Keep your cat indoors!

If you love wildlife, keep your cat indoors because:

• Everyday, cats kill between 4 and 5 million birds in the US.
• Collar bells don't work. Birds and other wildlife do not associate bells with being stalked.
• Ground-nesting birds are very susceptible to predation by cats.
• Despite being well fed, cats will hunt small wild animals.
• Most young birds leave the nest before they are able to fly well, spending a day or two on the ground as they learn. These fledglings are frequently caught by cats.
• Most of the birds caught by cats, but not killed outright, die of their injuries or infection.
• Cats that kill small rodents can eliminate a critical food source for owls and hawks.

If you love your cat, keep it indoors because:

• Cars kill millions of cats each year.
• Outdoor cats are exposed to serious, and often fatal, infectious diseases such as feline leukemia and rabies.
• Parasites such as fleas, ticks and intestinal worms pose a health threat to your cat. Some of these can be transmitted to humans.
• Outdoors, cats can be chased by dogs or other cats, and killed, injured or lost.
• Cats are often shot at, poisoned, trapped or tortured by neighbors who are annoyed by cats using their gardens as a litter box or hunting grounds.
• Coyotes, great-horned owls and other wild animals are known to regularly kill and eat house cats.
• Cats that spend time outdoors require more medical treatment and their life span is much shorter than cats who live indoors.