Cats on leash

Hazel McCallion Senior Public School
Mississauga, Ontario

By Carla G. (Grade 8)

What is cruelty to animals? Is this humane - harnessing animals and forcing them to be taken for walks against their will? What is the point of a bylaw that encourages cruelty to cats? If cats only have the privilege of being outside when on a leash there will be disastrous consequences.

Cats are meant to be outside to hunt and to simply be cats. With this freedom taken away from them, the odds are that they will become obese and there may develop flaws in their genetic characteristics in the future.

With cats kept inside, there will be a new problem: the rodent population will greatly increase. The thought of rats running through the streets makes a shudder run down many people's spines. But there have always been cats to keep the rodent population under control. Cats are used in this capacity on farms, on ships and in factories. The balance of nature will be disrupted by our petty bylaws. No bylaw, no matter how firmly reinforced, can make rats and mice stay on a leash.

By keeping cats on a leash or indoors will solve nothing. The real problem is stray cats roaming the streets and wreaking havoc. How will the problem of stray cats be solved by keeping obedient, domesticated house pets indoors? Domesticated house cats are not the problem - it is their owners. By not having their pets spayed or neutered, they have caused a tremendous problem for cat lovers across the country.


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