Cat ban in Scotland?

[Daisy]

I saw this news story yesterday, saying that the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission were suggesting that "compulsory containment" of domestic cats be considered in parts of Scotland. Why? Because they said that domestic cats could have an impact on wildlife populations by hunting, competing for resources or breeding with wildcats.

I admit I checked the date - no, it wasn't 1st April!

John Swinney has now said there will be no ban. I can't imagine how cat owners and cat lovers north of the border would react to such a ban.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0m1g8p4yy0o

[Oma]

I would like to see the trials and defeat of that silly rule.
Unless your cats are indoors cats from kittens , I think it would be impossible to enforce.
DDs cats Little Tallulah only ever ventures out into the back garden for a sniff around then scoots back in,
Buzz goes out the front door over the garage and in the back door.

Jasper on the other hand she could never keep in , he would scream at the door till it was opened , and when I say scream I mean scream like he was being murdered😁

You cannot train or restrict cats like dogs , their natural instinct is to roam and hunt .

I agree with compulsory micro chipping and neutering though .

[Nanto2girls]

Cats certainly can't be trained like a dog can.
I also agree with chipping and neutering.

[Daisy]

I'd agree with chipping cats - in fact it's already required in England and Wales, but I'm not so sure about neutering, If they went down that route I think there would need to be safeguards that it couldn't be done until the cat was properly mature. I don't know if neutering is ever done too early in cats, but in dogs it can cause all sorts of problems.

[Gemini]

Vaccination, micro chipping and neutering are part of what you pay for at adoption at all the local cat rescues ( and I imagine it's the same in all the others)
I don't think a vet would neuter a cat who is too young Daisy. It can be done from 4 months and preferable before 7 months as it's possible for cats to be sexually mature at that age.

Cats love freedom, but also love their homes. They need the freedom to safely come and go.

Cats are kept as house cats, and I suppose if it's all they have known they accept it. Our kittens seem and love a good race around the garden at least once a day. I would hate to restrict them.

[Daisy]

Gem, I would feel the same - I'd hate to have to restrict a cat to indoors, unless there was some real need, say medical or the cat was really nervous. I can't imagine how our DIL1's cat would cope with not going outside.

I suppose it's easier to keep dogs out of harm's way when they are sexually mature because they don't generally roam free.

[Sum1Ls]

Misreporting as ever. It seems the BBC lazily inflated a piece of research by a scientific body which described a rare situation where cats were kept indoors at night to protect a very endangered species.
So much lazy journalism these days and the BBC should know better.

[Gemini]

That's a bit different Sum1.
A lot of owners keep their cats in at night anyway, for their own safety. We are undecided about this with our kittens once we give them the freedom of the cat door. We had let our previous cats have total freedom day and night (although never allowed out through the front door!)
The exception was towards the end of Henry's life when a nasty neighbourhood cat kept coming in and scaring him when we were in bed. We used OH's outdoor wildlife cameral to confirm this.
After that we locked the cat door at night and left him a litter tray, which he never used, but waited to go out in the morning.

[Daisy]

Sum1, thank you for confirming that. The original item I saw was quite alarming, and I did check that it wasn't some sort of prank announcement. I could imagine how worrying it must have been to a lot of cat owners. Then, trying to unravel the story the following day it looked more like a political reaction than a clarification.

Gem, that's a difficult choice, I imagine. If I had a cat I would always worry about them being out at night, or being close to a road. I'd probably be the most protective 'helicopter' cat mum in the country! But DIL's cat is free to come and go as she pleases and she has some sort of device on her cat flap to stop other cats, like the terror of the neighbourhood getting into the house. But she has come home slightly battle scarred a few times and recently had a bad puncture wound which could have been another animal or something like a very sharp piece of wood or metal. If only they could talk.