Are we really getting the indoor cat brigade on lemmy too? Yes, in the US outdoor cats are a danger to local wildlife. Stop pushing this on people who this does not apply to. Outdoor cats are fine in many other parts of the world. The USA isn't the whole world.
Suggesting or thinking that this issue only applies to cats in USA / North America is uninformed at best.
Australia has ~650 million lizards killed each year by feral and outdoor cats, ~225/cat
As of 2013, Canada has 100-350 million birds killed by cats each year
As of 2021, China estimates based on public survey's that "1.61–4.95 billion invertebrates, 1.61–3.58 billion fishes, 1.13–3.82 billion amphibians, 1.48–4.31 billion reptiles, 2.69–5.52 billion birds, and 3.61–9.80 billion mammals" there each year"
Cats and other vermin are absolutely destroying native populations in New Zealand as all of the birds there evolved with essentially no native predators.
South Africa, Cape Town alone estimates that 300k cats kill 27.5m critters each year
This is not unique to the states. Keep your cats inside.
Not to mention like in Europe multiple species of native small cats are being pushed out and outbred by feral and outdoor cats
Keep your moggies inside for their sake people! Also for, y'know, all the birds and small mammals killed by them and the fact that your pet can pick up some goddawful diseases from being outdoors and still have a shorter life expectancy than indoor ones
Honestly for me the risk of them getting severely injured in a cat fight or getting hit by a car is enough for them to be strictly "indoor cats" unless they are on a leash with a well fit harness.
Tbh I can't believe we're at a point where "keep your cats inside they live longer and don't risk infection or injury or death" is straight up not enough to convince people to keep their pets which they love and cherish inside. Like I admit I'm biased - I'm a bird person and my main stake in this argument is the local wildlife. But at the same time...it's kinda ridiculous that people would rather risk all that than bother to entertain and interact with and exercise their cats like you would with most other pets?
