This morning, I was browsing through various web sites to get some inspiration for this blog. I wanted to see what new things might be out in the world that would help us be more eco-friendly. One suggestion that I came across concerned the cat. Keep your cat indoors, it offered, in order to be eco-friendly.
Hmm
.
First let me start with a disclosure. We do have a cat, and we do keep him indoors. Well, we try to keep him indoors and succeed most of the time. There are moments when someone forgets to close the back door to the porch, and he slips out through the screen that is in need or repair. Or those moments during the summer, when the kids are in and out of the house so often, that all an enterprising cat has to do is to wait for his moment.
But being eco-friendly was the furthest thing from our mind in choosing to keep our cat indoors. Instead, we were more concerned with his safety from predators, cars, ticks and feline leukemia.
The argument for having an indoor (green) cat is the number of wildlife that the cats can kill, from birds to rodents. (One of the cat’s favorite dishes is surprisingly not bird but vole). The argument is that the animals killed will upset the natural balance of things and make it particularly hard for ground nesting birds. They have a point, but I have an equal argument.
One of our favorite places to visit is a set of large gardens, whose eco-friendly practice extends not only in the cafeteria to recycle and eliminate paper waste, but also to its installation of large tree houses that are made of reclaimed materials. The gardens employee several cats that work as pest control to protect the valuable ecosystem that is in place. If it weren’t for the cats, the gardens might be forced to use poison and pesticides, which are decidedly not eco-friendly.
What do you think? Should all cat owners keep their kitties indoors to help the planet?
You can read more blog posts by Mary Ann Romans here!