Pets form an important part of many people’s lives, providing meaningful companionship. However, our pets can sometimes also be a source of unwelcome pathogens and diseases, particularly if they frequently roam outdoors.
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American cat charities won’t allow you to adopt them if you plan to let them outside for the reasons listed in the previous comment. Cats absolutely wreak havoc on local wildlife and arguing otherwise is blatantly ignorant. They are apex predators for their size and they will kill small mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles. Not to mention it’s also safer for the cat to keep them indoors. Pathogens, cars, larger wildlife, and even humans themselves can be dangerous to them. RSPCA in the UK also says cats should be kept indoors. They recommend taking them outside supervised (on a harness) so as to protect them from traffic and local wildlife. Letting cats out also contributes to the stray cat problem because unspayed or neutered ones go out and breed with other strays. Cats live very healthy and happy lives indoors, it is laughable to claim animal cruelty. There is a far better claim that letting them outdoors is cruelty. Most animal experts and veterinary professionals agree on that. Do not let your cats outside, and stop pushing this irresponsible behavior.
Outdoor cats kill a lot of birds and rodents but - at least in the UK - they fill the ecological niche left empty by the wildcats, weasels, etc whose numbers have been decimated by humans destroying their habitats. Also, the prey species targeted by cats are those whose numbers are disproportionately high due to them thriving in the urban landscape (and the individuals who fall prey to cats are disproportionately elderly, injured, or otherwise compromised, meaning their predation actually increases the overall health of the population).
Seriously, read through the study I linked, dozens of sensationalist articles have been written demonising outdoor cats, but none of them take the time to actually interpret the data in a scientific way.
The cat charity I referenced was Cats Protection UK, and unless they have changed their policies in the last 2-3 years what I said about them is correct.
And yet, the vast majority of animal experts and veterinary professionals disagree with you. Cats aren’t filling a niche. They didn’t evolve to be part of the ecosystem you’re introducing them into. You are bringing in an apex predator to an evironment where they get almost free reign to decimate anything smaller than them. Cats that were meant to be outside evolved alongside their environment (bobcat, mountain lion, lynx). Common house cats have spent the last several thousand years alongside humans who have taken them around the entire globe into environments they are not native to. Don’t pretend like it’s just culling weakened or elderly overpopulated species. That is emphatically false and you are using it to justify your bias. It has nothing to do with sensationalist articles villifying cats. It’s about the reality that animal experts and veterinary professionals see every day. Seriously go ask your local vet if they think you should let your cat out. 9/10 times they will give you a big list of reasons why you shouldn’t. Even the charity you are referencing says they should be let out supervised. They also say if you are letting them out, to do it at dusk or dawn because that’s when they are least likely to hunt. Even your own source is not advocating for just letting them out. In an ideal world, they would get to spend time outside, but letting them out unsupervised is completely irresponsible. This is why taking them out on a leash or having an enclosed patio is great for them. Not to mention, the law in the UK can actually charge you with tresspassing if your cat is on someone else’s property. Ultimately there are just so many reasons not to do it and just because you may feel like it’s cruel doesn’t make it so.
I did highlight that I was mostly talking about p laces in which cats are native or naturalised, ie pretty much the entirety of Eurasia and Africa. The genetic differences between domestic cats and wildcats are essentially negligible. Please, please read the study I linked. My cats can’t currently get outside without my supervision, which is something my vet (in the UK, which has had domestic cats for around 1,000 years and wildcats for tens of thousands of years) was actually not pleased about.
Native cats and wild cats are not domestic cats. Domestic cats did not evolve as part of the food chain in these environments, so when they are introduced, they literally contribute to the extinction of species.
https://vetmed.tamu.edu/news/pet-talk/cats-and-wildlife/
“Research has estimated that as many as 4 billion birds, 22.3 billion mammals, and 1.1 billion amphibians and reptiles are killed by free-roaming cats per year in the United States,” Guyette said. “Domestic cats have also been implicated in the extinction of at least 63 species of birds, mammals, and reptiles.”