• saltesc@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    A neighbour has let their cat loose recently, despite it being illegal, and it’s not even belled.

    Now I get to enjoy my dogs losing it at the window late at night, the stench of piss as I go out the front door, and the birds living in my garden have gone, which is going to screw with the little ecosystem I got going.

    You can never meet someone and still know they’re an asshole because of their pet.

    • ParadoxSeahorse@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      Curious where this is?

      In my country there are cats everywhere, collars uncommon, just chips. I have never noticed cat piss or a lack of birds, but maybe that’s my ignorance

      • AbsolutelyClawless@piefed.socialEnglish
        2·
        3 months ago

        Internet has a hard-on for virtue-signaling and black-and-white perspective, and “adopt, don’t shop” is one of those. There is nothing wrong with ethical, responsible breeding.

        There is, however, a lot wrong with unethical breeding (e.g. doll-face persians, scottish folds, pugs, frenchies, showline GSDs, etc., and backyard breeding as a whole) and official breed standards set by people who only care about the looks and not the health of the animal.

  • Regna@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    There is unethical behaviour on both parts. Overbred indoor cat, and (hopefully neutered) outdoor cat that ruins wildlife populations of birds and other sensitive populations. If the outdoor cat isn’t neutered, that makes it ten times worse.

    • Saapas@piefed.zipEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      I think the welfare of the cat is the overriding factor. The wildlife thing might be overblown but outdoor cats face all sort of issues (accidents, disease, fights, abuse) and the owner isn’t there to look after them.

      • gmtom@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        3 months ago

        I had to keep my cat indoors for several months after a surgery and he got severely depressed, even despite me spending all my free time trying to play with him and even taking time off work to look after him properly.

        Then when he was finally allowed outside again he completely changed basically overnight and was so incredibly happy and playful.

        I would take a slightly increased risk of them going outdoors rather than keeping them “safe” but with a lower quality of lifem

    • Cris_Citrus (he/him <3)@piefed.zipEnglish
      0·
      3 months ago

      For those that don’t know why, cats are very capable hunters and absolutely decimate bird populations. Keeping cats outdoors has genuinely horrendous ecological consequences unfortunately :/

      Edit: this position may not be as well academically supported as I thought. For the time being I’m not sure if outdoor cats pose significant ecological risks, evaluate the paper below and do further research if you’d like to investigate the topic more yourself :)