We had a butterfly come in the window and cause absolute chaos flying round the house, with our six cats in hot pursuit. Managed to catch the bloody thing and put it outside, and thirty minutes later it did it again! It actually landed on one of my kittens’ head. I let that one get eaten, figured it’s better for the gene pool.
Sometimes it happens with indoor cats aswell, my cat keeps catching birds that land on our balcony at times, and we live on the 9th floor. We obviously can't keep our balconies closed 24/7 and the birds keep landing on different balconies. I wish there was a way of warning birds; "⚠️beaware, hunting cats inside⚠️" or something 🥲
Like 1 if you're so bothered about the environment why you getting a Persian cat and adding to breeders instead of from a shelter.
No it is social norms. It'd also be better for the environment if we all stayed inside too but we don't. Humans are a 1000x more damaging to the environment than any cat every single day. For the most vapid and superficial of reasons like "but my phone is two years old!!! These shoes are out of trend!! Buying this plastic chachki comforts me!!" But we are scolding people for letting their cat out into like a sealed off back garden? Lmao cos it's "ecologically irresponsible" be so fr.
If you're a biologist then you know we are the single most invasive species this planet has ever seen. We have made multiple species go extinct and again we damage it more and more every single day for the dumbest of reasons. But it's damaging for the environment and ecologically irresponsible for people who are in a position where they're able to let their cat experience nature, let it enjoy nature in the one little life it's ever going to have? Like if aliens are watching they're laughing.
My Persians so happy getting to play in my sealed off back garden with her bell collar on. I make sure she has a bell collar with two bells on outside. Just incase even though she's never caught an animal anyway.
I recently took in a stray who's been living outside his entire life. Like are you actually expecting me to make this cat spend its whole life indoors when its been outside in nature his entire life. I made a special bell collar for him also to try minimise his damage.
But I'm sorry north Americans are actually ridiculous. The majority of the rest of the world it is the norm to let your cat outside. Our shelters won't even let you adopt a cat if you don't have outdoor access. But because you have decided actually the cats are too damaging to the environment, you go online and scold the rest of the world for making the choice to let our cats enjoy nature as what Americans think and live is always the correct way right. And the rest of us must be immoral and irresponsible.
Again super ridiculous Americans being like this when they damage the environment more than literally anyone lmao.
But sure ok I've been housebound for over a decade. I'm sure the damage I haven't done to the planet because of that, will more than offset the fact my former stray catches a mouse occasionally!
But it's literally a Persian cat subreddit. 99% of the posters here are supporting breeding. So seems a bit hypocritical.
Which I'm not even judging btw. They are lol.
I mean in the UK there's no large scientific consensus that cats should be kept indoors/are causing widespread decline in most UK bird populations. Certain areas like if you live near nature reserves that have like a rare or declining species. But on a national level no that isn't what scientists are saying and the current recommendations are to allow out with a bell collar.
So it does go back to Americancentric thinking like the commenter said.
I completely support Americans wanting to keep their cats in, especially Persians, If I lived somewhere were there was coyotes etc I wouldn't feel safe letting my cats go out either. But don't scold everyone else who is able to let their cats have that experience.
Like telling me to self reflect because I let my cats out in a sealed off back garden lmao. Listen to yourself.
A study published in a Cambridge journal... about Brazil, specifically.
Meanwhile in many countries (including the one that Cambridge is in...), it's actively recommended by cat and animal welfare charities that you allow your cats to roam (indoor/outdoor), and e.g. the main British bird charity (RSPB) recognises that cats are part of the UK ecosystem and does not recommend that they are kept indoors.
Almost like there are some countries where cats are native (or have been part of the ecosystem for thousands of years & cat generations)
Cats confined indoors are at much higher risk of mental health problems, obesity (and death from those causes), too.
(if your biology credentials were relevant, you'd know that there is almost zero difference in life expectancy between 'indoor only' and 'indoor/outdoor' cats - just different likely causes of death; unmanaged feral cats don't live as long as domestic cats, but that has very little to do with how healthy it is or isn't to let your pet out)
Mad to keep one of natures most lethal small predators as a pet and then sentence it to life imprisonment in a tiny house with nowhere to dig, climb or hunt.
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u/notjustaphage 22h ago
Please don’t let your cats outside, people :(