Cats vs Councils

Currently in Western Australia we have a debate with local councils about wether or not to keep our cats only indoors. Whilst sitting outside watching my two cats run and play in my back yard safe, supervised and away from harm, I wonder how they would cope being kept indoors day after day and how I could take away the joy they get out of they’re few hours of outdoor freedom.

We’ve heard over and over again about stray cats walking the street at night and harming wild life, about the tom cats spraying on our walls and marking his territory. However I would like to make a call that this is not caused by the animal but by irresponsible pet owners. Yes cats do these things it is in their nature, however how hard is it to keep your cats inside at night? Or to supervise their outside play for maybe an hour or more a day? If you don’t have the time to do these simple things then maybe you shouldn’t have brought a cat in the first place.

I am lucky enough to work from home there is only 10 weeks of the year where I work close to full time hours away from my home the rest of the year I can work around them. This works well as during the warmer months I can take the laptop outdoors and let them play, during winter I make time for them to be out for atleast an hour a day. They are well fed so they don’t have the need to hunt, the most they have ever caught is a gecko (small drop tail lizard). And they have each other for constant entertainment.

There is many a house wife who can find the time for this I am sure, When the kids are playing in the yard you have to supervise them why not take the cat outside at the same time? When it is time to pack away and come in bring the cat in to. I’m sure the kids would appreciate the extra playmate.

It all comes down to being a responsible pet owner, would you buy a dog if you didn’t have time to walk it or the time to spend with it? Would you buy a pet if you didn’t have the money to care for it? When we brought our dog we sold our city villa and brought 5 acres with a run down house on it 20 minutes from the city so she would have the room to run.

If you don’t have the time or the money to care for your pets responsibly, by this I mean the time, money and patience to ensure they are vaccinated, sterilised, fed properly, excersized etc Then don’t buy one or better yet just buy a Gold Fish!

At the end of the day it’s not fair on the animal to be locked indoors all day and it is not fair on the wild life or the communities to have cats roaming the streets.

Also have a think of our animal shelters who have to destroy more then half the cats and kittens that are surrended to them as they don’t have the funding or the space to accomodate all these animals.

It is not the councils responsibility, It is ours as a cat owner.