Cats who are Not Spayed Should Not Go Outside

If you spend any time on Yahoo! Answers, or throughout the Internet in forums on pets, you will often encounter people freaking out as they should do in regard to their cat who is about to have kittens, or who just has had kittens, and so forth.

As a person who is well aware of the statistics regarding cat overpopulation these people frighten me. Don't get me wrong, I love kittens, they are super cute, but I am disgusted at the number of people who let their cats breed with little regard to the fact that in the United States alone over 3 million more cats are born than there will be homes for and those cats will be euthanized in shelters. Not to mention the untold others killed by owners who do not know what to do with them, or tossed out, abandoned to become feral or die.

Very simply I would love to yell “Spay your Cat!”. People seem to come up with all kinds of excuses as to why they did not spay their cat, the most feeble being “I was going to spay her but she was pregnant.”. This is a horrid excuse since a cat who was not spayed should not have been allowed outside in the first place. Other people actually use the fact that the cat was in heat as an excuse for letting her get pregnant “She was so annoying, I had to put her outside.”.

Some pet owners seriously horrify me.

There is really no excuse for letting a cat get pregnant. Domestic cats are not an endangered species, there is no reason to make more. Her own health is at risk simply by being allowed to breed – she risks getting a cat STD (sexually transmitted disease), the pregnancy itself could have complications (perhaps requiring a cesarean section to save her life), and if she is young, old, or in poor health, her life could be at risk in general.

As a person who has worked at an animal shelter, and seen week old, three week old, eight week old, and so on, kittens being euthanized by the bag full, I beg all cat owners to think harder about spaying their cat. If for some moral, or financial reason you opt not to spay your cat, at least keep her indoors. The reality is that for every kitten born there are more that will not find homes, if your cat's kittens find homes somebody else's cat's kittens will not.

There are just not enough homes for all the kittens, deal with it!

Cats Kill Birds, so do You, Deal with it

Sometimes I encounter people who are very angry at cat owners who allow their cats outside. One of the reasons for this is the fact that house cats who go outside kill birds. I am certain even the cat's owners are not particularly thrilled with this behavior, but to be fair human activities kill a lot more birds than do house cats.

Cats are carnivores, by their very nature they have a high prey drive, we consider this an advantage if they kill a mouse, and a disadvantage if they kill a pretty little songbird. It is not that the cat is doing something intentionally evil, it is doing what is natural to do. People argue that house cats are not a natural species, and they have been introduced to areas where they did not exist, well... the same can be said of humans.

Why don't we take any blame for our own actions on killing birds? I am not even talking about the billions of chickens we slaughter, but am referring to the millions the song birds we kill. Do we dare measure how many songbirds are killed in a year by our own actions and see how that compares to how many birds cats kill?

How many songbirds die when their nesting area in the rain forest is cut? How many songbirds die when they smash into skyscrapers as they migrate in the night? How many songbirds die as the result of pollution or chemicals? How many song birds are consumed as delicacies in countries such as Cypress? How many songbirds die as the result of human activities every day?

Sure, cats kill birds, it's what they do, they are carnivores, prey hunters. Humans kill birds all the time with no thought of eating them. People come around and clean up city streets in the wee hours of the morning to remove bodies of birds killed on their migration, tossed in to the garbage. Why are we always blaming the cats?

Has anyone who is mad at cats changed their own lifestyle so as to harm no other life forms? Have they stopped having children so we no longer need to destroy forests to make houses or toilet paper? Hmm?

Good luck getting people to blame themselves when they can blame cats instead.

Cats kill birds, well... deal with it.

As a note, concerned owners who want to reduce the likelihood of their cat killing birds could put a collar with a bell on their cat but these are not very effective as cats learn how to move without ringing the bell. Keeping the cat indoors is the best way to prevent it from killing songbirds, or by confining it a fully fenced cat section made out of chicken wire so birds do not get in. Cat owners should not entice birds into their yard with bird feeders.

Pets do Not Wander Off to Die

Recently I had somebody tell me a story of their cat. They said their cat was sick and old, and one day it just wandered off to die. What? This person genuinely believed that their sick and old cat wandered off to spare them from having to see it suffer any more.

Sick, old, or suffering, pets might wander off and die... but pets do not wander of to die.

Pets do not give a shit if you feel good about watching them die or not. A pet that is sick and suffering simply wants go feel better, it hides because it wants to feel safe, not because it cares about your feelings. It knows it is weak and vulnerable. The pet is hiding so other animals don't beat the living daylights out of it as some animals are prone to do, including feral animals as well as wild ones such as foxes, coyotes, and raccoons.

If your cat is sick and old what the heck are you even doing letting the poor thing out of your house? Take it to a veterinarian for proper treatment, or euthanasia even. Keep it indoors so it is comfy and can recover and be safe. Would you kick out your dear old ailing grandmother and let her wander off to die?

Maybe some people are just too stupid to realize that sick, old, or dying pets, can be cared for, and should not be left to suffer alone.

Most pets who “wander off to die” hide and die of dehydration or starvation, having become too weak to leave their sheltered spot to find food or water. They may lie there for days before the end finally comes. In some cases these animals would have had a chance at life if only their owner got help for them.

I recall one half dead cat that my sister and I found, she was so thin that when we took her to the SPCA they immediately directed us to take her to the veterinarian. The poor cat had a bone stuck in her throat, the owner just assumed the cat dropped weight due to age and had wandered off to die. In truth the cat was dying because the owner neglected it.

If your pet is old it is up to you to make its final days more comfortable, letting it wander the streets aimlessly (many senior pets suffer from dementia) just shows a lack of compassion, and I would question how much such a person really “loves their pet”.

If you own a pet that is sick or old, turning your back on it to let it suffer and die is neglect. People who do such are pathetic and if they call themselves a pet lover after committing such a crime they should be ashamed of themselves. If your pet is old and dying you need to care for it and keep it in your home even if this means you have to watch it die, and may have to deal with the body. This is the part of pet ownership that sucks for all of use but to escape your responsibility by ignoring the plight of your pet is cruel.

If your old pet is missing, get out there and look for it!

Pets do not wander off to die, they do not run away from home to spare your feelings, they do not wander off to save you a few dollars at the veterinarian. They wander off because you didn't care enough to keep them in your home. If your pet is dying well... do something.. and well... deal with it.

Who Let the Cats Out

Speaking of people who let their cats outside and then cry when the cat gets squished by a car. I feel sorry for the cat, not the person.

Now.. before you get all pissed, I want to tell you that many years ago, I had a cat get run over. Missy was a beautiful Torbie cat, she rarely left the yard. One day my neighbors were moving out. They had a moving van in front of their home and were in and out all day with boxes. I heard a doorbell ring, it was my neighbor.

They did not see it happen, but on one trip out with boxes they found my cat laying dead in the road, the vehicle that hit her had driven away. She was still warm. Should I be mad at the driver? No. I was the fool that let her outside and I knew there was always a risk. The incident motivated me to build a cat enclosure so it would not happen again.

In short, if you let your cat out, and your cat gets killed, it's your fault, deal with it.

I even hear people blame their kids “Oh, my child let the cat out.”. So what? If your kid is old enough to open the door and go in and out by themselves they are old enough to be wary of letting the cat outside. Simple.  At the end of the day it matters not if your kid let the cat out, a dead cat, is a dead cat.

Cats don't have nine lives, they have one. If you put your cat outside, even only once, it is at risk. Traffic isn't the only danger. Neighbors that are tired of your cat pooping in their yard will try to find a way of getting rid of it, and some methods are not exactly legal. People poison cats, shoot them, or catch them and drive them to other parts of the city, or abandon them in the country. Legally though, in most areas, any cat off its owners property can be taken to the animals shelter in the area and turned in as a stray.

Nobody wants to come home to a smushed cat, dead on the road, but some of us will. This is owner error 100% of the time, even if the “kids let it out”. If you make the choice to let your cat go outside you have nobody to blame but yourself if it ends up dead.

Yes, many cats go outside and come home time after time, perfectly fine. But... what about the ones that don't.

©image owned by author, cat in cat enclosue

If you let your cat out, and something happens to it, I will have sympathy for your cat, total sympathy for the cat, but shame on you if you blame the driver who it it, or neighbor who stole it, its your fault, and only your fault, if your cat did not make it home. It sucks, but, well, deal with it.