Quote Originally Posted by Irulan View Post
I'm going to disagree here. In rural situations, you might not have a lot of traffic, but you have coyotes and other predators and parasites.
As for "natural" behavior, is it "natural" to kill things and never eat them? Cat decimation of songbird populations is well documented. As someone in non rural setting, I am beyond annoyed at free roaming cats that continually hunt birds in my yard, and use my gardens as little boxes. Ordinances preventing roaming cats are blatantly ignored, and yet if I catch one in my yard and take it to pound, guess who is the bad guy? And to reference my previous post, if I mention to my neighbor that I don't like their cats in my yard, I basically get told to f*** off very politely.

I agree, Irulan. I have a cat--he's 17 years old, and he's only been an indoor cat. He wouldn't be this old, had he been an outdoor cat. I love all critters, and I personally think it's cruel all the way around, to allow a domestic cat to roam outdoors. If someone insists on having their cat outdoors, then they should construct a pen to protect the cat from disease, coyotes, etc., and to protect the prey from the cat.