this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2023
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Cats shouldn't be let outside anyway. Ecological disasters they are.
There is no difference between a domestic cat and a wildcat, as in they're able to interbreed because they're genetically the same species. So if you're in a region where they would naturally exist (effectively all of Eurasia) then it's perfectly fine to let your cats go outside.
TLDR: It's only bad to let your cats out if you live in the Americas or Australia.
It's bad because of the sheer number of them. A single cat can kill over a million animals over its lifetime I believe. A single pair of cats can produce around a thousand cats over the course of a few years, so that adds up. I love cats but they're absolutely an ecological disaster if left unchecked.
If you want to read more about it
I don't disagree with you that cats kill lots of animals but a million over its lifetime is way too high. If you assume a 20 year lifespan, that's 50k/yr or a bit under 140 per day, every single day. The wikipedia article cites one study that claims ~90 animals killed per year, which seems much more reasonable.