Cats outside are an aggressive invasive species in every continent except Africa. I love them but they need to be kept inside, and neutered/spayed. Just because other people don’t care about their local ecosystem doesn’t make their behavior worth emulating.
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PragmaticOne@lemmy.world 1 week agoWell the information you are being provided with is very wrong.
Here in the UK they’re still classified as wild animals and many people let them out. They also work on farms and perform vermin deterrence. But they’re mostly pets and it will be a very very rare thing for someone to use a harness.
I can walk up my street and see one or two sat outside sunning themselves or watching the world pass by and many just want petting. But not usually when I have my four legged boy with me.
Nefara@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Brummbaer@pawb.social 1 week ago
The European wild cat exists. Domestic cats may have come from Africa, but cats have been native in Europe for a long time.
schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
I think the problem with domestic cats is not the color of their passport, but the fact they are not subject to pressures limiting predators in the wild.
They have:
a) have permanent shelter b) have constant access to food
So while others animals are starving and being eaten, the cat just goes out there every day and kills everything it can find, and if it can’t find anything, it goes back and has a full meal, and it does this every day for most of its very long life no matter how much food is available or how cold it gets.
Brummbaer@pawb.social 1 week ago
That’s the reason wildcats are not a problem, they have small stable populations and barely interact with humans and domestic cats.
“Modern” Wildcats have been in all of Europe for at least 300k years, so they were just another predator species among many others.
Nefara@lemmy.world 1 week ago
This is like saying because there are toads native to Australia, that Cane toads are fine. An invasive species is an invasive species, and is characterized by its spread, reproduction, and harm to the local ecosystem.
Nighed@feddit.uk 1 week ago
There is a species of wild cat native to the UK: www.wildlifetrusts.org/…/wildcat
Nefara@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Yes but that’s not the cat people are usually referring to when they say "I have a cat I let outside "
edible_funk@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
Look up lifespans of indoor and outdoor cats. It’s pretty dramatic.
PragmaticOne@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I live in the UK and we look after them. They live on average 15-20+yrs if they’re a good Hienz.
edible_funk@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
You don’t. A 2025 University of Edinburgh study analysed 12 previous UK veterinary investigations, revealing a stark 10-16 year lifespan gap between indoor and outdoor cats.
PragmaticOne@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Post the paper. You have made an assertion and the burden of proof is on you.
Until you do it’s just bollocks.
Guitar@lemmy.world 1 week ago
ohulancutash@feddit.uk 1 week ago
The RSPCA are barely better than PETA.
nova@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 week ago
What’s your source on that? That’s news to me but I can’t find it anywhere on the RSPCA website.
https://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/pets/cats
There’s a lot of wild cats that live across europe, which is why the advise you get in the states is different because over there, cats are more of an invasive species which its prey haven’t evolved with.
We have many species, but here’s one example which has been around for 170,000 years: European Wildcat
nylo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 week ago
that’s not a domestic cat being let outside
an entirely different entity than an indoor/outdoor cat
nova@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 week ago
I agree, but the point is that domesticated cats aren’t invasive in the same way as they are across the pond. They are effectively the same species as european wildcats and have the same prey.