Cats, Wildlife, and Hantavirus

I take my cats for a five minute walk every day weather permitting. They keep bringing home live wild animals. Sorry, no pics, I'm usually too distracted at the time.

I allow my cats to go for a "walk" once a day, escorted. Usually it only lasts a few minutes then I make them come back inside. This is to allow them the chance to eat grass and be familiar with the neighborhood so they could make it back home if they got lost (which has happened).

However cats are pretty hard on wildlife, so I don't generally allow them unsupervised time outdoors. They tend to catch lizards, grasshoppers, mice, snakes, birds, etc. Last year my she-cat Ada chased a squirrel up a tree. I'm not sure what she was planning to do if she caught it.

Since I escort my cats I'm usually able to rescue the wildlife, though I don't bother with most insects. However the point is that cats, even given only a few minutes a day, are capable of harming wildlife. In the Americas, domestic cats are an invasive species and are not a natural part of the ecosystem, unlike in Eurasia and Africa. We really should keep them under control and indoors, as a general rule.

The exception I make is if the wildlife invades my home, in which case all bets are off. I had a couple of mice in the house a few years ago and the cats disposed of them promptly. I don't necessarily regret that. Mice carry hantavirus in this part of the world. It isn't good to cohabitate with them. People occasionally die of hantavirus around here.