Cat lovers should keep their pets to themselves
SIR – Jemima Lewis (Comment, April 28) says that “keeping a cat indoors is cruel, and owners should be told so”, and that cats “need to hunt”. She also refers to their prowling “before pouncing on a speck of dappled shade”.
While this all sounds idyllic, according to the Mammal Society, the less charming reality is that over the spring and summer months, Britain’s cats kill more than
100 million creatures, including about 27 million birds.
As one who enjoys watching my garden birds, I am not best pleased to see a cat hunting them and wonder why cat owners feel that their pets are entitled to trespass. I would prefer that they keep their cats inside, or on their own land. John Twitchen
Leigh-on-sea, Essex
SIR – What would Jemima Lewis do about the breeders of pedigree kittens who sell them only on condition they become indoor cats? Anthony Baker
Winscombe, Somerset
SIR – I would like cat owners to keep their pets indoors. When cats use my vegetable garden as a lavatory, my tolerance of them drops even lower.
Robert Ward
Loughborough, Leicestershire