Four Reasons to Keep Your Cat Indoors

Reason # 1: If you care about your family
• Cats can put you and your children at risk – cats are the main avenues for many diseases that
can sicken or even kill people.
• Rabies – Body fluids from a rabid animal can be carried by your cat and enter a wound on
you. Cats are more commonly infected with rabies than dogs.

• Toxoplasmosis – This disease is picked up by your cat
outside when it eats infected wild animals. Toxoplasmosis
most commonly causes flu-like symptoms. In pregnant
women it can infect the fetus and cause a malformation
or abortion.
• Roundworms – Cats acquire roundworms from eating
wildlife. Roundworms are transmitted to humans
through the infected feline feces. In humans, larvae migrate
to the eye, brain, liver and lungs, were infections
may cause permanent visual, neurological, or other tissue
damage. (Right: Mature roundworms as they may
be seen when the cat vomits or defecates).

• Hookworms – Humans and Cats acquire hookworms by ingestion
of larvae or direct penetration through the skin. Hookworms cause intensely itchy lesions as they migrate through the skin (Left: Lesions from hookworms migrating through the skin).
• Bubonic Plague – Cats acquire this disease from flea bites or consumption of an infected rodent and then pass the disease to humans either by bringing infected fleas into the house or by aerosol from the infected cat. Cases of human plague have occurred in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, California, Oregon, and Nevada. If the disease is not treated before progressing to the lungs, the chance of survival is less than 50%.

Reason #2: If you care about birds
• Cats have an enormous impact on native species.
• In the US, cats kill about 4.4 million songbirds a day. Cat attacks are a major reason songbirds and small mammals are admitted to wildlife rehabilitation centers across the US and most do not survive.

• Fledgling (young birds just leaving the nest) have no defense against cats.
• When a cat kills an adult bird, babies in the nest die too.
• Cat predation hurts larger predators – native species such as the Red-tailed Hawk suffer from loss of the prey base they need to survive, especially in winter.

Reason #3: If you care about your cat
• Cars – millions of cats are killed and maimed each year. Drivers risk accidents also.
• Animal Attacks – Internal injuries, torn ears, eye ulcers, abscesses, and death result from encounters with raccoons, coyotes, foxes, other cats, and dogs.
• Human Cruelty – Cats can be shot, poisoned, stabbed, set on fire, used to bait fighting dogs, and stolen.
• Disease – Exposure to fatal and costly to treat diseases such as rabies, feline leukemia, distemper, and FIV. Vaccines are not 100% effective and there is none yet for FIV.
• Overpopulation – Shelters would not be needed if we were responsible about not allowing our pets to reproduce at large. Dumping an unwanted cat is cowardly and inhumane.
• Parasites – Parasites harmful to cats and people are picked up by cats spending some time outside.
• Poisons and Traps – exposure to antifreeze, rat poison, and pesticides kills thousand of cats each year. They are also maimed and killed in traps set for furbearing wildlife (Right: Cat caught in trap).

Reason #4: If you care about the environment
• Cats are a non-native species – which means they do not belong outside free roaming. They negatively impact the balance of the Eco-system. They are only descendants of wild cats. Just a Few of Many Cat Attacks are Admitted to our Facility.

For more information visit www.abcbirds.org/cats

Sources Cited:
1. Rabies surveillance annual summary 1986. Atlanta: Centers for Disease Control, 1987.
2. Rollag OJ, Skeels MR, Nims LJ, et al. Feline plague in New Mexico: report of five cases. J Am Vet Med Assoc 1981.
3. Kaufman AF, Mann JM, Gardiner TM, et al. Public health implications of plague in domestic cats. J Am Vet Med Assoc 1981.
4. Weniger BG, Warren AJ, Forseth V, et al. Human bubonic plague transmitted by a domestic cat scratch. JAMA 1984.
5. Human plague associated with domestic cats--California, Colorado. MMWR 1981.
6. Schwartz, Paul. “Public Health Program: Plague.” National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior. January 26, 2007. February 28, 2007
7.Stallcup R. “Cats: A heavy toll on songbirds-A reversible catastrophe. Observer,” A Quarterly Journal of Point Reyes Bird Observatory,1991. 91:8.