4 ms·

Is this a U.S. thing? Where I live—a rural part of the UK—I don't think anyone thinks twice about letting their cats out. It's just what you do with cats.

• immibis 3y ago
  It's an environmentally conscious person thing. Most people in most countries don't think twice about having cats or letting them out - even though they kill birds.
  • mahogany 3y ago
    But what are the environmental effects of harvesting & manufacturing the food for the cats that are kept indoors? This is always left out of the equation in these conversations. Cats have to eat some animal to survive. To me, it seems bad for the environment to have cats as pets at all... (I have a cat)
    • cmrdporcupine 3y ago
      Most pet food is created from primarily "waste" meat product from the human food supply chain is my understanding? Though that may be changing.
• kuschku 3y ago
  European cats aren't native to northern america, and as result, they're quite an invasive species with significant harm to the ecosystem. But that's not just limited to cats, that issue applies even to different species of lawn grass. The other issue is destruction of ecosystem in the EU, where cats are native and primarily used as scapegoat. Both of these need entirely different solutions, but "don't let cats outside" is very oversimplified and just serves to divide people.