Redditors up in arms about a cute cat video

… because it's an outdoor cat and that's heckin' environmentally hostile to the birderinos.

Outdoor cats die young.

And have a better, more free life.

A "better" life how exactly? Outdoor cats have a lifespan of 2-5 years. Indoor 10-15 years. It's not even comparable lol

Outliers always exist. But statistics are statistics for a reason.

Please dont let your cats free roam, the amount of small mammals and birds they kill is insane. You are a peepee if you do this.

to play with the birds and chipmunks

Don't anthropomorphize it, it's hunting them, not playing and those animals spend their last moments in terror.

Edit: Why am I being downmarseyd for stating verifable facts? The downmarsey is meant for comments that are inaccurate, if you think Im wrong, please speak up and provide facts, dont hive mind.

Also looks like OP has a history of abusing animals and anthropomorphizing them, not surprised: https://old.reddit.com/r/BeardedDragons/comments/1fzh3xb/zukos_bath_dance_turn_audio_on_you_wont_be/lr40hxp/?context=8

It's nature that cats hunt. Keeping them inside is anthropomorphizing them. They say play instead of hunt because the cat is not hunting them for food but for fun.

Keeping them inside is called being responsible, your response is a strawman and made in very clear bad faith. I obviously struck a nerve.

... How is my response in a bad faith. I just responded what you said?? What

Wonder how many native creatures the pest murders every year.

better question is - why care? no really, how do birds and lizards being eaten affect me or anyone else negatively?

People say this, but then cry when people even suggest a feral cat hunt to help prevent the damage. How would that negatively affect you?

I like cats, they are cute and killing them makes me sad. the death of birds and lizards does not make me sad

It's no different. Actually, there's a strong case that the feral cat hunt is less egregious because it wouldn't negatively affect the local ecosystem.

The fact that you don't care about the destruction of the ecosystem doesn't make it different, just makes you selfish.

Stop leaving your cats outside. You are committing ecocide every time you let your little furballs out of the house. This is basic cat ownership 101 that takes a 5 minutes of research.

I don't care and you are wrong.

If there's ever a feral cat hunt set up, it will be the fault of people like you.

Why would I care?

Keep your cats indoors please.

Why would you do that to a cat. If you don't live in a place where you can safely let them go outside just don't have one. My cats used to be indoors because of this dumb idea and you can't even imagine how much happier and healthier they are now that they go outside.

Do you allow your dogs to roam free with no supervision too?

Dogs can be a threat to humans. Cats are not.

Humans are not the only consideration when it comes to outdoor cats.

Their effect on local wildlife and ecosystems plus their own safety also matter.

We know the facts on this based on scientific observations - introduced domesticated cats destroy local ecosystems, kill many animals and are at a much higher risk of accidental death than indoor cats. It is not hard to find this information online and environmental and animal experts have a consensus on this.

To disagree is to just be contrarian for the sake of your own misinformed views and ideas.

Educate yourself and do your research before you speak on topics that you do not understand.

Where I live there hasn't been any studies saying that so idc honestly

Selective caring, you are a peepee.

At least I don't keep my cats locked up like prisoners, my cats are happy and healthy and that's all that matters to me. Also as I said before there's no study in the place I live that they're doing any damage. Not every place is the same

Prisoners lmao stop personifying animals

Yeah, right, letting my cats go outside like animals they are it's personifying them, because it's their nature to checks notes live inside a house all day everyday for all their lives?

Personification followed by the appeal to nature fallacy lol I promise you cats are more than fine inside. In fact, they do better inside. Ya know, where disease and predators and poison isn't.

Have fun with your coyote food ;)

Cats do not belong outside.

Where were they originally found? 😱

Cats not only destroy ecosystems, but a large amount of outdoor cats end up missing or under cars. All the professionals advise more responsible ownership, which means keeping them indoors except on leashes. This isn't anything new. It's standard.

I don't think a human has any moral standing on what's good for the environment. Europe has lost about half a billion birds since the 70s - this is because of farming methods - it has nothing to do with cats. Also birds that exist in a city are birds that can exist around humans and therefore around cats.

This idea that cats destroy ecosystems is just human pandering to our own consciences that it isn't all entirely us. The same person who berates another for letting their cat outside will then merrily drive their car which is literally going to war on all life that breathes air. Not saying you shouldn't drive, just the cat stuff is only for one's own alleviation of guilt.

It's like 'Earth Day' -- what's the absolute least thing people can do so we don't have to feel bad about something.

Every responsible cat owner will agree with me. You get your cat chipped, neutered and keep them indoors. It's what's best and safest for them (and nature itself). I had a friend that disagreed. Her cat was flattened on the road outside, where she apparently never went. She quickly changed her tune. Unfortunately, this will keep happening until people learn.

It seems cruel to keep them inside. If you care about them at all, that's what you do as the parent. Otherwise, hold on tight, because you may not have long with them.

Life is inherently dangerous. Might as well wear a helmet everywhere you go just in case

Let's see if you feel that way when your cat is flattened because you think you know better. You don't. Responsible cat owners don't let their furbabies wonder, it's that simple. I'd prefer my boys alive and not messing up our local environment.

You're in the minority.

I did actually have a cat hit by a car. Another in the same litter was given to a friend and also was hit by a car.

I'd personally sooner just ban cars.

So, your cats died, because you let them out. This argument uses that as a very high risk... and you're still refusing to see sense. Responsibility would've kept your cat alive...

For Bob , he's already your indoor cat , just with a lot of playtime outside .I am glad you found each other 🧡🧡🧡

Thats exactly it. He's been an outside for what I assume to be years now so he's always going to enjoy the outdoors to an extent. He loves to come inside and sleep for a solid 5-6 hours and then go back outside to play with the birds and chipmunks. When I get my new house and turn him into an official inside cat, I think I'm going to train him to be on a leash so I can take him on walks so he can still enjoy the outdoors. I don't want to deprive him of that in anyway cause I can tell he enjoys it

We're in the midst of the 6th mass extinction, animals are struggling to cope with habitat loss due to climate change, pollution, and outdoor domestic cats. No matter how you try to justify it, your cat is worsening your local ecological crises right now, every day. Thinking that he just catches pests like mice is a dangerous misconception. They kill indiscriminately, not noting differences between pests and valuable native species like voles which help aerate soil and improve water absorption after rainfall. Local species your cat is impacting is innumerable, meaning too many to count. Cats are also now competing with birds that need smaller rodents for their own diets as part of the food chain, but cats aren't catching them for food to survive, they just do it for fun. Cats can also cause death in birds that they don't bring home, cats have a special bacteria in their mouth that's a death sentence for any bird they bite, without treatment. It's a slow death as well, getting blood poisoning from cat saliva.

Back to risks to your cat, loose dogs and coyotes can and do kill cats, my neighbor's dog has killed 4, including a flame point Siamese that I was desperately trying to get a neighbor to save by bringing indoors. Additionally, cars kill cats all the time, you might think your cat is smart enough to look before crossing, or just not cross since there's plenty of land on the side they're on, but once prey drive kicks in and they chase something, all bets are off.

Your cat could have the misfortune of running into a rabbid animal. It could be something like a sick bat on the ground, or something bigger that would maul them. Squirrels are rarely found to have rabies, but that's only because they don't survive attacks.

There's also cruel humans out there. My cat has a BB pellet in his shoulder from when he was a street cat before I rescued him. Cats can be poisoned, people do sick things. There's also a high population of people that swerve into animals when they see them crossing the road.

My cat gets lots of enrichment, and I regularly take him out in nice weather on his harness, he gets super excited to see when it comes off the hook, it's an adorable ceremony your cat deserves to experience on the sooner side of later.

Please bring them inside asap, they're like toddlers. Toddlers may want to play with bottles under the sink but we don't let them because it's dangerous. It takes a few days to weeks to break them off the habit of trying to escape but I promise they can be happy, thriving indoor cats. The sooner you can do it the better!

Hope this explanation is helpful and brings him sooner rather than later!

It's nice to see a cat roam. Can't have that where I live because it's a containment zone due to them killing every small wildlife they see etc

Is that a local law? That's such a shame given that the 'study' the "kills billions of birds each year" came from used almost deliberately flawed methodology

Yeah it is. If they find your cat roaming it gets taken to a shelter/pest holding center and they call you ( if you have a cat and bring it to the vet, they have to microchip it ) , issue you a big fine.

If you don't microchip it, it might go to a local rspca for adoption, or it will get euthanized. Or go to the rspca, overloaded with animals , and they have to euthanize it too.

Is it ? I'm not animal expert much less species related stuff but I don't think it's a highly debatable thing that cats have a fairly large range and can kill many birds especially. Thought I suppose that varies with the local environment, where I live they have zero predators, though I'm guessing that's the same as most urban areas ?

When I had a cat we did just have a net thing over the balcony so he could go out easily and look at traffic etc.

Miss the old bugger.

Is it ? I'm not animal expert much less species related stuff but I don't think it's a highly debatable thing that cats have a fairly large range and can kill many birds especially. Thought I suppose that varies with the local environment, where I live they have zero predators, though I'm guessing that's the same as most urban areas ?

Yeah, the 'study' was commissioned/financed by the American Audubon Society (so, not exactly unbiased) and its methodology was:

1. ⁠Calculate how many cats there were on average per square mile in the city they were in;

1. ⁠Look up how many square miles there are in America;

1. ⁠Guesstimate how many birds a cat kills in a year;

1. ⁠Multiply the figures they got at (1) and (2) to get an 'estimate' for how many cats there were in America;

1. ⁠Multiply the figures from (3) and (4) to get the 'answer' of how many birds cats kill each year in America.

The glaring hole in all of this is that a LOT of America is empty space - and even most residential areas aren't as population-dense as a city. So when they took the figure from (1) for the average number of cats per square mile in their city and multiplied it (2), what they got was an estimate for how many cats there were total in America if the entire surface of America was one large city.

So, they massively (as in, by several orders of magnitude) overestimated how many cats there are in America, and as a result their figure for how many birds cats kill per year in America is similarly several orders of magnitude too high :)

Outside Cat = RIP Cat

I've had outside cats live more than 15 years. Luckily not everybody lives in big cities where they can be killed by cars or things like that.

Humans are cruel. Put antifreeze out and watch that cat lap it up and die soon after. Trap it, shoot it, snap its neck, stomp its head. So many easy ways to kill a cat, and there are too many people willing to do such horrible things.

Just because you got lucky with your cats, that doesn't mean countless other cats haven't had to suffer for their owners irresponsible decisions.

I had an outside cat. Always had outside cats. He was my best guy he would come running to me when I got home from work etc.

Neighbors put out rodenticide and my very healthy very active cat came home very sluggish, very lethargic and wouldn't eat or drink.

The animal hospital wanted 1800 blood test before they would give him poison treatment so they put him down for 100 dollars.. but wouldn't take my 500 dollars for shots.

Frick boomer neighbors (and everyone ) who use rodenticide on squirrels or outside period.

Frick vet hospitals who make money on desperate people.

F people who think their single pet is somehow worth more than the hundreds of things it kills for fun outside. Your outside cat killed far more than the rodentcide did dude.

Keep bob inside, butthole - wildlife in your area

I'm not saying the cat did it…

I wonder how many birds it's killed. Natural born hunter.

I have a native garden at my place. I've drawn in so many birds over the years. They love serviceberry in the spring. Winterberry is a favorite during winter.

New neighbor moves in. They have a beautiful cat that absolutely loves being outside. He's a great climber, always in the trees.

The birds are gone. I hear nothing from the trees. Nothing from the grass. Every now and then there's a mocking bird or a crow. The blue jays are gone. The finches, the cardinals. No more titmouse. Chickadees. I wonder if I'll have catbirds this year.

Beautiful cat. You can tell it is content and its family loves it.

Winter days when I bring him inside (the fur coat difference in winter vs summer is crazy, so majestic)

Cats shouldn't be outside. They do so much damage to the ecosystem

Yes not to mention letting them free roam exposes them to all manners of hazards, predators, and psychos.

You're getting downmarseyd but you're absolutely right and anyone with half a brain that truly loved their cat would leash train, get a catio, do supervised outdoor time, or get a stroller. ()

Out door cats live on average half as long as indoor cats, and this stat adjusts for the disproportionate amount of kittens who dont make it into adulthood in outdoor cat litters. If it's included, the average outdoor cat lives around 4 years. So much death for creatures we all love.

I know youre in a tough spot with your rental not allowing pets, OP. But for the animal who saved your life sakes. Please consider finding a home for him. Even if it's temporary.

This is a false statistic that people keep throwing around on Reddit. 'Outside' in this statistic is used to describe STRAY cats, not indoor/outdoor cats who have an owner and are being cared for.

Pls have data to prove that it's not false or else rephrase that as your own opinion.

Please have data that it's true

You're the one claiming it's false, the onus is on you to either have proof to disclaim it, or admit it's just your opinion/observation.

The person making the initial claim is the one who inherently needs to provide evidence for that claim to begin with. That's literally how the burden of proof works.