Keeping country cats safe | Living the Country Life

Keeping country cats safe

Living the Country Life Radio Program with Betsy Freese

Danger from cars, animals

Listen to this radio show (MP3 download) or read below.

Radio interview source: Dr. Paul Maza, veterinarian, Cornell University Feline Health Center

Our cats get into trouble at night when they're hunting, so we bring them into the entryway until morning. Cars on a country road are a big killer of cats, too. The only way to stop that is to keep them inside all the time, but that's not an option for a lot of people.

Cornell University Veterinarian Dr. Paul Maza says a major cause of outdoor cat mortality is trauma.

"They wander off to the road and get hit by cars, or they crawl into warm tractor engines when they're off, or other farm implements and when they're started up again, they can be injured that way," Maza says. "Other causes of trauma include fighting amongst other outdoor cats, or other animals -- dogs or wild animals, raccoons and foxes."

Dogs consider cats fair game, and if they want to, can easily overpower them. Despite a full set of fangs and claws, cats rarely have a chance, and declawed cats are even more at risk.

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Comments (2)

rainmaker141 wrote:
The problem with an outdoor cat in our area aren't foxes, but coyotes. And a cat has zero chance against a coyote, unless the cat has enough of a head start and can flee. I'd suggest a collar and tagged pet door system, that will open the door for the cat once if it approaches the pet door, but will keep a predator brazen enough to pursue your cat to the porch out (no RFID signal, no open pet door).
bigskywells wrote:
i live in the adirondack mountains and the coyote is the problem.the key is to let your cat out at eight am in the morning and to get them in before dark .ten pm is pushing it so if you can get them in before eight pm. you could save your cats..