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From: bytebug@pertec.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.pets
Subject: Re: who says pets should run loose?
Message-ID: <123@pertec.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 3-Jun-84 01:31:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: pertec.123
Posted: Sun Jun  3 01:31:05 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 1-Jun-84 06:46:04 EDT
References: <484@hound.UUCP>, <3296@fortune.UUCP>, <137@sdchema.UUCP>
Organization: Pertec Computer Corp., Irvine, CA
Lines: 39

> Animals running loose are greatly at risk, will probably be
> injured and sick more often, have shorter life spans, and make
> hazards and nuisances out of themselves.

I agree!  My indoor cat lived to the ripe age of 19, which I attribute
mostly to the tender loving care he got while being indoors.  Not that
he never saw the outside world - the family would walk him on a leash,
and he was allowed supervised roams of our fenced back yard without a
leash, and he got plenty of fresh air while tethered on a leash outside
when we weren't able to supervise.  Especially in his later years, he
wouldn't have been able to deal with the "real" world, and I don't
believe he would have been better off if he had that freedom.

> What if you were given the choice of living the life your currently
> life with all the hazards, heartaches and problems or were offerered
> the chance to live in a beautiful, large home which you could never
> leave.  Which would you choose?  A beautiful, large home which you
> could never leave would just be a pretty cage.  I don't know many
> humans who want to live in a cage.  I don't know of ANY cats who would
> care for it.

As to this argument, I'm fairly certain that I'd choose the large home
that I could never leave if I were given that choice knowing the 
alternative was going out in the "real" world and having a one in five
chance of returning safely.  Perhaps the odds aren't stacked that heavily
against cats, but I'm sure that they have nowhere near the chance of
surviving in the outside world that we humans who can fend better for
ourselves.  If I'm hit by a car, I have a h*ll of a better chance of
surviving than a cat, since generally people are taken to hospitals, 
and cats are left at the side of the road.

Not that I think cats can survive in a cage.  I currently don't have a
cat since I live alone, and often work late, and think that keeping a
cat shut up all day in an apartment would be a dis-service to the cat
as well as myself.  Keeping pets involves the same sort of
responsibilities as having children.  Would you shut your child up in
an apartment alone all day?  Or would you let him run "free" without
supervision?  If you've chosen either, you probably have no business
with pets *or* children.