Indoor vs. Outdoor Cats

There’s a divide in the way that cat owners (and non-cat owners, because they have massive opinions on this too) care for their furry family members on different sides of the Atlantic. In general, British cats are allowed outside to roam and establish their own territories, and cats in North America aren’t (or at least the ones who get Tweeted about aren’t). It’s down to the differences in environment and attitudes towards cats, and most owners will get it right even though their methods can vary enormously. But there are some owners who are really entrenched in their views and perceive all other methods as animal abuse. And they seem to have a real problem with outdoor cats.

In spite of its bias toward outdoor cats, the UK does still has many cats that are predominantly indoor, and this is often by their own choosing; or sometimes there is a specific reason a cat cannot have an outdoor life (e.g. illness or injury). But in general, in Britain we consider it cruel to deny a cat the opportunity to spend time outside — and yet there are many British indoor cat owners, out of choice, who are making it work. It’s never as simple as one way over the other.

I come from an environment in which it is normal to allow cats outside. It is done gradually, increasing exposure to the outdoors over time at the appropriate ages & stages of development. We don’t just sling our cats outdoors and forget about them. We vaccinate, neuter & microchip our pets, give them collars with our contact details on and fit cat flaps to our external doors so that our cats can come and go as they please (fun fact: neutered cats tend not to roam as far as unneutered ones). Of course, they will still stand at a different door miaowing to be let out and then immediately let back in, but that’s just their way of screwing with us.

Culturally, British cats have access to the outdoors, and we prepare our cats for a life lived outdoors if they want it. In practice, our cats divide their time between indoors and outdoors, and we allow them to enjoy their independence. While our cats don’t require our attention all day, they aren’t low-maintenance. Feline veterinary care is a constant consideration, especially given our cats will interact with the outdoor environment and other cats and creatures. We want to keep them healthy while still allowing them to explore places that might contain risks. It all boils down to how we see the wellbeing of domestic cats — we could keep them 100% indoors, but it goes against their instincts. You can train them to have a solely indoor existence, but why would you when they can have both?

It’s not a huge surprise that the way that people in one location do things is different from how they do them somewhere else, and it’s not particularly revelatory either that people are getting absolutely steaming mad over it. People like this believe there can only be One True Way to have cats, and they each think it’s how they themselves do it. The trouble with strongly-held pet welfare opinions is that it ends up with those with different choices accusing each other of animal abuse, missing the entire point of having pets, and causing harm to their pets in other ways.

There’s a trend of well-meaning people micromanaging their pet’s life to create what they think is the perfect, nutritionally-balanced, hyper-safe, sanitised bubble possible for their animal. And while their intentions are good, they actually end up causing more harm. Think of those who feed cats and dogs a vegan diet, or insist that they can safely keep an alligator in their bathtub. A pet is not an ornament, it is a living thing with needs of its own. We can only mould them to our ways so much. We have to meet their side of the bargain as well as ours.

The question of whether to allow one’s cats to roam outside or not is a conundrum fraught with judgement. On the internet, you are going to be wrong whatever you decide. Sometimes, you will be genuinely wrong, but it’s in recognising and rectifying this that you come out of it OK. But I’m really concerned about some of the self-appointed cat police I’m seeing on Twitter advocating for, and engaging in, harmful practices.

I’ve seen one individual in particular who seems to think they are doing the world a favour by proclaiming how evil outdoor cat owners are, while potentially neglecting their own indoor cats. They took home yet another cat from a shelter (god knows how many cats they have, and how big their home is, but I’m guessing there’s an environmental health issue brewing there) and it infected their other cats with a preventable disease — because none of their cats were vaccinated. They wrongly assumed it wasn’t necessary and exposed their unvaccinated animals to a deadly condition. Indoor cats can also get fleas and worms — it’s less common, but it still happens — especially if you’re adding to your cat collection with animals of unknown history.

And then they had the temerity to blame it on outdoor cat owners! Nope. The blame lies squarely with irresponsible owners who don’t vaccinate or neuter and then blame it on someone else when their cat gets an illness or parasite. Several cats had to be euthanised because a sick cat was brought into an environment where no-one was protected. It could have been avoided so easily, and yet they just behaved as though everyone else is an indoor cat owner and so they didn’t need to bother with vaccinations, or maybe even other necessary vet care. The shelter doesn’t sound too professional, either.

They claim the outdoors is a dangerous place for a cat, and then introduced a danger indoors because they were so wedded to their belief that their way is the only way. They obviously enjoy having cats in their home, but that doesn’t mean their home is the best environment. Still, I’d not have cause to criticise them if they didn’t go around preaching about how terrible other cat owners are while they cram as many cats as possible into their finite living space.

The truth is that the outdoors is dangerous, and us humans should know — we spend time there almost every day. But we have learnt how to deal with those dangers and we accept that we can never be 100% safe. The alternative is to never venture outdoors, locking ourselves in self-imposed prisons to protect against every possible hazard that might lurk outside in the big, scary world (true fact: most accidents occur in the home).

Many cats need access to the outdoors, and they themselves are aware of the dangers. They might get into fights, get hit by cars (cats have no road sense), or be exposed to disease. But for them, it’s worth it to experience the freedom to roam, the ability to establish territory, and the stimulation that comes with being immersed in a real, chaotic and sometimes risky environment. Obviously, some places have dangerous wildlife that is going to factor into the decision on whether to let cats outside or not, but in many cases, it’s people criticising outdoor cats for the havoc they wreak upon the natural world.

Cats are natural predators, even though they don’t need to be with humans making their mealtimes a lot easier. Cats kill small creatures for play, which sounds unnecessary and cruel, but is actually a behaviour of most carnivores — it is in their nature to kill opportunistically, and outdoor cat owners accept this as a facet of their pet’s being. Many indoor cat owners and supportive b̶u̶s̶y̶b̶o̶d̶i̶e̶s̶ parties will point to the pet cat’s deadliness as a reason to keep them indoors. But there is scant evidence that cats have any significant effect on bird population numbers (the prey that most people wring their hands over). The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds even points out that there is no evidence that cats are responsible for declining bird numbers. It is also possible that domestic cats are picking off the weak and injured specimens, which is just natural selection in action.

Other creatures killed by cats include insects, reptiles, amphibians and rodents, including about 80 million mice in the UK each year (although I’ve met many a rubbish mouser). But we only seem to worry about birds; when those targeted are common, unendangered species. Added to the problem of no reliable evidence on cats’ effects on population numbers, cats are also part of the ecosystem now, and we don’t know what would happen if all our cats were taken indoors. Humans have altered the environment immensely, and pet cats are a tiny part of that. Death is a part of nature, and while it might make one feel righteous to be concerned over the plight of birds at the hands/claws of cats, there are many more brutal dangers that await them. Singling out cats is based on sentimentality, not evidence.

At the end of the day, there’s more than one way to keep a cat. A stimulating environment can be created or accessed in many different ways, but my preference is definitely to allow outside play — because I’ve seen it work in practice and the benefits are those which require a lot of work to recreate indoors. And it’s never going to be the same as what the cat was built for. Cats are a more independent pet, and I like them that way.

I see indoor-only life as an imposition that should only occur with good reason. That good reason might be that you live in an apartment without access to outside — fair enough, but you’d better think carefully about how your pet is going to find life on the inside. Because it is the animal’s needs that matter the most in the endless debate over indoor/outdoor cats. If you take on a pet, you inherently restrict its freedom in some way. Domestication overrules many of an animal’s natural traits, but the creature is still in there somewhere just wanting to live its life. It’s up to you how many impositions you place upon it, but an independent animal like a cat has different needs to a companion animal like a dog or horse.

The schism between outdoor and indoor cat owners is exaggerated by the nature of the internet, especially social media. But we do seem to vilify other cat owners (and other pet owners) with no real reason. We just do things differently in different parts of the world, and there are plenty of good reasons for doing things one way or another. We should be less quick to judge and refrain from accusing others of abusing their pets because they have a different philosophy on cat care. There is no competition to be the best cat owner, except possibly from where your own cat is concerned.