Tumblr Thread: People Debate Whether Indoor Cats Should Be Let Outside

Every once in a while, we come across a story or a video of someone walking their cat, and we're always a little shook. Our cats have always been indoor cats. The closest they got to going outdoors was sitting on our balconies. But we see these images - cats on leashes, cats traveling outside in cat bags, cats sitting in people's bicycle carts. And to be honest, we're kinda jealous. We think our cats might enjoy hanging out outside sometimes, but we're worried. 

Of course, we know that our cats' reactions to being outside for the first time would be hilarious, and we would make sure to document them, but we don't know for sure if we should take the risk. We would make sure to find a safe solution for taking our cats outside before doing it, but still- what do you guys think? Should indoor cats be allowed to be let outside?

Author image for Mariel Ruvinsky Mariel Ruvinsky
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  • 01
    Font - pangur-and-grim Follow man, I have very little sympathy for people who're like "I gotta let them play in traffic, my cat WAILS and acts MISERABLE unless I let them outside!" because like. .so does mine? at a certain point each day Grim decides she wants out, and until that happens she a) follows me about SCREAMING, and b) sits atop whatever l'm doing and bites my hands. this is not an exageration
    via pangur-and-grim

    We do have a sympathy for the people who want to take their cats outside, to be honest. We get it, it's hard to listen to our cats crying, and it's even harder knowing what they want - to be let outside - and refusing to give it to them. We want to give them everything to make them happy, but we wouldn't dare try letting them outside without making sure to do it safely.

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  • 02
    Cat - wanna know what I do? I take her out. either supervised in my backyard or on leash in the front
    via pangur-and-grim

    We're glad that you have found a solution, and we think that this is a pretty good one considering the circumstances. Of course, not every cat takes to a leash, so it would probably not work for everyone. But it's a place to start. 

  • 03
    Organism - she naps in the sunlight, eats copious amounts of grass, rolls in dirt, and murders butterflies. after 15-30 minutes (equivalent to the time you'd spend on a neighbourhood dog walk) I take Grim back in, and she happily sleeps/plays/cuddles indoors for the remainder of the day
    via pangur-and-grim
  • 04
    Cat - it's legitimately low-effort
    via pangur-and-grim
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  • 05
    Font - pangur-and-grim Follow Where I live in the UK, cats are just always let outdoors by themselves. We've had very little missing cat cases and most cats stay away from the roads. My cat only goes around our street's back gardens usually and rarely starts trouble with the other cats in our street. My point is, some neighbourhood's are different to op's and it's odd to assume all cat owners live in the same cultures as op, where cats are treated the same way as dogs (we love them as much thoug
    via pangur-and-grim
  • 06
    Font - Croydon Cat Killer From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Croydon Cat Killer was thought to be an individual who killed, dismembered and decapitated more than 400 cats and various other animals across England, beginning in 2014 in Croydon. 4S6) Reports of cat deaths attributed to the killer were spread across and around London, and as far north as Manchester. However, in 2018 the Metropolitan Police concluded that the mutilations had not been carried out by a human and were likely caus
    via pangur-and-grim
  • 07
    Font - do you understand the significance of that? the average background extinction rate is million species year, and cats have caused SIXTY-THREE extinctions of small animals in the last century. we're currently 1 per in the midst of a mass-extinction crisis occurring at a speed we haven't seen on this planet before..like, love your cat, love your planet, or get the fuck off my post.
    via pangur-and-grim
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  • 08
    Font - avoidingclaws-mostly No specific hate to that person at all because it's a very very common viewpoint but... Where do people get these broad statements from like "we get very few missing cats". Are you KIDDING? There's posts on local community Facebook groups every day about multiple cats going missing, there's posters on lampposts. It is SO common. I'd also like to know how people know exactly where their cats ago. I would argue they go a lot farther than they think they do. It wasn't th
    via pangur-and-grim
  • 09
    Rectangle - We've also got so many unidentified (but chipped or wearing collars so clearly owned) dead cats in our clinic's cold storage where people bring them in dead from the roads etc and we can't find their owners. (FYI if you've lost your cat, call all the vet practices in a 5-8 mile radius).
    via pangur-and-grim
  • 10
    Font - Edit: feel like I glossed over the point or perhaps it's safer in different regions but honestly I think there's just different threats? Poisoning (accidental or intentional) is much more common in quiet/rural places, yard or farm dogs are more likely to kill or injure free-roaming cats, etc. Cats can still easily get injured or get stuck somewhere and then go missing etc, or get into fights, become diseased, get killed in the countryside, if we're comparing to urban areas. 090 109,022 no
    via pangur-and-grim

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