• lectricleopard@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I see what you mean. I have 3 cats, all girls and spayed. Our neighbor has an outdoor cat (socially acceptable animal cruelty imo), a boy and intact.

    They make goo goo eyes at each other through the windows. I dont know what would happen if I let them out, but they look like they’d be friends.

      • lectricleopard@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

        They live much shorter lives outdoors. Im not sure how someone could not care about the length of life of something they care about.

        • quediuspayu@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          10 hours ago

          Maybe they care more about their quality of life than their life span. I my opinion it is the other way around, the socially acceptable cruelty is to have them confined their entire lives, doesn’t matter how big and comfortable is the cage.

          • lectricleopard@lemmy.world
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            7 hours ago

            Yeah, I qualified it as my opinion because I know not everyone agrees. I make sure our cats have many litter boxes, places to nap and places to scratch, and a couple cat buddies. I hope that they do not feel something is being withheld from them. Thats my goal.

      • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
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        17 hours ago

        One of the big things is their robust appetite for murder. Domesticated cats destroy bird populations. At minimum they should have a collar with a bell.

        • ganryuu@lemmy.ca
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          12 hours ago

          It’s not as clear cut as this, a lot of the studies that suggest this don’t stand up to scrutiny, with for example some having numbers of estimated birds killed by cats over the total estimated bird population. Also the fact that the majority of kills by cats are already weak or sick animals, animals that would die soon either way, and not really affect the total population. The only ones that seem legit and suggest an effect on the population are from small islands.