Is it cruel to keep a cat in one room?
If you asked a hundred, knowledgeable animal and cat loving people whether it is cruel to keep a cat in one standard room I would expect at least 90% of them to say that it is cruel. It does however depend upon the environment created and the size of the room. However, this is not a black-and-white situation and you can’t go off at the deep end and decry a person who keeps their cat in a room. It also depends on how long the cat is kept in a single room. Indeed, when you introduce a new cat to existing cats in a household it is advised that you keep the cat in a room for several days to allow a gentle introduction.
Picture (unmodified) in public domain.
But if a person told me that they wanted to adopt a cat to live in their apartment and that they wanted to keep their cat in one of the rooms I would advise them to not adopt a cat. Why would it be cruel to keep a cat in a room permanently?
Territory – home range
The first reason is that if we are to respect cats we have to allow them to express their natural desires and it is unlikely that they can do that in a single room in a flat unless the room is 50 feet long and 30 feet wide with a catio attached to it. Domestic cats need, ideally, around an acre of territory – home range.
Okay, they are highly adaptable and can live in smaller areas and they can do so reasonably contentedly but a single room is simply too small for a cat to feel comfortable in. Yes, a domestic cat can live in a room. The cat will survive but you won’t know how tormented she’d be. It may cause mental health issues. It is likely to make the cat very timid and nervous about any form of stimulation unless a great effort is undertaken by the owner to make the environment adequate. Arguably, though, it is impossible to make a single standard sized room environmentally adequate for a domestic cat.
A single room in a home might be less satisfactory than a cage in a zoo and we know that zoos are not good places for cats as they are known to be stressed. At least the cage is open to the outside environment where the animal can smell, hear and see what is happening around him or her. A room may have a window which may allow the cat some stimulation from outside activity but it is entirely inadequate to depend upon this.
The bottom line is that a single room does not (1) provide enough space for a domestic cat to satisfy innate desires and (2) will lack sufficient stimulation by its nature. You can test the question by taking it to an extreme. If you place a domestic cat in a 4×3 foot box for the remainder of his life you would be prosecuted for animal cruelty because everybody would deem it to be very cruel. Therefore it’s a question of size and a single room is, I would argue, below the threshold for an adequate size of territory and nature of habitat for the typical domestic cat.
Hi I just adopted a 9 ye old female cat Penelope.Shes house trained and everything . So The SPCA said keep her in one room with food and litter box for a day or so. So when can I bring her downstairs to recognize my whole house..
Hi Debra. Just introduce her gradually. There is no strict rule and time limits. You can test the water and see what happens. Try it today. She may integrate quickly but if there is a problem take her back to her room and take more time. Just do everything gently and slowly and respect her feelings and the feelings of the resident animals.
Since I rented a room about a year ago, my cat, Mitzy, is confined to “our” room, along with me. I do take her out with halter and leash once or twice a day. And she has a large window to view the neighbors and bird activity outside. When the weather is mild, I keep the window open.
My new landlady doesn’t want Mitzy to be allowed in the rest of the house, except to go outside and come back in.
Even though I could sit in the living room while my landlady is at work, I stay with Mitzy in my bedroom. I willingly confine myself to be with her. I’ve created 7 different spots at various heights for her to sleep on, or to view the outside. (I surrendered the 7th one, which I had my things on, because she indicated that she wanted to jump up there!)
I have a small room, with only about 2-3′ around my bed to walk. When I open the door, it almost touches the end of my bed.
The litter box is in the closet on one side of the bed, and her food and water are on the other side. The water dish is about 3′ away from the food.
She always wants to go out when she’s not sleeping, so at times there’s a lot of “meowing” going on. I distract her with a toy, or just lay down and cuddle with her.
I wish my circumstances were different, but last year I was looking at the dire prospect of living in my car, as my friend did with her cat,for 6 months. And she didn’t have the option of walking her with halter and leash, since she’s never trained her.
So, I think that’s another good reason to train a cat to halter and leash. In case of an emergency, where your only shelter may be your vehicle, at least you can get your cat out safely. I never thought of this until now.
I wanted to include a picture, but mine are all over 50KB, until I resize them.