Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

A Defense of Free-Roaming Cats from a Hedonist Account of Feline Well-being

  • Published:
Acta Analytica Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

There is a widespread belief that for their own safety and for the protection of wildlife, cats should be permanently kept indoors. Against this view, I argue that cat guardians have a duty to provide their feline companions with outdoor access. The argument is based on a sophisticated hedonistic account of animal well-being that acknowledges that the performance of species-normal ethological behavior is especially pleasurable. Territorial behavior, which requires outdoor access, is a feline-normal ethological behavior, so when a cat is permanently confined to the indoors, her ability to flourish is impaired. Since cat guardians have a duty not to impair the well-being of their cats, the impairment of cat flourishing via confinement signifies a moral failing. Although some cats assume significant risks and sometimes kill wild animals when roaming outdoors, these important considerations do not imply that all cats should be deprived of the opportunity to access the outdoors. Indeed, they do not, by themselves, imply that any cat should be permanently kept indoors.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. By “flourishing,” I mean “well-being,” and by “well-being,” I mean something akin to a “happy life.” While there are competing approaches to well-being, such as the desire-satisfaction approach and objective-list approach, I assume that the hedonist approach is the correct approach when it comes to the well-being of non-rational animals. However, there is a deeper issue regarding theories of the “good life” (or theories of “eudaimonia,” which some argue is different than “well-being”), especially as it pertains to humans. In this paper, I simply provide basic conceptual tools for thinking about what it means for felines to have good, happy lives.

  2. Studies show that cats are more likely to be vulnerable to larger predators and involved in traffic accidents at night (Rochlitz 2003).

  3. Ideally, guardians will be home when felines venture outdoors, in part, so that they can reward their cats with treats upon their return to the indoors, which encourages them to remain nearby (Bradshaw and Ellis 2016). While this is preferable, it certainly is not required.

  4. This account of well-being draws on the one developed by Bramble (2016), and it can be viewed as an extension of the simple hedonist theory considered by Palmer and Sandøe (2014).

  5. Thank you to Mylan Engel for encouraging me to emphasize this point.

  6. There can also be unfelt frustration of preferences. For instance, suppose person X strongly desires to live in the real world, and person X believes that he does, but he’s actually in an experience machine. Although he doesn’t suffer, the thwarting of his preference still seems to thwart his opportunities for well-being. But even if the well-being of persons can be impaired by unfelt preference frustration, this is not the case for non-persons. Since the well-being theory I advance is for just (non-person) animals, it is not vulnerable to the experience machine objection. Thank you to David DeGrazia for suggesting this line of thought. 

  7. This arguably is an oversimplified view of hunting insofar as hunting involves an intricate process of tracking, waiting, and watching prey.

  8. Feline “redirected aggression” often occurs when indoor cats are aroused, frustrated, or excited when they observe outdoor-roaming cats. Because indoor cats cannot interact with the outdoor cats they observe, they may redirect their aggression toward other objects (including other cats or humans) that are near them.

  9. Vetinfo (2018) claims that house-based cats who spend some time outdoors live, on average, two or three years less than cats who live exclusively indoors, but it’s not clear how they came to this estimation.

  10. And the fact that cats with outdoor access normally repeatedly request to access the outdoors indicates that they are not just “scratching an itch” to explore new territory.

  11. To remain consistent with the language of ethologists, I use the terms “behavioral and ethological needs,” although, as an anonymous reviewer from Acta Analytica suggests, perhaps more accurate terminology would be “emotional/psychological needs.”

  12. The distinction between consummatory and appetitive activities comes from Dixon et al. (2014).

  13. Here, I use some of the language in Bramble’s (2016, 100) discussion about human well-being to motivate my argument. Bramble himself does not discuss feline well-being.

  14. And “wildlife,” as a broad category, includes insects, amphibians, reptiles, small mammals, and birds.

  15. I am not aware of any studies that conclude that vegan diets are nutritionally adequate for cats. Although one widely cited study indicates that cats fed certain vegan diets had normal serum cobalamin concentrations (B12) and that 14 of 17 cats had whole-blood taurine concentrations within the reference range (Wakefield et al. 2006), this does not, by itself, indicate that vegan diets are nutritionally adequate for felines. One cannot jump from the claim that some vegan diets have adequate levels of B12 and taurine for cats to the claim that vegan diets are nutritionally adequate for felines. After all, vegetarian protein sources are often poor sources of other specific essential vitamins (vitamin D, vitamin A, niacin), fatty acids (arachidonic acid, docosahexaenoic acid, and eicosapentaenoic acid), and minerals (calcium and potassium) (Kayo Kanakubo et al. 2015).

  16. For instance, in 2005, it was estimated that humans are responsible for between 500 million to over 1 billion bird deaths annually in the USA (Erickson et al. 2005).

  17. It’s also worth noting that, in many environments, cats are keystone species because they control rat and mice populations. Consequently, cats actually protect bird populations, insofar as rats and mice often feed on bird eggs. This, then, is another reason why we ought not to eradicate cats from the landscape (Courchamp et al. 1999).

  18. Studies report that collar-worn deterrents decrease feline predation as much as 54% (Hall et al. 2015). Also, see Ruxton et al. (2002); Woods et al. (2003); Hall et al. (2015); Calver et al. (2013); and Willson et al. (2015) for the efficacy of feline predation collars. Moreover, research shows that when cats are kept indoors at night, they bring home fewer mammals, as most small mammal activity is nocturnal (Woods et al. 2003; Getz 2009).

  19. However, not all cats return their kills to households, and one study reports that almost 50% of kills are left at the site of capture (Loyd et al. 2013). If this is true, feline guardians should try to locate these kills by using “kitty cams.” If this is too demanding, then we simply cannot offset some feline-caused harm. Yet this does not imply that we ought to permanently confine cats any more than our inability to offset human-caused harm implies that we should permanently confine humans to the indoors.

References

  • Adamec, R. (1976). The interaction of hunger and preying in the domestic cat (Felis catus): an adaptive hierarchy. Behavioral Biology, 18, 263–272.

    Google Scholar 

  • Amat, M., Camps, T., & Manteca, X. (2016). Stress in owned cats: behavioural changes and welfare implications. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, 18(8), 577–586.

    Google Scholar 

  • ASPCA. A closer look at community cats. https://www.aspca.org/animal-homelessness/shelter-intake-and-surrender/closer-look-community-cats. Accessed 5 Mar 2018.

  • Baker, P., Molony, S., Stone, E., Cuthill, I., & Harris, S. (2008). Cats about town: is predation by free-ranging pet cats Felis catus likely to affect urban bird populations?: Predation by Pet Cats and Urban Bird Populations. Ibis, 150, 86–99.

    Google Scholar 

  • Balcombe, J. (2006). Pleasurable kingdom. London: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beaver, B. (2004). Fractious cats and feline aggression. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, 6, 13–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bracke, M., & Hopster, H. (2006). Assessing the importance of natural behavior for animal Welfare. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 19(1), 77–89.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradley, B. (2014). Objective theories of well-being. In Miller & Eggleston (Eds.), Cambridge Companion to Utilitarianism (pp. 220–238). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradshaw, J. (2013). Cat senses. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradshaw, J., & Ellis, S. (2016). The trainable cat: how to make life happier for you and your cat. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bramble, B. (2016). A new defense of hedonism about well-being. Ergo, 3(4), 85–112.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calver, M., Adams, G., Clark, W., & Pollock, K. (2013). Assessing the safety of collars used to attach predation deterrent devices and ID tags to pet cats. Animal Welfare, 22, 95–105.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caro, T. (1980). Effects of the mother, object play, and adult experience on predation in cats. Behavioral and Neural Biology, 29(1), 29–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Casey, R., & Bradshaw, J. (2007). The assessment of welfare. In I. Rochlitz (Ed.), The Welfare of Cats (pp. 23–46). Dordrecht: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, F. (2017). Cognitive enrichment and welfare: current approaches and future directions. Animal Behavior and Cognition, 4(1), 52–71.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, F., & Smith, L. (2013). Effect of a cognitive challenge device containing food and non-food rewards on chimpanzee well-being. American Journal of Primatology, 75, 807–816.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, S., & Haworth, J. (1994). ‘Flow’ experiences in the daily life of sixth form college students. British Journal of Psychology, 85, 511–523.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, D. L., Wrigglesworth, D., Holmes, K., Hackett, R., & Michel, K. (2005). Using environmental and feeding enrichment to facilitate feline weight loss. Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition, 89, 427–427.

    Google Scholar 

  • Courchamp, F., Langlais, M., & Sugihara, G. (1999). Cats protecting birds: modelling the mesopredator release effect. Journal of Animal Ecology, 68, 282–292.

    Google Scholar 

  • Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: the psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper and Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeGrazia, D. (2011). The ethics of confining animals: from farms to human homes. In T. Beauchamp & R. G. Frey (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Animal Ethics (pp. 738–768). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diekert, F., Richter, A., Rivrud, I. M., & Mysterud, A. (2016). How hunter decisions affect selectivity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(50), 14450–14455.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dixon, L., Brocklehurst, S., Sandilands, V., Bateson, M., & Tolkamp, B. (2014). Measuring motivation for appetitive behaviour: food-restricted broiler breeder chickens cross a water barrier to forage in an area of wood shavings without food. PLoS One, 9(7), e102322.

    Google Scholar 

  • Erickson, W., Johnson, G., Young, D. (2005). A summary and comparison of bird mortality from anthropogenic causes with an emphasis on collisions. USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-191, pp. 1029–1042.

  • Feldman, F. (2004). Pleasure and the good life. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fischer, B., & Lamey, A. (2018). Field deaths in plant agriculture. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 31(4), 409–428.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foley, P., Foley, J., Levy, J., & Paik, T. (2005). Analysis of the impact of trap-neuter-return programs on populations of feral cats. JAVMA, 227(11), 1775–1781.

    Google Scholar 

  • Genovart, M., Negre, N., Tavecchia, G., Bistuer, A., Parpal, L., & Oro, D. (2010). The young, the weak and the sick: evidence of natural selection by predation. Thomas ALR, ed. PLoS One, 5(3), e9774. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0009774.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Getz, L. (2009). Circadian activity rhythm and potential predation risk of the prairie vole, Microtus ochrogaster. Southwestern Naturalist, 54, 146–150.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gray, C., Rance, S., & Freeman, L. (2004). Nutritional adequacy of two vegan diets for cats. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 225(11), 1670–1675.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, S., et al. (2002). Object play in adult domestic cats: the roles of habituation and disinhibition. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 79(3), 263–271.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, C., Fontaine, J., Bryant, K., & Calver, M. (2015). Assessing the effectiveness of the Birdsbesafe® anti-predation collar cover in reducing predation on wildlife by pet cats in Western Australia. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 173, 40–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haworth, J., & Evans, S. (1995). Challenge, skill and positive subjective sin the daily life of YTS students. Journal of Occupational and Organisational Psychology, 68, 109–121.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herron, M., & Buffington, T. (2010). Environmental enrichment for indoor cats. Compendium: Continuing Education for Veterinarians, 32, E1–E5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holmes, S. (1911). The evolution of animal intelligence. New York: H. Holt and Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horn, J., Mateus-Pinilla, N., Warner, R., & Heske, E. (2011). Home range, habitat use, and activity patterns of free-roaming domestic cats. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 75(5), 1177–1185.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, B., & Duncan, I. (1988). The notion of ethological need, models of motivation and animal welfare. Animal Behavior, 36, 1696–1707.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, B., Duncan, I., & Brown, M. (1989). The performance of nest building by domestic hens: is it more important than the construction of a nest? Animal Behavior, 37(2), 210–214.

    Google Scholar 

  • Humane Society of the United States. (2017). The HSUS’s position on cats. Humane Society of the United States Blog. Retrieved May 3, 2018. http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/cats/facts/cat_statement.html.

  • Inglis, I., Forkman, B., & Lazarus, J. (1997). Free food or earned food? A review and fuzzy model of contrafreeloading. Animal Behaviour, 53(6), 1171–1191.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jongman, E. (2007). Adaption of domestic cats to confinement. Journal of Veterinary Behavior, 2(6), 193–196.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kayo Kanakubo, K., Fascetti, A., & Larsen, J. (2015). Assessment of protein and amino acid concentrations and labeling adequacy of commercial vegetarian diets formulated for dogs and cats. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 247(4), 385–392.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kheel, M. (1996). The killing game: an ecofeminist critique of hunting. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, 23(1), 30–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Langbein, J., Siebert, K., & Nürnberg, G. (2009). On the use of an automated learning device by group-housed dwarf goats: do goats seek cognitive challenges? Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 120, 150–158.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leyhausen, P. (1965). On the function of the relative hierarchy of moods (as exemplified by the phylogenetic and ontogenetic development of preycatching in carnivores). In K. Lorenz & P. Leyhausen (Eds.), 1973. Translated by B. A. Tonkin Motivation of HUWKUJ and Animal Behaviour: an Ethological View. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liberg, O. (1984). Food habits and prey impact by feral and house-based domestic cats in a rural area in southern Sweden. Journal of Mammalogy, 65, 424–432.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loyd, K., Hernandez, S., Carroll, J., Abernathy, K., & Marshall, G. (2013). Quantifying free roaming domestic cat predation using animal borne video cameras. Biological Conservation, 160, 183–189.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luke, B. (2007). Brutal: manhood and the exploitation of animals. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matheny, G. (2003). Least Harm: A Defense of Vegetarianism from Davis’s Omnivorous Proposal. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 16(5), 505–511.

    Google Scholar 

  • Møller, A., & Erritzøe, J. (2000). Predation against birds with low immunocompetence. Oecologia, 122(4), 500–504.

    Google Scholar 

  • Montague, M., Li, G., Gandolfi, B., Khan, R., Aken, B., Searle, S., & Minx, P. (2014). Comparative analysis of the domestic cat genome reveals genetic signatures underlying feline biology and domestication. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(48), 17230–17235.

    Google Scholar 

  • Myers, D., & Diener, E. (1995). Who is happy? Psychological Science, 6(1), 10–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nussbaum, M. (2006). Frontiers of justice. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Owen, M., Swaisgood, R., Czekala, N., & Lindburg, D. (2005). Enclosure choice and well-being in giant pandas: is it all about control? Zoo Biology, 24, 475–481.

    Google Scholar 

  • Palmer, C., & Sandøe, P. (2014). For their own good. In L. Gruen (Ed.), Ethics of Captivity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). (2017). 14 billion reasons to keep cats inside. PETA Blog. Retrieved May 3, 2018. https://www.peta.org/features/keep-catsinside/.

  • Pierce, J. (2016). Run, spot, run. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pryor, P., Hart, B., Bain, M., et al. (2001). Causes of urine marking in cats and effects of environmental management on frequency of marking. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 219, 1709–1713.

    Google Scholar 

  • Regan, T. (1983). The case for animal rights. Los Angeles: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rochlitz, I. (2000). Recommendations for the housing of cats in the home, in catteries and animal shelters, in laboratories and in veterinary surgeries. Laboratory Animals, 34, 1–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rochlitz, I. (2003). Study of factors that may predispose domestic cats to road traffic accidents. Part 1. The Veterinary Record (pp. 549–553) 153, & Part 2: The Veterinary Record (pp. 585–588) 153.

  • Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. 2016. Are Cats Causing Bird Declines? https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/gardening-for-wildlife/animal-deterrents/cats-and-garden-birds/are-cats-causing-bird-declines/. Accessed 01 Jan 2019.

  • Ruxton, G., Thomas, S., & Wright, J. (2002). Bells reduce predation by domestic Cats (Felis catus). Journal of Zoology, 256(1), 81–83.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sagoff, M. (1984). Animal liberation and environmental ethics: bad marriage, quick divorce. Osgoode Hall Law Journal, 22(2), 297–307.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seligman, M. (2002). Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment. New York: Free Press.

  • Shettleworth, S. (2010). Cognition, evolution and behavior. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Siddiquee, A., Sixsmith, J., Lawthom, R., & Haworth, J. (2016). Paid work, life-work and leisure: a study of well-being in the context of academic lives in higher education. Leisure Studies, 35(1), 36–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simmons, A. (2016). Animals, freedom, and the ethics of veganism. In B. Bovenkerk & J. Keulartz (Eds.), Animal ethics in the age of humans: blurring boundaries in human-animal relationships (pp. 265–277). Berlin: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stankowich, T., & Blumstein, D. (2005). Fear in animals: a meta-analysis and review of risk assessment. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 272, 2627–2634.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tantillo, J. (2006). Killing cats and killing birds: philosophical issues pertaining to feral cats. In Consultations in Feline Internal Medicine (pp. 701–708). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, D., & Meister, O. (1988). Hunting behaviour of the domestic cat. In D. C. Turner & P. Bateson (Eds.), The domestic cat: the biology of its behaviour (pp. 111–121). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vestergaard, K. (1982). Dust bathing in the domestic fowl: diurnal rhythm and dust deprivation. Applied Animal Ethology, 8, 487–495.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vetinfo. Indoor and outdoor cat life expectancy differences. https://www.vetinfo.com/indoor-outdoor-cat-life-expectancy.html. Accessed 5 Mar 2018.

  • Vice, S. (2017). The ethics of animal beauty. Environmental Ethics, 39(1), 75–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wakefield, L., Shofer, F., & Michel, K. (2006). Evaluation of cats fed vegetarian diets and attitudes of their caregivers. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 229(1), 70–73.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wemelsfelder, F. (1993). The concept of animal boredom and its relationship to stereotyped behaviour. In A. Lawrence & J. Rushen (Eds.), Stereotypic animal behaviour: fundamentals and applications to animal welfare (pp. 65–95). Wallingford: CAB International.

    Google Scholar 

  • Willson, S., Okunlola, I., & Novak, J. (2015). Birds be safe: can a novel cat collar reduce avian mortality by domestic cats (Felis catus)? Global Ecology and Conservation, 3, 359–366.

    Google Scholar 

  • Woods, M., McDonald, R., & Harris, S. (2003). Predation of wildlife by domestic cats Felix catus in Great Britain. Mammal Review, 33(2), 174–188.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zebunke, M., Puppe, B., & Langbein, J. (2013). Effects of cognitive enrichment on behavioural and physiological reactions of pigs. Physiology & Behavior, 118, 70–79.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zoran, D. (2011). Effects of nutrition choices and lifestyle changes on the well-being of cats, a carnivore that has moved indoors. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 239(5), 596–606.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Thanks to David Boonin, David DeGrazia, Mylan Engel, Iskra Fileva, Chris Heathwood, Michael Huemer, Ramona Ilea, Erica Nieblas, Alastair Norcross, and Geoff Sayre-McCord for their thoughtful feedback on a previous draft of this article. And a special thank you toSamantha Wakil who helped ensure that my cats had outdoor access while I wrote this paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA

    C.E. Abbate

Authors
  1. C.E. Abbate
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to C.E. Abbate.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Abbate, C. A Defense of Free-Roaming Cats from a Hedonist Account of Feline Well-being. Acta Anal 35, 439–461 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12136-019-00408-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12136-019-00408-x

Search

Navigation