Yep - well know that cat bites and scratches are the worst. Most likely to get infected and take AGES to heal.
My family had a cat while I was growing up, that little beast was a terror at night. If I had to go to the bathroom I'd always need to be on the lookout because he had the despicable habit of hiding behind corners waiting to pounce when you walk by, biting his target.
You need to teach your cat how to play with you (how much biting/scratching your skin can take). Cats do this automatically with each other, so you just mimic their behavior for "everything is OK" and "now you've gone too far".
You also need to be consistent in your behavior with them. Randomly attacking them (even if just for play) just teaches them that taking random swipes at others is OK (which it is not). You also make it almost impossible for them to predict your behavior, which freaks them out and leads to all sorts of neuroses. Cats like predictability. There is a whole social dance around "let's play!" that you would be wise to learn.
Cats and humans have very different cultures. They are able to learn a little about human culture, but most of the responsibility is upon you to learn cat culture.
Both options seem cruel. Nothing cute about it.
In the past, before much of our food was in plastic containers or more difficult to puncture packaging, or in a fridge, vermin posed more of a problem in that way within the house (they still do in poorer locations where safe food storage is more of a difficulty).
Some non-farm households even in well-off locations do still have cats with vermin control being one of the stated reasons.
Even cats will tap out then.
It is what brought us and cats together in the first place: grain stores attracted small animals that could spoil the crop or otherwise spread harmful disease, cats found these populations a very useful concentrated food source but did not cause nearly as much similar trouble themselves, so letting them stay around was a good bargain for us.
wrt allendoerfer's comment: farm cats are not constrained to a small building (a house), and are a more natural part of the local ecosystem (they have generally been allowed to remain, or have craftily managed to remain, rather than having been shipped in by humans) so don't cause the same potential imbalance in local small animal populations (the ones humans find more desirable and less damaging, like birds).
They are the ecosystem. Like it or not. Some animals are smarter than the others when it comes to acquiring space to live and hunt. Cats managed to domesticate humans and so they can enjoy habitats where otherwise they wouldn't be welcome. It's a fine example of evolution. If other animals can't adapt, it's just part of natural selection, as cruel as it is.
Lol @ western culture. In most of the world, cats are still treated little better than pests.
I mean, you're technically right, but in an evil way. Ecosystems usually evolve gradually, otherwise we're talking about extinctions.
Exactly this; letting loose has caused them to kill billions and even extinction of entire species.
Cases of significant infection are rare enough that it isn't on people's minds, even more so for indoor-only pets that are not exposed to as many infection vectors as their roaming brethren. Especially these days when the vast majority of any such infections that do occur are easily treatable (this may swing back as resistance to current antibiotics continues to increase).
> sometimes even finding it cute
Often it is cute. A lot of the time it is kitten-like play fighting and most cats are careful not to puncture because it is play (though they usually don't quite understand that our skin is easier to break than another cat's) – some like my old boss will act all vicious (swipes, grabs, and disembowel-y kicks) with claws entirely retracted when applied to a hand/arm/leg but not when attacking a toy (they got the full tooth & claw treatment from her!). My current cats (adopted recently when they were >10 years old so not “play-trained” in my environment) don't mean me any harm but are less careful, so I need to be a bit more cautious as a result.
Of course this varies a lot by circumstance. Particular cats have very different attitudes & levels even if brought up the same way from kittenhood, some cats could be OK but were not taught appropriate boundaries when young, and some humans are just too daft (ignorant to the body language of the animal they want to play with) to be able to tell the difference between play and a cat genuinely wanting them to get stuffed or die trying.
Piercing the skin is not normal, and I wouldn't certainly wouldn't want me or my kids to be around a cat that does that.