The Outdoor Cat: Neighborhood Mascot or Menace?

Zeke, a short-haired white and gray cat with a penchant to take down rats, is well known in his Boston neighborhood.

One time, a neighbor called Tricia Brennan, sounding slightly panicked, to report that he had lost his owner.

“‘Zeke is in the back and seems to be antagonizing a raccoon,’” the neighbor said, according to Ms. Brennan, a Unitarian Universalist minister.

“‘What do I do?’”

The neighbor scared the cats with a broom but the showdown was over. However, the legend of Zeke was only confirmed by the story. It was also a reminder to cats that they are descendants of the Near Eastern wildcat. This is a fierce, solitary hunter.

You’ve seen them out there — well-fed cats, sometimes with collars on, stalking the streets like they own them or collapsing on a warm sidewalk to loll in the sun.

They are loved by cat lovers. Wildlife conservationists and bird enthusiasts see furry killers and attribute the decline in bird population to the deaths of untold amounts of chipmunks, voles and other small mammals.

It may also depend on where in the world you live how you feel about outdoor cats. According to a 2021 study on pet cats, 81 percent of domestic cats in the United States are kept indoors. It is possible to let them roam in other countries. According to the same study in Denmark, only 17% of cats are allowed to roam freely. In Turkey, feral cats are allowed to freely roam in and out of cafes and restaurants. There is even a documentary about it. In Poland, they’ve recently been called an “invasive alien species.”

In Britain, where 74 percent of cat owners allow their felines to roam outside, many cat charities provide advice on how to keep your cat safe outside. American cat charities might find this shocking, as they often refuse to allow cats to be adopted to owners who want to keep their pets outdoors.

“We’ve always done it that way,” said Nicky Trevorrow, a cat behaviorist at Cats Protection in Britain, which encourages owners to bring cats in at night and feed them high-quality diets to deter predatory behavior.

“As a behaviorist,” Ms. Trevorrow said, “I would have to say very much that I’m in the camp of giving cats space to breathe and be outside.”

But should cats have this freedom?

‘We can only take so much animal out of them.’

During much of the 20th century, most cats stayed outside, said David Grimm, author of “Citizen Canine: Our Evolving Relationship With Cats and Dogs” and a deputy news editor at Science.

In 1947, kitty litter was invented. This made indoor cats more acceptable.

“But even then, people considered cats the less domesticated animal,” Mr. Grimm said. “And no one wants to clean a litter box.”

In 1949, the Illinois General Assembly passed the “Cat Bill,” a measure aimed at protecting birds, which would have fined people who left their cats outdoors. Gov. Adlai Stevenson vetoed it.

“It is in the nature of cats to do a certain amount of unescorted roaming,” he said in a letter to legislators. “In my opinion, the State of Illinois and its local governing bodies already have enough to do without trying to control feline delinquency.”

It was not until around the 1980s and early ’90s that more Americans began bringing their cats indoors, as conservationists warned of declining bird populations and veterinarians cautioned that an outdoor cat was more prone to diseases, parasites and infections, and could be vulnerable to attacks from larger predators like coyotes and hawks, or speeding cars.

But many owners have also felt conflicted about keeping a curious, restless creature inside, said Mr. Grimm, who has trained his own cats to walk on leashes when they’re outside.

Keeping them inside “didn’t feel right,” he said. “Just like I wouldn’t keep my kids inside all day. We can only take so much animal out of them.”

Ms. Brennan, Zeke’s owner, tried to keep him indoors at first. But he nipped heels, yanked at Ms. Brennan’s hair, and pounced so much that her teenage daughter locked herself in her room.

“It’s an uneasy peace that you make,” Ms. Brennan, 65, said, “having an outdoor cat.”

A killer named Tibbles?

Wildlife specialists often tell of Tibbles the story of a cat who traveled with its owner to New Zealand in 1894.

Stephens Island was the home of the pair, which is home to a small, flightless bird.

Conservationists have claimed that Tibbles single-handedly hunted down the birds to extinction after she arrived.

According to a 2011 study done by biologists, cats have decimated native animals in areas where they were introduced.

“I feel pretty strongly that it is a pretty devastating invasive species,” said Jason Luscier, an associate professor of biology at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, N.Y. He helped develop an app, called “Cat Tracker,” to get a more accurate reading on the number of outdoor cats around the world.

Professor Luscier, who emphasized that he is fond of cats (“they’re super snugly”), said it is colonies of feral cats, which multiply easily and can overwhelm an ecosystem, that are the bigger threat to birds and other wildlife, not outdoor domestic pets that come in at night and are fed regular meals.

Can cats roam outside ‘without carnage’?

Ms. Trevorrow, a behaviorist in Britain, said that people often overlook the larger threats to birds, such loss of habitat or commercial use of pesticides to kill insects. This is because birds are the natural prey of humans.

“I just feel like cats are used as a scapegoat,” Ms. Trevorrow said.

According to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in Britain, the decline in bird population is primarily due to man-made problems like climate change, pollution, and agricultural management.

While there is evidence that cats may kill up to 27 million birds a year in Britain, “there is also evidence that cats tend to take weak or sickly garden birds,” said Anna Feeney, a spokeswoman for the organization.

“Cats are unlikely to have a major impact on populations,” she said in an email.

Ms. Trevorrow offers tips and tricks for cat owners who want their cats to be outside.

“There is a way to have both without carnage,” Ms. Trevorrow said.

Still, the best way to keep your cat — and wildlife — safe is to put it on a leash, keep it in a fenced in-area, or build a “catio” that will allow it to play outside without being exposed to the elements, said Dr. José Arce, a veterinarian and president of the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Some cats do not like the great outdoors.

Kelly Goshe said two of her family’s three cats, Catson and Puff, are determined prowlers. They roam freely around their backyard in suburban Cleveland under the watchful eyes of Sylvia, Sylvia, and Corinna (7 and 7 respectively)

She stated that the cats were obedient and had no choice. Catson “will do anything to get out,” Sylvia said.

She said that Puff has figured how to open the sliding doors with her paws.

But Luna, Puff’s sister, is terrified of going outside.

“We let her stand by the screen door,” Ms. Goshe said. “She’ll just look at it and run away.”

Susan C. BeachyContributed research