choice of going out and returning when they choose. We would all be safer if we stayed indoors and never went out particularly our children but as we have discovered in the Covid-19 pandemic lock downs, it is not necessarily good for our mental and physical health so we cannot be sure how it affects cats.

So what is best? The lifestyle of an owned cat is always going to be dictated by the situation of the owner. If the owner lives in an inner city high rise apartment or in a detached house in a secluded rural area the cat will always be forced to adapt to markedly different ways of life because of the limiting options available. They are all individuals and therefore the best course of action might be to get to know a cat’s character and preferences first before imposing a lifestyle on them of our choosing. It is probably worth the risks if it makes your cat happy. Suggesting that all cats should be kept permanently indoors or caged may be a step too far.

Why the U.S. veterinary profession is happy to declaw cats.
The right to roam, cats cannot trespass

The right to roam, cats cannot trespass

Cats are footloose and free

Unlike most other captive animals, the domestic cat has the wonderful status under the laws of most countries of the “right to roam“. In the U.K. they do not have to be securely confined and can roam without any fear or favour or legal repercussions for their actions. They cannot trespass so neither the cats or their owners are liable for anything they may do in the way of damage, soiling or causing nuisance which is extremely annoying for those who hate them.

This has come about because like most captive animals,  a cat’s legal status is that of property and to kill or harm them is classified as criminal damage under Criminal Damages Act 1971 or theft under the Theft Act 1968. Their “freedom” is guaranteed under the Animals Act 1971 which makes provision with respect to civil liability for damage done by animals. Cats were assessed as being less likely than other animals to cause damage or injury and so were not included in the Act. Technically we do not even “own” them. 

So they are footloose and free in many ways and unlike many other countries there is no mandatory need to neuter or vaccinate them, no restriction on how many you can have in your possession, no licensing or registration and no controls over breeding and this is where the problem lies.

This freedom occurs in many parts of the world including the USA which has a mishmash of Federal, State and local laws very few of which restrict cats to an “owners” property or indoors. The U.S State of Maine, like the U.K. doesn’t include cats in their animal trespass law. In Australia cats are branded invasive species and therefore are highly restricted with night curfews in some States and cat ownership bans in local areas. Most countries in the context of law almost treat them as invisible always focusing on dogs.

This situation in many instances can lead to people taking the law into their own hands and committing retaliatory acts of cruelty on them or even to shoot, poison or otherwise kill them. Some people have even been known to go to the lengths of catching their neighbour’s nuisance cat and abandoning it a long distance away.

Their freedom comes with drawbacks

Although this status is wonderful for the cats it comes with many drawbacks. The lack of control has led to an ongoing “cat crisis” in the UK which has lasted for decades involving thousands of lost, abandoned, and unwanted cats. Charities spend huge amounts each year trying to repatriate them and combat indiscriminate breeding and feckless ownership.  

Their perceived reputation as a nuisance because of their destructive behaviours, toiletry habits and natural instincts of catching small animals and birds causes many people to view them as pests and they hate them. Cats face similar problems all over the world, particularly in the USA, Australia and New Zealand.

Cats Matter Too

Without some form of legal intervention it will always be impossible to make any inroads into the excess U.K. cat population, enhance their reputation or to improve their well-being , and more importantly to protect them, their ‘owners’ and cat haters from each other. But I am not suggesting for one minute that their “freedom to roam” should be stopped or restricted as this is the essence of a cat.