https://x.com/Papaioeajake/status/1879698708893405488
Growing up as a kid in Australia we had outdoor cats. Not housecats that we let out sometimes. They weren't allowed in the house ever. Basically tiny lions that loafed around the house murdering native birds. Shit was fucked. Like at least outdoor dogs are just kind of doofuses.
It's especially fucked that we're allowed cats in Australia at all considering they're extincting most of our unique native wildlife.
I wish I could live in an Australia where quolls and bilbies where a common sight, but no we had to turn this place into yet another british suburb.
In a sane world we'd set a soft and hard date to ban cats in Australia. The soft would be soon and they couldn't be bought or sold. But you can keep them (only indoors).
The hard would be longer than any cat has lived, and after that you just can't own them in any way.
The canadian province of Alberta has 0 rats. If they can do that, we can keep cats indoors.
that's the historically normal way for cats to live around people in the places where these cats are native. or "native", since people carried their middle eastern cats all around the old world as agriculture spread.
i guess they've already killed everything that couldnt adapt to cats in these places, while the process is still ongoing in AU, NZ and the americas.
Outdoor Cat People:
Oh, but Mr. Mumbles just loves being in nature!Also Outdoor Cat People:
Have you seen my cat, Mr. Mumbles? He always comes home, but he's been missing for two weeks now!"When I was a kid this neighbourhood was full of birdsong, but now I'm lucky if I see a few sparrows in spring"
both of these things are true. cats love going outside and doing their cat business, but then they get run over, stuck in basements, beaten by other cats, by dogs, etc etc etc
Pets should be spayed and neutered. My mom helps foster dogs when she is able to, and the majority of the time they come from Texas bc it's just not a cultural norm to spay and neuter them there, so the dog population gets out of hand and you have a bunch of them running amok.
When we lived in the UK it was considered cruel not to let them outside. If I’m honest I still believe that a little bit because I’m biased towards cats, but now we live in Canada and I would never let them out in case they get eaten by a coyote or something. I think a lot of people don’t realise how much of the culture clash is caused by the lack of natural predators for cats in some countries (particularly in Europe)
I frequent a cat cafe/cocktail bar in Wuhan and the cats are never allowed outside. Meanwhile, the immediate upstairs neighbors owns at least 2 cats that only go inside at night, if they're home. So you have this situation where you have the outside cats staring at the indoor cats getting wet food and getting coddled by customers or napping next to a heater.
I'm pretty sure my indoor cats taunt the outdoor cats in my neighborhood. They'll sit high up in the window at night staring at them for a while, then they go get treats and keep staring.
Potential prey in the UK have adapted to cats. Ones in Canada have not.
I have a German friend who wouldn’t adopt as she couldn’t let them outside. It’s two massively opposing views.
Edit; two, not too.
I'm guessing that they average kiwi is more likely to have a yard than the average
Yes, well, 15 years ago when I lived there it was pretty much unheard of to not have a normal house with a yard. I never even saw an apartment until I moved to Australia.
new zealand is super suburban/rural, basically wellington and auckland's cbd are like the only urban areas of the country so yeah.
Cats hunt by pouncing. The sound of a bell doesn't do much good for a critter that's already been caught.
