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by objclxt 4257 days ago
Having lived in both the U.S. and the U.K. it's interesting to see the two different attitudes to cats. In the UK, letting your cat outside is the norm. The shelter I adopted from wouldn't give you a cat unless you were able to let it out (or the cat had feline AIDS and needed to be kept indoors for protection).

But it's the complete opposite in the U.S, and although that makes sense in some places (a lot more predators in the countryside), in a city like San Francisco the risks seem identical to those of London. It's very strange. Of course, in the UK cat owners aren't legally liable for their cat's actions (cats, unlike dogs, are deemed by the law to be free agents), maybe that's not the case in the states.
2 comments
npsimons 4257 days ago
Where I live, if you let your cat(s) outside, sooner or later they will be eaten by coyote or mountain lion. I am not exaggerating. There's also the issue of cats decimating the local bird population: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/cats_actually_kill
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objclxt 4257 days ago
Well, I did say in my original post I wasn't talking about the countryside. One would hope there aren't mountain lions wandering the streets of, say, Brooklyn.

Cats do kill wildlife, but their impact is often overstated. The RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) in the UK has no issues with cats being let out, but recommend they have bells on their collars. The majority of birds that cats kill are sick, frail, or otherwise in poor health.

To quote the RSPB: "there is no scientific evidence that predation by cats in gardens is having any impact on bird populations UK-wide"[1].

[1]:http://www.rspb.org.uk/makeahomeforwildlife/advice/gardening...

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PeterWhittaker 4257 days ago
Or fishers. Nasty things, fishers.

(We've had a lot of "missing cat" signs on the group mailboxes lately. Woods nearby. Expanding populations of fishers, coyotes, wolves, etc. Did I mention I'm 15 minutes from Parliament Hill? Bears downtown, -35 C winters (with serious wind and a whole lotta snow), +35 C summers (with 90+% humidity), wild beasties in the woods.... I really love Ottawa. I mean, I must. No rationale person would live here otherwise.)

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chris_wot 4257 days ago
In Australia, cats have killed a lot of wildlife.
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