This is a video about a horse but the message is about animals. That is the message for me. We might think it is natural for us to pen-up animals like this. In fact we have to for their own safety and welfare I suppose. Or do we? Aren’t there better ways?
I don’t want to stir up a hostile debate but when I watched this super horse (I love this wise horse) my mind wandered to the world of cats and then to what some people might argue is mass cat imprisonment: full-time indoor cats.
OK the cage is nice, comfortable and secure etc. but a full-time indoor cat is effectively in a cage, a gilded cage (to live in luxury but without freedom).
There are better ways which are just as secure and safe for the cat but which takes more effort on behalf of the cat caretaker.
Obviously where it is impractical or impossible to give a cat some freedom then the caged life has to be accepted by cat and person but for me too many cat owners don’t take the time to explore safe alternatives to full-time indoor cat life.
I know an American couple who have the space in their garden to build a beautiful enclosure with grass and the smells and sound of nature etc. but what happens? Nothing. All four cats are full-time indoors and even when the patio door is slid open the cats peer through it but don’t walk through it, except one who wants to go out and I think he has stress related health symptoms. I think it is crazy.
Please don’t shout at me. I know people will think I’m being mad and unfair on the full-time indoor cat supporters but I am not. I am simply making a simple point: Animals should be free.
Do you remember the Burmese (Myanmar) lady, Aung San Suu Kyi, who was under house arrest for donkey’s years because she was in opposition to the military junta? She was being punished. Are we punishing full-time indoor cats?
If I let Monty out during mid day hours in the summer he will find a bee and try to eat it. His freedom is often curtailed for this reason. If he could leave the bees alone he could be out there all day long every day, so long as I am home. I feel so badly about keeping him in that sometimes I let him out when there is a risk to him. My being out there with him is not a guarantee. He is quick to pounce on a bee. He won’t wear his leash anymore, so that’s where we are at. I have a cat who is bound and determined to play with bees. They must just be big buzzing cat toys, aren’t they? If Monty spends his time in a gilded cage it is his own fault. Perhaps he is just not that smart. This morning he couldn’t remember how to get down from a tree he has climbed down multiple times. He had to jump onto my shoulder to get down and come in for his morning tuna. Would he be smarter left to his own devices? Or would he just be dead now had I not taken him in? Freedom is important, but how much freedom would he have sleeping in his grave?
I was conversing with a Canadian anti declaw contact on a facebook group yesterday and she wrote ‘Don’t yell at me, but I have to confess my cat goes outside’
Like us in England often are by the ‘strictly indoor cat brigade’ she’s been vilified for letting her cat have his freedom.
It was nice to be able to have my say on there. Some people are so judgemental, instead of seeing the other side they think they are always so right!
Surely most people could make the effort to give their cats some sort of outdoor space. But it’s the same old story, it’s more convenient not to bother. Like declawing is convenient for those who can’t be bothered to teach their cat to use a scratching post.
Good for you Dan. I agree. I don’t think enough people do give enough to provide safe freedom for their cat.