Cats keep eating snakes in the yard....

[RandyRhoads]

I hate feral cats. They make ferrets illegal in my state which could not survive in the wild, yet cats are perfectly legal and we now have insane numbers destroying our native wildlife. I shoot feral cats on sight. Makes me sick people drive as far in the country as they can to dump there cats. Sick, unwanted, whatever the reason. Then they breed like crazy.

[Unsung-melody]

My cats are not feral. They stay in my yard and might go into the neighbors' yard to climb their trees. I highly doubt my 2 cats even make a dent in the populations of the indigenous wildlife. I've only found three dead snakes. And honestly, these snakes are such a problem around here that even if the cats didn't kill them, the neighbors would. According to them, "The only good snake is a dead snake." As ignorant as they are, there isn't anything I can do to stop them. I'm not going to lock my cats inside when they are obviously happier being allowed out. They come in at night and mostly stay under the house when they are outside. I've had "inside/outside" cats my entire life. All of them have lived over 18 years. I always get them spayed/neutered and they have all their shots and have regular vet visits. I resent that anyone would think I'm an irresponsible pet owner for letting my cats outside on a dead end, very low traffic street. So they kill a few snakes that would have been killed anyway. These snakes are nowhere near endangered so I don't see the problem. I understand people keeping their cats inside and expressing that they would do so. I used to do the same thing, but when my cats began to become unhappy and nothing seemed to help until they escaped and were allowed outside, I decided that for their happiness I could let them out and get over it. The vet says they are healthier than ever. So the opinions expressed here are completely fine. However, making someone out to be a bad pet owner isn't really necessary. Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, but don't make others look bad because they disagree with you.

[Gungirl]

I feel as if cats should be treated like dogs. If they are outside they need to be leashed. I hate it when my neighbors cats come on my property. I do not think they should be allowed free roam at all.

[Lankyrob]

Our cats have totally free roam of inside and outside 24/7, they come in and out of our bedroom windows which we never shut, sometimes they will be gone for three or four days at a time but they always come back. We have farmland and woodland around us that i am sure they spend a lot fo their outdoor time in.

imo cats are much less domesticated than dogs and also pose a much lesser risk to other humans than dogs - leashing them is so impractical that it doesnt really warrant any response.

[Gungirl]

I am allergic to cats and it really bothers me that they can come and go on my property as they please. I understand if you live in the middle of nothing but in town it should not be allowed. I shouldn't have to keep my windows shut in my car so that when I go to drive I don't have breathing issues due to a neighbors cat sleeping on my seats.

[Lankyrob]

I can understand being allergic it being annoying, we live semi rural on the edge of a town, there are twenty houses in our cul de sac and i reckon there are probably 30 cats owned by people who live here that are all indoor/outdoor cats, then we get ones from neighbouring streets wandering around too.

Not sure what things are like i the states but it seems that pretty much every house has at least one cat over here thankfully the majority are well cared for and neutered

[Roadtrash]

usually if a cat is spayed it won't go far from its home, no reason to look around I guess. I am not a cat person myself but do know people that have them outside and most don't have any problems. I know back home in Georgia where I grew up the main thing that the cats catch are squirrels and lord knows we can afford to lose a few of those things. We never had problems with them killing snakes, every now and then but not often. As for living shorter lives outside than inside I have never heard that but it may be true I just know that the ones I have been around live long healthy lives outside.
I know that at my sisters house the cat doesn't seem to bother snakes that much as they are always crawling around in the yard. She had chickens for years and if you didn't check a couple of times a day for eggs the snakes would get them. When I'm there I usually catch them and take them down the road a couple of miles and turn them loose and in a day or so there would be another one, not the same one, in the chicken yard. Seems there is always a snake there somewhere usually one of the rat snakes but also a lot of copperheads and the odd rattlesnake now and then.

[DragonsEye]

Add to keeping your cat inside --- have any cat you own (or dog for that matter) neutered. Unless you are breeding cats/dogs for profit, there is no reason for not doing so.

[totheend]

Cats are a huge threat to wildlife...end of story. Do some research!

Responsible cat owners should keep their cats indoors. I don't let my dog run wild in neighbours yards why do people think it's ok for their cats to do so? You don't like keeping them indoors,then don't keep cats as pets.

[Lankyrob]

Personally i think it is cruel to keep cats indoor, as i said earlier i dont believe they are as domesticated as dogs and they need the stimulation and exercise that the great outdoors can provide. I totally agree that it is irresponsible to let an unneutered animal roam but if they are innoculated and neutered i cant see an issue at all.

[exwizard]

Originally Posted by Unsung-melody

My cats are not feral. They stay in my yard and might go into the neighbors' yard to climb their trees. I highly doubt my 2 cats even make a dent in the populations of the indigenous wildlife. I've only found three dead snakes. And honestly, these snakes are such a problem around here that even if the cats didn't kill them, the neighbors would. According to them, "The only good snake is a dead snake." As ignorant as they are, there isn't anything I can do to stop them. I'm not going to lock my cats inside when they are obviously happier being allowed out. They come in at night and mostly stay under the house when they are outside. I've had "inside/outside" cats my entire life. All of them have lived over 18 years. I always get them spayed/neutered and they have all their shots and have regular vet visits. I resent that anyone would think I'm an irresponsible pet owner for letting my cats outside on a dead end, very low traffic street. So they kill a few snakes that would have been killed anyway. These snakes are nowhere near endangered so I don't see the problem. I understand people keeping their cats inside and expressing that they would do so. I used to do the same thing, but when my cats began to become unhappy and nothing seemed to help until they escaped and were allowed outside, I decided that for their happiness I could let them out and get over it. The vet says they are healthier than ever. So the opinions expressed here are completely fine. However, making someone out to be a bad pet owner isn't really necessary. Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, but don't make others look bad because they disagree with you.

Originally Posted by DragonsEye

Add to keeping your cat inside --- have any cat you own (or dog for that matter) neutered. Unless you are breeding cats/dogs for profit, there is no reason for not doing so.

Originally Posted by Lankyrob

Our cats have totally free roam of inside and outside 24/7, they come in and out of our bedroom windows which we never shut, sometimes they will be gone for three or four days at a time but they always come back. We have farmland and woodland around us that i am sure they spend a lot fo their outdoor time in.

imo cats are much less domesticated than dogs and also pose a much lesser risk to other humans than dogs - leashing them is so impractical that it doesnt really warrant any response.

Originally Posted by totheend

Cats are a huge threat to wildlife...end of story. Do some research!

Responsible cat owners should keep their cats indoors. I don't let my dog run wild in neighbours yards why do people think it's ok for their cats to do so? You don't like keeping them indoors,then don't keep cats as pets.

There is obviously a wide range of opinion in this. All I can add to this is my own experiences. Ages ago we bought a female cat from a neighbor and we made the mistake of not fixing her and as a result, within 3 years, we ended up with 5 generations of cats. Looking back on that, we shouldve nipped that problem in the bud by fixing that first cat. I dont keep cats now, even though I love cats as much as dogs. If I had to do it all over again I would make sure she got fixed as soon as I got her.

Fast forward to after I moved to Iowa...

My soon to be exwife has a daughter who has 2 male cats. Both got fixed and neither goes outside. They are content as any housecat can be. Everytime I go there, they are always very loving and friendly,always purring everytime I approach them. Also there are neighborhood cats that explore her yard to see what they can find. Ive never seen any of them attack any sqirrels but Im sure it happens. I dont buy the notion that cats are the biggest threat to local wildlife because most of those animals are way bigger than cats will ever be. As far as squirrels are concerned, Im indifferent to that and Im certainly in favor of them keeping the rodent population under control.

I can see both sides in this and while I do understand cat allergies, as my sister deals with that all the time, Im not sure what can practically be done about that.

In answer to the OPs question about her cats eating the local wild snakes vs. them being happier being outside, I would say this...

You need to weigh which scenario you would rather see happen and based upon your answer to that question, do what you think would make that happen.

[totheend]

Originally Posted by Lankyrob

Personally i think it is cruel to keep cats indoor, as i said earlier i dont believe they are as domesticated as dogs and they need the stimulation and exercise that the great outdoors can provide. I totally agree that it is irresponsible to let an unneutered animal roam but if they are innoculated and neutered i cant see an issue at all.

So it is okay that your cats are killing wildlife...for fun? And so if your cat comes in my yard and my dog kills it (and she most definitely would) that is ok? This is my yard and I prefer that cats don't **** in my flower beds! I would also like others cats to not kill the wildlife in my yard.

[shaunyboy]

Originally Posted by Gungirl

I feel as if cats should be treated like dogs. If they are outside they need to be leashed. I hate it when my neighbors cats come on my property. I do not think they should be allowed free roam at all.

i feel the same Kat.....

we had all the neighbours cats,coming in and doing a crap in our garden (it stinks)...

i don't know if it's just coincedence,but when i started burying SNAKE crap next to the cat crap,the cats did'nt come back

cheers shaun

[Lankyrob]

Originally Posted by totheend

So it is okay that your cats are killing wildlife...for fun? And so if your cat comes in my yard and my dog kills it (and she most definitely would) that is ok? This is my yard and I prefer that cats don't **** in my flower beds! I would also like others cats to not kill the wildlife in my yard.

Yes it is okay, most if not all of the natural predators in our country have been exterminated and without cats doing their role of keeping rodent levels down we would be over run imo. We used to have wolves, foxes, polecats, ferrets all killing of rodents but now foxes that are still living are city based living of human rubbish and the others are all extinct in nature.

If my cats were dumb enough to go into a garden with a dog that is a threat to them ( there are three in our neighbourhood that are known cat killers) then thats life.

As for the flowerbeds, whats wrong with some free fertiliser

[exwizard]

Originally Posted by shaunyboy

i feel the same Kat.....

we had all the neighbours cats,coming in and doing a crap in our garden (it stinks)...

i don't know if it's just coincedence,but when i started burying SNAKE crap next to the cat crap,the cats did'nt come back

cheers shaun

Nice trick. I never wouldve thought of that.