Should pet cats be allowed to roam free outside without a leash?

The Nature Conservancy of Canada's Andrew Holland says no-roam bylaws for cats keeps them safe while protecting bird populations.

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32 comments

  1. This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Let the cats be cats and the birds be birds. That being said cats live longer and are healthier when they are indoor cats

  2. in my area 7 cats were killed by cayotes during the covid lockdown and now we have more mice and rats

    1. Mine brings home dozens of dead mice every summer. And that’s just the ones he leaves at the door. However, I’ve only see a live mouse outside once in a decade. No adjacent forest or green space. Just ordinary suburbs…. Yet there are mice all over, just out of sight.

  3. If this is an accurate stat, it would mostly be all the stray cats out there and this law would be doing close to nothing. Cats should be allowed out and if you know anything about cats, you cannot put them on a leash. Yes of course we want to keep them safe but they are animals and need to be able to do their thing outdoors if they want to.

  4. According to the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, UK), cats do not contribute in a meaningful way to the decline of bird species. Climate change, human invasion into previously forested areas, and human activity (especially industrial) are causes for the decline of bird populations, habitats, and species.

    1. I believe the bird decline is also has way more to do than cats. Why a decline now when cats have always been out. I don’t trust anything being said anymore.

  5. I feel there is a need for domesticated cats roaming outside for keeping down the small rodent population (mice & rats). It is the feral cat issue that needs to be addressed. All domestic cat should have a personalized tag for identification and distinguished feral or domestic. Feral should be trapped and dealt with, with homes 1st and then other (euthanized). More and more animals are unfortunately abandoned outside or surrendered to shelters with the current cost of living. Just my thoughts.

    1. Of course. Domesticated cats have existed for thousands of years and rodent control is the basis of our mutual arrangement with them.

  6. Domestic cats have been roaming for thousands of years. There’s a reason. They control rodents. It’s a mutual benefit. The birds are fine up in their trees.

    1. however, they ARE in fact a foreign species to this side of the world, before colonization, North America was not populated by small cats

    2. @Darkwytch As are mice, it turns out. They also arrived on European ships. Not a coincidence, I suppose, that they arrived together, as pest and pest control.

  7. It’s like everything I don’t want this world wants. What about rabbits they overtake everyone’s gardens without cats. Cats need to be free

  8. F the birds I had a cat jumped into my fenced in back yard and attacked my dog and did over a thousand dollars in damage. If that was my dog it would be put down.

  9. No. Just a simple, flat out, no. “Outdoor cats” don’t exist. Only negligent cat owners.

  10. They provide a service and don’t bite the hand that feeds them.Unlike some recent visitors.

  11. Window strikes are the number one killer, and I collect a couple of dead ones per week from windows on the east and west side of the house
    90% are what I think are western meadowlarks, windows seem to have their number in spite of the stickers I put on the glass

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