Research shows that keeping your cat indoors can be good for them and the local ecosystem
When it comes to letting cats out to play, you should really consider the consequences before letting them run free.
For cats, the outdoors holds many hazards that make it difficult to enjoy life
Wildlife, including endangered animals, is becoming increasingly rare because of the effects of human activities on the natural environment.
These include the uncontrollable drive to hunt and kill wildlife, which has been shown to reduce native animal populations and degrade biodiversity
Humans are primarily responsible for any harm done to domestic animals. You can reduce cat predation risk by keeping them indoors where they are not exposed to danger
The Washington, D.C., study’s analysis included data from the cat count. A survey was deployed with 60 motion-activated wildlife cameras over 1,500 sampling locations to determine where cats live.
The cameras recorded what cats preyed on and demonstrated how they overlap with native wildlife, which helped researchers understand why cats and other wildlife are present in some areas but absent from others
the average domestic cat has a 61% chance of being found in the same space as red foxes and Virginia opossums, which can spread the disease. We are endangering the health of our cats by letting them go outside
In addition to the risk of being exposed to diseases that they can bring indoors to the humans in their families, outdoor cats are also threatening native wildlife. D.C. is located in the District of Columbia.
According to the Cat Count survey, cats that are allowed to roam outside also share the same spaces with and hunt small native wildlife, including gray squirrels, chipmunks, cottontail rabbits, and white-footed mice
Cats are keeping rats out of sight due to fear, but there isn't any evidence that they are controlling the non-native rodents
Access to open water and the presence of wildlife are associated with tree cover. The presence of cats decreased with the natural features but increased with the human population density
He says that the associations are counter to the idea that free-roaming cats are stepping into a natural role in the ecosystems by hunting wildlife.
These habitat relationships suggest that the distribution of cats is largely driven by humans. They show that when people have control over what's in their homes, they will choose to keep cats there
Humans and cats mostly work well together in that the cats tolerate humans much better than other mammals, but this tolerance can only exist if the human population is low
Cat owners should keep their cats indoors to avoid interacting with native wildlife. the health and wellbeing of native wildlife should be protected because of the presence of feral cats
They should not be allowed to roam freely where there is a high risk of overlap, and they should be kept close to human settlement so that they can be trapped and removed when necessary.