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Comment by porphyrogene | Hacker News Reader

If you have to trap an animal inside of your home at all times because if it had the chance it would run away forever and you would never see it again, what is the best word to describe relationship? I don't think "pet" is the right word.

Having an animal like a cat live its life mostly indoors is contradictory to its nature and will likely have negative effects on its health. If you want to own an indoor cat that's fine but one should not be deluded into thinking that the animal's best interest is in living inside with occasional outdoor excursions on a tether.

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Cats are not kept indoors to keep them from running away. Cats are kept indoors to keep them from killing birds and other small creatures, to keep them out of traffic, and sometimes keep them from breeding.

You can't make blanket statements about all breeds of house cats like you do. These are domesticated animals, even if they do still have some wild instincts and capable of becoming feral. Cats have been living on tiny boats for literally thousands of years.

There is a distinction between domestication and permanent indoor confinement. Horses are domesticated and so are dogs, donkeys, cows and cats. Just because some of them are of a convenient size to be kept indoors at all times or tied to a string to be paraded around an urban does not mean that it is in the best interest of the animal to do so.

From your comment it seem that you imagine an animal is either confined to indoors with occasional walks or they are feral. Keeping a domesticated animal is normal. Keeping an animal locked in your house or on a leash at all times is weird. Dogs and cats need open space to run and explore. If you want to keep an animal in a way that contradicts their nature, fine. Just don't lie to yourself about adapting to your lifestyle to their needs. You are adapting their lifestyle to your ego.

Is there an ideological bent behind your opinion? I'm not going to assume there is, but this sounds like something a radical vegan or a PETA supporter would say.

In any event, as several other people have chimed in, ask any vet.

My comment is that blanket statements here are inappropriate, and I certainly don't imagine there are only two states a cat can exist in. There are many, many breeds of cats and cats have distinct personalities. Statements like 'contradicts their nature' cannot be made about something as broad as 'all cats', because there are so many natures being discussed.

You might also keep cats indoors to stop them from picking up fleas.

> negative effects on its health

I had an indoor cat growing up, came from a family of barn cats.

He outlived three generations of relatives.

This doesn't seem out of line with the averages:

https://www.catster.com/lifestyle/how-long-do-cats-live-cat-...

Lifespan isn't the only measure of health. Residents of the Matrix lived quite long. We can keep cancer patients on a morphine drip for years.

Citing a highly speculative piece of science fiction doesn’t support a claim.

Cats are perfectly fine indoors and not "trapped". In fact, indoor cats live much longer on average than outdoor cats because there is much less danger (attacked by dogs, wild animals, ran over, poisoned, maimed)

Cats are not dogs, or lions for that matter. They don't have to be outside to be happy.

first of all, I don't think it's terribly inhumane to keep a cat inside.

that said, averages never tell the full story. an urban environment with cars and many feral cats is a dangerous place for a pet. a rural environment that doesn't happen to have many predators is probably not that bad. also being outdoors is much more dangerous for very young and very old cats.

In rural settings there are more foxes, coyotes, and hunters which are dangers to cats. They can also get stuck and die, or injured and die because they can't come back. None of that happens with indoor cats, urban or rural.

>> Having an animal like a cat live its life mostly indoors is contradictory to its nature and will likely have negative effects on its health. <<

Ditto for humans.

In most cases the cat would probably come back after it had its fun outdoors. "Outdoor" cats do this every day. The main reason is its potential to be killed by wildlife, traffic, or consideration of its effects on local bird populations.

I do sympathize with you about cats that never get to go outside. Leashes are probably a reasonable compromise.

If you never let your cat out on its own you'll never find out if they'll come back.

> ... will likely have negative effects on its health

Indoor cats have lifespans multiple times that of outdoor cats, so I think the alternative has negative effects on health, too.

Outdoor cats do okay, the ones I grew up with lived to be 16 and 21. It depends on where you live, what predators they might have to face.

Anecdote, data, all that.

that's great, but on average outdoor cats really do live much shorter lives. [0]

[0] https://pets.webmd.com/cats/features/should-you-have-an-indo...

My family had several cats over the time I grew up. All could go outside whenever they wanted.

The oldest got to 8 yrs.

Most died of organ failures, one from a genetic illness and another one never came back.

The Organ failures were probably from rat poison... So, the outside killed them

>I don't think "pet" is the right word

Pet is exactly the right word. The word you seem to be thinking of is wild animal, which is distinct from a pet. A pet is an animal kept by humans for human comfort and entertainment, not an animal living naturally in its native habitat.

It's fine if you disagree with pet ownership, but making sure an animal only does what its human owners want it (be that staying indoors or roaming free) to do is the definition of owning a pet.

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