My housemate that grew up on a farm in western NSW and refuses to have outdoor cats. Between watching them slowly succumb to bites from venomous snakes to finding a python with a roughly "cat sized" bulge in its belly by the time she was 10, she vowed not to keep outdoor cats. Her parents had a different philosophy: just don't desex your outdoor cats, they'll outbreed the snakes probably.
My other housemate from Sydney was like "yeah we've had outdoor cats and they lived to be 18"
Which I only recently realised is an inverse of the usual "city folk advertise for indoor cats, farm folk just let them all out" discourse that happens online.
(I am personally allergic to cats, so my take is: don't own cats)
A couple of anecdotes from Australia:
My housemate that grew up on a farm in western NSW and refuses to have outdoor cats. Between watching them slowly succumb to bites from venomous snakes to finding a python with a roughly "cat sized" bulge in its belly by the time she was 10, she vowed not to keep outdoor cats. Her parents had a different philosophy: just don't desex your outdoor cats, they'll outbreed the snakes probably.
My other housemate from Sydney was like "yeah we've had outdoor cats and they lived to be 18"
Which I only recently realised is an inverse of the usual "city folk advertise for indoor cats, farm folk just let them all out" discourse that happens online.
(I am personally allergic to cats, so my take is: don't own cats)