Top Reasons to Keep Your Cat Indoors
While dogs have been the initial focus of BARC, we love our cats too. In order to keep your cat safe and healthy, BARC recommends that cats be kept indoors at all times. It's a dangerous world for outside cats.
According to the Humane Society of the United States, the estimated average life span of a free-roaming cat is less than three years—compared to 12–15 years for the average indoor-only cat.
According to Jim Lindley, Beverly's Animal Services Officer, since his arrival in Beverly last summer, he has recorded almost 50 cats killed by cars, picked up as strays, or surrendered. We can only assume that many more deaths are never reported to the city.
Here are the top reasons to consider making your cat an indoor pet:
- Cats frequently get hit by cars. Too many cats are hit by cars and killed every year in Beverly alone. Beverly is a city, and there aren't many safe places for your cat to roam safely without encountering traffic. A cat darting into the street can also cause serious car accidents as drivers try to avoid hitting them. In the winter, cats may even climb up into a car engine to seek warmth, and be killed or seriously injured when the car is restarted.
- Cats can easily get lost. If your cat wanders away from home and can't find its way back, it may be less likely to seek human assistance, as a dog might. It may instead seek the woods or other secluded places, and you may never see your cat again.
- Unaltered cats make more cats. All cats should be spayed and neutured, but an outdoor cat that is not spayed or neutered is contributing to an already very serious cat overpopulation. Think about this: According to the Humane Society, one fertile cat can produce an average of 3 litters in just one year. The average number of kittens in a feline litter is between 4 and 6. So, in just seven years, one female cat and her offspring can theoretically produce 420,000 cats. And tragically, the number of cats and dogs euthanized by shelters each year is an estimated 3–4 million.
- Cats can become prey. We often hear about cats disappearing in the outlying areas of Beverly, near wooded areas, where they can easily become prey to coyotes, fishers and other wild animals. Just last week (Feb 21), a bobcat was spotted on Central Street near downtown Beverly, and at least one neighborhood cat fell victim to his hunger before the bobcat was trapped and relocated.
- Cats may be poisoned. Beverly is full of toxins. Rat poisons, pesticides, antifreeze, plants, weed killers, chemicals, carion, etc. An outdoor can can come into contact with almost any of these toxins and you would never know it.
- Cats can get very sick. Cats who are allowed outside are very likely to be exposed to Feline Immunodeficency virus or Feline Leukemia, deadly diseases often carried by outdoor, stray or feral cats, and spread through cat fights and mating.
- Cats kill songbirds. As sweet as your cat is indoors, outside it is a menace to our songbird population. A cat's natural instinct is to hunt birds, and due to cats, the songbird population is falling at alarming rates.
- Cats are hard to identify. It can be hard to tell the difference between a stray cat, a feral cat, and your cat. Unless your cat has some form of identification on it, such as a collar with a tag, a tatoo, a microchip, or very unusual markings, it would be hard for anybody to distinguish your cat if it becomes lost. According to the Humane Society, fewer than 5% of "found" cats taken in by animal shelters are reunited with their families.
- Cats can be aggressive. Not all cats are friendly to strangers. Cats can attack other cats and also people, especially children who try to approach them. If your cat attacks a person or another animal, you are liable, and your cat may be impounded, quarantined or worse if it is suspected of carrying rabies.
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