I’m at a friend’s place and the cat keeps bringing in dead (or half-dead) animals into the house. It’s my understanding that cats think we are big, helpless kittens that don’t know how to hunt. Hence, they think they are doing us a favour.
It seems like a few mice actually escaped and found refuge in some walls in the house, so these “presents” are actually more than just annoying (and smelly if the dead animal ends up behind the couch).
It’s not so much that they think you’re incapable of hunting. It’s moreso that they just like you and bring gifts. However, like others have said in here, cats absolutely should not be let outside and there is a ton of research that backs that up. The best solution is to educate your friend on how damaging their behavior is to the environment as well as how it puts their cat in danger as well. I know many people in the veterinary field and they all agree that cats should not be let outside unless they are on a harness.
It’s also their way of contributing. You keep getting them food, and contributing to the colony, so they’re also getting food and contributing to the colony, to make sure you don’t go hungry, and the colony is fed.
Well the information you are being provided with is very wrong.
Here in the UK they’re still classified as wild animals and many people let them out. They also work on farms and perform vermin deterrence. But they’re mostly pets and it will be a very very rare thing for someone to use a harness.
I can walk up my street and see one or two sat outside sunning themselves or watching the world pass by and many just want petting. But not usually when I have my four legged boy with me.
Look up lifespans of indoor and outdoor cats. It’s pretty dramatic.
I live in the UK and we look after them. They live on average 15-20+yrs if they’re a good Hienz.
You don’t. A 2025 University of Edinburgh study analysed 12 previous UK veterinary investigations, revealing a stark 10-16 year lifespan gap between indoor and outdoor cats. Seventy percent keep indoor cats. Outdoor cats have an average lifespan of 2 to 5 years with indoor cats coming up at 14 to 18 years. That’s huge my dude.
Post the paper. You have made an assertion and the burden of proof is on you.
Until you do it’s just bollocks.
Cats outside are an aggressive invasive species in every continent except Africa. I love them but they need to be kept inside, and neutered/spayed. Cats do fine indoors, even ones who have gotten used to going in and out. They may complain but with enrichment and regular play they will get over it. If not, then a catio is a good solution.
The European wild cat exists. Domestic cats may have come from Africa, but cats have been native in Europe for a long time.
This is like saying because there are toads native to Australia, that Cane toads are fine. An invasive species is an invasive species, and is characterized by its spread, reproduction, and harm to the local ecosystem.
I think the problem with domestic cats is not the color of their passport, but the fact they are not subject to pressures limiting predators in the wild.
They have:
a) permanent shelter b) constant access to food
So while others animals are starving and being eaten, the cat just goes out there every day and kills everything it can find, and if it can’t find anything, it goes back and has a full meal, and it does this every day for most of its very long life no matter how much food is available or how cold it gets.
That’s the reason wildcats are not a problem, they have small stable populations and barely interact with humans and domestic cats.
“Modern” Wildcats have been in all of Europe for at least 300k years, so they were just another predator species among many others.
What specific wild cat are you talking about in Europe? Do you mean feral domesticated cats (which are essentially this one small African cat)? Or larger critters like bobcats?
The European wildcat - Felis silvestris.
Interestingly it seems that they avoided interbreeding with domestic cats for over 2k years.
https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2023-11-06-european-wildcats-avoided-introduced-domestic-cats-2000-years
There is a species of wild cat native to the UK: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/mammals/wildcat
Yes but that’s not the cat people are usually referring to when they say "I have a cat I let outside "
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The RSPCA are barely better than PETA.
What’s your source on that? That’s news to me but I can’t find it anywhere on the RSPCA website.
https://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/pets/cats
There’s a lot of wild cats that live across europe, which is why the advise you get in the states is different because over there, cats are more of an invasive species which its prey haven’t evolved with.
We have many species, but here’s one example which has been around for 170,000 years: European Wildcat
that’s not a domestic cat being let outside
an entirely different entity than an indoor/outdoor cat
I agree, but the point is that domesticated cats aren’t invasive in the same way as they are across the pond. They are effectively the same species as european wildcats and have the same prey.
and that’s incorrect, domesticated cats have guaranteed food/shelter that keeps them unchecked in a way that natural predators are, thus making them invasive. they wreak havoc on local ecosystems worldwide.
source
source 2: electric boogaloo
source 2 II: still sourcin’
(all European except the third from AP, couldn’t find their source so feel free to discount that one but I hope oxford and tilburg are good enough eu sources)