It's a vestige of our culture war, where the sanctimonious blame individuals for behaviors that were normal in the recent past, heralding a couple data points as supreme truth, while ignoring the broader context and their own hypocrisies. In my opinion, if we are so overpopulated with cats and dogs, such that they cannot roam, people should not have cats or dogs. I'd argue that keeping a cat or dog locked up also makes one an asshole.

The road to extinction is pretty well set, so I don't see the sense in casting ire upon understandable behaviors. Might as well try to get along on the descent, though I get why such a large subset of the population are salty. For the record, I don't have a pet, because: overshoot.

[–] isVeryLoud@lemmy.ca 10 points 3 months ago

Cats are an invasive species in North America, they destroy avian wildlife.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyall%27s_wren

Cats belong on leashed walks outside, not cooped up inside all day. Treat them like dogs.

[–] chilicheeselies@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Thats not universally american. Plenty of people in the states let their cats roam. The problem we have is people who think they are rescuing a cat when really they are stealing someones pet

[–] NotJohnSmith@feddit.uk 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I mean it's an American thing to loudly proclaim that if you do anything other than have an indoor cat then you're an awful person (see original OP of this thread), not appreciating that America is wildly different on this position than pretty much any other country in the world

[–] prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works -1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

The problem we have is letting cats roam free, if you don’t want your pet rescued don’t leave it outside

[–] TootSweet@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

American here. Clearly it's not a "culturally expected" thing in my neighborhood.