Expert: Joe McSorley - 7/18/2006

Question
My friend is struggling with a problem and I'm hoping you might be able to offer some advice.  
She has an indoor/outdoor cat that often injures or kills a variety of animals the latest a rabbit and a young bunny.  
My friend is quite the pacifist and while she knows at this point making the cat an inside only cat isn't an option, is giving her cat away the only thing left to explore?  She's tried a bell around the cats neck, etc.


Answer
Hi Lori,
  I understand your friend’s dilemma.  Nature does what nature does and it is not necessarily what we, as humans, want it to do.  Cats hunt and kill by nature, it is neither right or wrong, it is what they do.  The idea of pacifism cannot exist in nature because it is an ongoing dynamic state of survival with those most adapted passing on their genes. Nature is what it is regardless of our views of it.  I particularly understand the cat situation because I have several of them.  I also have a pond that was full of naturalized frogs.  Note the ‘was’ here.  Two of the cats we took in last year are intense hunters.  In a matter of days they ate all the frogs that I have enjoyed so much over the years.  I did not realize they would do this and it was too late by the time I realized it.  I am in the same situation in that they are indoor/outdoor types so I have the dilemma; do I let them roam and indiscriminately kill everything in site or do I keep them in.  This is not their natural environment so cats wreck havoc on the local wildlife.  My other cats never did this but these two do and even though they are well fed they follow their instincts to hunt.  My summer nights filled with the sweet croaking of frogs is now silent.  There is no right or wrong here even though I am saddened by the loss of the frogs.  They could have been eaten by egrets or raccoons instead but it was something I brought into the environment that did it.  Now there is a nylon mesh around my pond to keep the cats out.  I only let them out for short periods now and only when I can observe them.  It’s a pain to do so but I can’t change their nature.  Giving them away means that I am no longer seeing what they do but it doesn’t change what they do.
  I wonder if your friend is a vegetarian.  If not, how does she reconcile the killing that goes on in her behalf to eat any animal products.  If she is, does she realize the killing that goes on in nature everyday that insures the cycle of life and death in the world?  We tend to have idealistic and grand views of what peace is and what nature is but nature goes on regardless of our view.   Your friend needs to decide if she can live with nature and how much responsibility she wants to take to control the behavior of her cats.  It’s a big responsibility.  There are no easy solutions here.  We do what we need to survive regardless of any philosophy or idealism.
 Take care,
      Joe