So last night I am sitting watching a dvd with my neighbour, the film was Babel, which wasn't my cup of tea so I sat looking out at her garden. Before long it turned into cat central. Her two sat at my feet looking rather put out as one sprays up a bush and another is trying to paw open the sliding door. Her two are afraid to go out the catflap when the ginger one (who sprayed) is out there as it tends to attack them. There is a sweet little black and white female who cannot be far off a year old but with a sagging belly is obviously pregnant, her brother and three others. My neighbour doesn't seem to mind, but I do, they are the reason why I don't feed the wild birds, which saddens me deeply. Before I moved here I would often spend time watching them feed and interact. Cat owners often talk about their cat's god given right to be free, but what about mine? I don't have a cat yet because so many others do in my area, I feel as though I would be setting up a death trap.

Cats Protection have estimated 250,000 road fatalities a year for cats, which sounds a considerable amount until you make the comparison with the 275 million animal deaths that cats are responsible for each year. So whose life is more valuable, the domesticated or the wild animal? I would suggest an equality to all life, but to cat owners who fully accept their cats as predators and do not stand in its way should be held accountable for those lives, it is one thing a wild animal killing another, but it is a complete travesty when an animal under our charge is doing the slaughtering. If I allowed my dog out on the loose her nature would be to chase everything in sight, causing destruction along the way. But this isn't simply about the law being imposed on me to keep her under control, I love her and want to keep her safe. How can anyone suggest that a cat is protected under the Animal Welfare Act when the owner does nothing to protect the cat from outside dangers? It is almost laughable, the hypocrisy of it all!