The argument that cats need to roam other peoples' properties has never been valid to anyone but lazy cat owners.
Tell it to RSPCA who requires that all new owners rehoming cats from shelters have a cat flap and let them go outside.
No they don't. RSPCA guidance offers a lot of tips for keeping cats happy and healthy indoors. The only time they will insist you let your rescue cat outside is if it is already used to spending a lot of time outside and will struggle to adapt to indoor life. Also the RSPCA have a terrible reputation as an animal welfare organisation and you'll find that a lot of other charities have to pick up the slack by treating the wild animals that outdoor cats attack but don't kill.
It was like that when I looked into rehoming. Not a single shelter in our area would give me a cat without a cat flap. Possibly a mix of organizations, I don't remember and don't really understand the structure of the organizations running rescues and shelters well. This is just how it was when I looked into our local possibilities.
Amen. Until owners have a legal duty of care for their cats and their consquences, act as if owners have a legal duty of care for their cats and their consquences. Dogs cannot come on to my property and shit and kill anything they fancy. Cats are no different.
Actually, one of our neighbours has a dog who sometimes does his thing on our drive. Awesome to go out to the bins at night and step into it. It isn't bad enough or often enough to talk about it with them. Just a minor inconvenience resulting from people living close to each other. Not too different from other stuff like hearing neighbours' noises, being overlooked or shaded, debris from their plants, seeds from their weeds... Cats are similar. I would hate to see my cat cause a significant inconvenience to someone (or even a minor one, like the dog). But I am pretty sure she doesn't. She's in our garden 90% of the time. She goes to the neighbouring gardens at night but she's shy and no one notices her. I originally wanted to have an indoor cat but I respect what she wants as long as it is safe and as long as it doesn't cause any harm to anyone. I would be ok with legal consequences. I am already willing to accept moral ones if it ever comes to her causing any problem. Neighbourly relationships are a complex thing, they are a lot about tolerance, kindness, empathy and compromises. Words like "legal consequences" come to play only when everything else fails.
The argument that cats need to roam other peoples' properties has never been valid to anyone but lazy cat owners.
Tell it to RSPCA who requires that all new owners rehoming cats from shelters have a cat flap and let them go outside.
When we got our current cat and his sister from Cats Protection, they wanted a quiet indoor home for them, so not all rehomed cats need to be allowed outside.
Edit for clarification: they were rescued from a home where they'd been badly mistreated, to the extent that their mum and another sibling couldn't be saved .
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
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Areas in both Oz and NZ are banning roaming cats. It can be done.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.