Cat freedom

[bunsen_h]

A poll about cats running loose in the city, if you don't mind...

[Edited to remove broken poll; please try my other attempt.]

By "cat owner" I mean to include any variation of "I am responsible for the care of a cat" such as "My cats own me!".

I anticipate another dispute with a neighbor whose cat has been coming onto my property and causing trouble.  I need to determine which neighbor before I can complain to the city.
 

Comments

[suelet.livejournal.com]

Well...that's a matter of perspective too. What kind of trouble?

Personally I don't have any issues with the neighbourhood cats running around my yard, so long as they're not spraying the house or clawing the screens or getting into the garbage. However, the garbage situation is equally problematic with racoons and squirrels, so as long as it's racoon/squirrel proof, it should be cat proof.

I think it's actually somewhat cruel to take a cat in who is used to outdoors and not letting it out. That all being said, I have not generally *let* my cats out because we've often lived in high traffic areas (and my cats were indoor cats to begin with).
The new kittens we're going to adopt will be harness trained and allowed out with supervision, but not wandering because we live next to a major road.

[bunsen-h.livejournal.com]

Trouble as in "clawing at the back porch screen, trying to attack our cat, who is completely freaked out by it, and also attacking other neighborhood cats". I think that the tufts of feathers I found in the back yard last week are probably the result of a feline attack, though I don't know who's responsible.

I live two blocks away from Merivale Road, which is high-traffic.

And I like having a chipmunk living in my firewood pile, and the nest of cardinals in my lilac bushes, and don't want them attacked or scared away.

[suelet.livejournal.com]

ah...yes...THAT is certainly a problem.
My neighbours don't like that the cats use their garden as a litterbox. Frankly I'd rather deal with cat poop than with slugs, and the rabbits and squirrels did more damage to my garden than the cats do.

[shonokin.livejournal.com]

For reasons unknown, I am unable to participate in your poll, so I'll give my opinion here - check me off for "Allowed to run free. I am not a cat owner."

We've managed to effectively remove most predators in cities, so they're one of the few animals that actively go after rats/mice/voles, which I think makes up for the occasional bird taken and the rare poop in my flowerbeds, which for all I know could be from the raccoon/skunk/groundhog.

However, my opinion on specific cats might change depending on what kind of trouble they are actually presenting, though I'm usually of the lazy "garden hose spray" way of dealing with things instead of the city.

[pameladean]

Free-roaming domestic and feral cats don't take occasional birds. They kill millions of songbirds every year. They also kill the rodents that would otherwise be prey for hawks. Not all cities have hawks or hawk-release programs, but Minneapolis does. We have peregrines downtown and spreading into residential neighborhoods; and a Cooper's hawk who passes through our yard regularly. Hawks nest in mature elms in my neighborhood. These raptors are part of various rescue programs for endangered raptors, and do not need to compete with introduced predators who have other sources of food available to them directly from human owners. The depredations of hawks are not nearly so huge as those of domestic cats.

Minneapolis also has foxes and coyotes, although nobody has released or rescued them. Presumably they have been driven to live in parks and patches of wild ground by the reduction of their ordinary habitat by various forms of development. They don't need cats eating their natural prey either, though they are more likely to deal the cat a fatal blow than a hawk is. That isn't great for anybody, either. The life expectancy for indoor cats is enormously higher than for outdoor cats.

Letting cats out isn't really a good deal for anybody on any side of the situation.

P.

[beable]

Ottawa has domestic foxes too in some of the wooded patches.

And we have hawks and owls.

[pameladean]

That is very cool. I remember reading about urban foxes in East-Coast US cities years before we had any. And I should think we would have owls, but I haven't actually seen any, outside of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden, which has screech and great horned owls.

P.

[(Anonymous)]

So basically what you are saying is that cats are so awesome at rodent control that they are keeping the hawk menace at bay.

[bunsen-h.livejournal.com]

It's a bit hard to distinguish sarcasm, irony, and humour in this medium... would you care to clarify?

[popelaksmi.livejournal.com]

I tried to vote in your post but despite the "open to all/ viewable to all" I am getting an error message andthe participant # remains at 0. Therefore I am not convinced you are getting my vote.