Summary: The reason why Americans like to keep their cats inside is mainly because of a difference in approach (attitude) to cat caretaking (cat ownership) and nothing to do with hazards etc..
Why is there such a difference of opinion between Americans and Europeans on keeping cats in? To many Europeans, there seems to be a failure in our relationship with the domestic cat if we have to keep him in all the time.
There is almost a graded scale which starts in America where there is by far the largest number of cats kept inside and which ends in places like Turkey where 99% of the cats are community cats living outside/inside unsupervised. The Turkish model is much more reflective of the original domestic cat’s relationship with people. The American model is perhaps the most distant from what might be called the natural way or original way. Is the American way more refined?
Americans frequently state that the reason why they keep their cat permanently inside is to prevent their cat preying upon wildlife especially birds, to prevent the spread of disease, to protect their cat from being preyed upon by wildlife, to extend the life of their cat by avoiding being run over by a car and to prevent malicious abuse by cat haters.
However, when you compare the hazards that a domestic cat has to negotiate in America and Europe, overall, I do not see a great difference. In America there are far more predators attacking cats than in Europe. In contrast, the human population density is much higher in Europe and there are more roads and more traffic. Traffic accidents are by far the biggest killer of outside domestic cats1.
Despite the fact that the hazards facing the domestic cat are probably similar, taken as a whole in both America and Europe, far more domestic cats are kept inside full-time in America and therefore I am compelled to come to the conclusion that the reason is simply a difference in attitude as stated.
What is the cause of this difference in attitude? I don’t wish to be critical at all of either Europe or America. I wish to keep a very balanced approach to this discussion. However, with respect to the domestic cat and its ownership in America, there are in fact two outstanding differences: (1) Americans declaw their cats and (2) Americans keep their cats inside. Is there a commonality in attitude that results in these two stark facts? I believe there is.
The difference in attitude towards cat caretaking in America is more one of “ownership” and “possession”. It is an attitude more inherently linked to the Bible which states that humans have dominion over animals. Although America is a younger country than Northern European countries, Americans generally have more old-fashioned ideas. Cat ownership rather than cat caretaking is an old-fashioned idea. That is the way I perceive this difference. Also there are more purebred cats in the US and these are valuable “possessions”.
Notes:
- a great many American cat caretakers keep their cats inside for the cat’s protection but I believe in general taking a broad brush assessment the main reason is the concept of possession.
- Americans might see Europeans as old-fashioned but that is not true. That is an old-fashioned idea in itself.
Britons are mainly secular. Christianity is dying out in Britain and only 15% of Britons go to church regularly. In fact, Britain was never Christian. The ancient philosophy of the Romans and Greeks infuses the attitude of Britons. I believe, that about 80% of Britons let their cats outside unsupervised because they want their cats to live as natural a life as possible and to be as content as possible and balance that desire against the risks.
I stress that I’m not making any judgements on this. I’m not saying one way is better than the other. I’m just presenting my views as I see them and trying to analyse why there is a difference in attitude between Americans and the rest of the world because no other country has so many full-time inside cats.
Australians are probably the nearest to Americans in their attitude towards domestic cat ownership. There is quite a strong feeling in Australia that domestic cat should be kept inside and/or supervised when outside. Some fresh law is springing up in Australia which regulates aspects of cat ownership such as micro chipping and outside supervision. The motivator in Australia for this tightening up of cat ownership is a desire to protect native wildlife about which the Australian authorities are obsessed.
Is It No Longer Safe to Let Your Cat Go outside Unsupervised?
Summary: the world is becoming gradually less safe for a domestic cat outside unsupervised but this is not the main reason for keeping cats inside at 2014.
Is the world becoming less safe for the domestic cat who goes outside? There was a time in Great Britain when people actually put their cats out at night and locked the door behind them. It was routine and commonplace. In Britain people still let their cats go outside at will but as the human population of Great Britain expands fairly rapidly there are more more hazards for the unsupervised outdoor cat.
Many people advocate full-time indoor domestic cats. The well-known, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA) have a page on their website in which they show the most horrendous photographs of what I presume are feral cats, badly injured or dying of disease and neglect etc.. It is a deliberately shocking slide show and I could not watch it beyond the first 3 or 4 photographs. They were making the point that letting a cat go outside unsupervised is too hazardous.
Has America become more and more hazardous for the outdoor domestic cat? The only way it could become more hazardous is because there is a gradual increase in traffic because of human population growth and because there are more predators or people who want to hurt cats.
I would doubt that there are more predators, meaning wild animals that prey on domestic cats, because as there are more people in America it is quite likely that there is less wildlife and therefore less predators. Though it is quite possible that there more people who want to hurt cats either by shooting them or poisoning them or simply abusing them in any way possible.
Surely there are some places in America where it is safe for the domestic cat to go outside? In fact, there must be many, many places in America where it is safe because relative to Europe, America is still underpopulated. There are still millions of square miles of land in the US with very little on it by way of human settlement or development.
I’m sure, in America, it depends on where the domestic cat lives as to whether it is safe or unsafe to be outside. Obviously in heavily urbanised areas even the most liberal minded cat owner would have to say that it is unsafe simply because of traffic. In those areas of urban sprawl, reluctantly, I would have to concede that it is unwise to let your cat go outside unsupervised. That does not mean, however, that such a cat is a full-time indoor cat. There is no reason why a cat owner cannot actually physically supervise their cat when she goes outside by which I mean the owner stands around watching her cat walk around. Is that feasible, or is it impossible?
Leash laws are largely ineffective because very few people will bother to train their cat to walk on a leash, which is almost impossible anyway although I have seen a Siamese cat on a leash in London.
Truth be told, to “supervise your cat outside” is almost impossible in practice. It is impractical to physically supervise your cat outside and if laws state that you must supervise your cat outside then those laws are really stating that you must keep your cat inside.
What is the motivation behind people who advocate the outdoor cat should be supervised? Is the motivation to protect the cat or is the motivation to protect the human from what some people say is the spread of disease carried by the domestic cat. There is so much exaggeration in respect of the domestic cat carrying disease. However, a lot of people do not like to see outdoor cats. They like to see the domestic cat under control without natural freedoms. Perhaps the major reason is to protect wildlife from being preyed on by the domestic cat. This is also exaggerated by many people.
Ref: 1 (Karen L. Overall, M.A., V.M.D., Ph.D., Diplomate, American College of Veterinary Behavior; Department of Clinical Studies School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Sorry to comment on an old article, but America’s attitude towards cat has troubled me for quite a while. I think it is laughable that they think they have the right to tell people in other countries to keep their cats inside (for their own safety, they say), while being one of the only countries in the world that legalises declawing. It speaks volumes about the hypocrisy of these people. America seems to hate cats, despite having a few species of native cats-for example, mountain lions, bob cat and lynx (they hate those too and think nothing of killing them. Hunting them is legal in many parts of America, go figure). Anything that bad happens to a cat is blamed on the owner of the cat, even in the event of someone else’s wrong doing. If an owner of a vicious dog let their dog run around off lead illegally and it runs onto someone else’s property and kills their cat-it’s the cat owners fault for not having their cat indoors. If someone shoots a cat with an arrow for minding its own business on its owner’s property-the cat owner is at fault for not having their cats indoors. If someone traps their cat and burns it alive on Halloween-it’s the cat owners fault for not having the cat indoors. You see where I am going with this. All of these things have actually happened and every time someone has had the nerve to blame the owner of the cat in their time of grief, not the person who deliberately killed the cat. It’s sickening. Australians have a similar attitude, despite cats being legally allowed outside in much of Australia. In Brisbane, where I live, it is only suggested that they are kept in the confines of one’s property if possible and indoors at night, but only because they can get lost and end up in a shelter. Cats and dogs are all microchipped to prevent this. People have been blamed for letting the cats go out when a neighbour’s dog escaped and killed the cat in its backyard. I have seen someone boast on the same forum about keeping the cat stuck on a lead while in the back yard, which would be a guaranteed death sentence for the cat in that situation. You never have someone blame the owner if the victim is a dog, only if it is a cat. It’s ridiculous. People that say cats must be kept indoors are the same people that let don’t give a second thought about leaving their dogs out to bark all day, letting their dog off leash illegally, letting their dog crap everywhere without cleaning it up and have a callous attitude towards cat owners when their illegally off leash dog kills someone’s cat on the cat owner’s property. Cats have every right to enjoy outdoors just like dogs do. And cats can be contained on their properties just as easily as dogs. It’s possible to let one’s cat go outside and still keep it safe and free of disease. Just cat proof your yard. It’s cheap and easy to DIY and there are a wide range of methods. Temporary cat proofing is also possible on rental properties, just remove it before you move. Why more Americans don’t do this is beyond me. I guess they have this weird all or nothing attitude. To them, cats can’t be outside no matter the circumstances. It’s very strange.
Hi Elaine, no need to apologise for commenting on an old article. I like it and like your thoughts. There is sense in what you say. However, I am not sure I totally agree with you. There are certainly a lot of people in America who hate wandering cats and it does not matter if the cats are domestic or feral. Like Australians they are concerned for their native species. I certainly agree with you on this point. There is a bit of a love-hate relationship with the cat in the USA and feral cats take the brunt of the hate element. And sport hunters of which there are a lot in the US like to take pot shots at cats. And 2+ million healthy cats in shelters are killed annually and…declawing as you say. There is an unpleasant element or attitude towards cats from a significant section of American society. But there are also cat haters in the UK and they poison cats etc.. I could go on for pages but I’ll stop there. Thanks for commenting.
You’re welcome. 🙂
Growing up, my cats were all outdoors. Two were found dead in our yard, another mysteriously vanished. Another we found dragging her back legs around, paralyzed. Then, there were all the feral cats that hung around over the years. They came and went. Only one of these we found dead (it died under our house on top of the heater while we were gone for a trip, imagine coming home to a house smelling like dead cat )but who knows what happened to the others?
Our house was on a cul-de-sac surrounded by woods, a low traffic area, and neighbors were not a problem. I believe it was just the wildlife. There are plenty of poisonous snakes where I live (copperheads) and even feral cats caused a problem for our cats, deciding that our garage was their territory and fighting our cats over it.
Now a days there is a coyote problem. Coyotes were brought in to manage the deer and they’ve taken over. They weren’t around when I was younger (I live in the SE USA) but they pose a problem now, and some of my neighbors have said their cats have gone missing, which they believe to be due to coyotes.
I don’t know how the wildlife in the USA compares to the UK. You mention population differences but did you consider population density?
In any case, I think the biggest factor in the differences is culture. People do what’s considered culturally acceptable. Considering the dangers posed to outdoor cats, an American won’t think twice about taking them indoor, and why should they? Everyone else does it. It’s even encouraged.
Now consider, if no one had an indoor cat, they would be less inclined to make that choice. People do what other people do. The more people that do it, the easier it is to do.
Thanks for commenting DS. I agree with you. There are good reasons to keep cats indoors in America and predators are the biggest reason together with sick individuals who like to kill cats. In the UK predators of cats don’t exist (the fox might take the odd cat but rarely) so it’s traffic which is the biggest killer.
And now that I think about it, I have to retract my statement that Europe might be more civilized than America. I remember seeing on this very site an article about a suspected cat serial killer who uses a machete to kill cats. Probably the tip of the iceberg. The sad fact is where ever there are humans there will be animal abuse. No place on earth is immune from that.
I have always seen keeping cats in as like home schooling. I think Americans are more paranoid and more controlling of their families than are Europeans. Home schooling is considered missocialosation in Europe
Thanks Beth for your insight. I found it interesting.
Beth, I’ve seen way too many incidents of brutality towards stray cats (and dogs, for that matter) to ever let my animals roam free. Years ago my next door neighbor’s kid doused a pregnant stray dog with gasoline and burned her alive. The same idiot later used his BB gun to kill off every squirrel and pigeon in the neighborhood. When he finished with them he turned his attention to cats and dogs. He fired at my mother’s dog one day and I jumped the fence and chased him into his house. I’ve rescued kittens from death by stoning by gangs of kids. Walked up on another group of young would-be Lords of the Flies who made a sharpened spear from a street sign and were attempting to lure a stray dog in close enough so they could spear the animal. And I won’t go into much detail about certain pit bull owners (and I use that word loosely) who routinely use stray cats and kittens as chew toys and training aids for their dogs. Speaking of pits, I was standing at a bus stop one day and a man pulled up, opened up the door and kicked a pit bull female out onto the curb. He cursed at her, said she was worthless because she wasn’t ‘mean’ enough. He was right. She wasn’t mean enough. She smiled and wagged her tail the whole time. I found her a good home the same day.
I live in a large city in the Midwest. It may well be that Europe is more civilized than America. I don’t know. I do know what I’ve seen. All these incidents happened in different neighborhoods, some even considered to be ‘good’ areas. I feel that I would be putting my cats in danger if I opened up the door and allowed them to roam. The ironic thing is, I’ve adopted cats who had the run of the barn and the farm they grew up in when they were kittens. After I adopted them they showed absolutely no interest in going outside and even fussed and meowed when the door was open. They made no move towards the door and wanted me to close it.
We can agree to disagree, Beth and Michael. I wouldn’t call my attitude “paranoid and controlling.” I want to keep my animals safe, and I will continue to keep them inside.
Its all I’ve ever known ‘cats are a free spirit’ Its always been a given here in the UK to see cats roaming freely no one bothering them. Thats how I’ve grown up you see and to me its so alien to hear of cats being catnapped and take to a shelter to be killed even though the nappers know they are someone’s loved companion. Cat abuse is rife in America and the stupid laws only bring all the other cruel stuff together. Whatever happened to compasion and common sense?
Pathetic! Thats all that comes to mind! The American people should mind their own damn business and leave the cats alone!
Well as most of you know my cats at this stage have the option of going in or out. Most prefer out but if there ever came a time when it was too dangerous i would prob have to have them in. The thought of having them on a leash is abit inhumane i feel. but i guess if there was no other option. In the winter they r inside alot anyways, they absutly hate the wet weather were all inside yesterday. Rebel hated it meowed at me all day long. even when i patted him and told him its ok.