{"id":82,"date":"2012-04-26T20:08:56","date_gmt":"2012-04-26T20:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/?p=82"},"modified":"2012-04-26T20:16:34","modified_gmt":"2012-04-26T20:16:34","slug":"cats-on-leashes-wwtd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/animal-policy\/cats-on-leashes-wwtd\/","title":{"rendered":"Cats on leashes – WWTD?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tonight,* the citizens of Concord, Massachusetts vote on whether or not troublemaking cats — cats who relieve themselves, eat birds, etc. while off-property — must be confined indoors or allowed outside only on-leash<\/a>. It’s pretty mild as far as animal laws go: basically, if a neighbor doesn’t mind an owner’s cat on his or her property, no problem — but if they do<\/em> create a nuisance and a neighbor complains and no solution is found, the owner would be required to keep them indoors or walk them on a leash outside.<\/p>\n

Pretty simple, really. The idea of a cat on a leash raises eyebrows for a lot of people, but a harness or leash on a cat isn’t really that<\/em>\u00a0uncommon. And even if the idea seems silly to you, a measure that seeks to address complaints without<\/em> placing the burden on responsible pet owners<\/a> most certainly is not.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>

I'm. Going. To. Kill. You.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Plus, and here’s the best part: supporters and detractors alike are convinced Thoreau would be on their<\/em> side of the argument…<\/p>\n

\u201cI really feel confident that Thoreau would not want the cats on a leash,\u2019\u2019 [Barbara Lynn-Davis]\u00a0said. \u201cIt seems to inhibit their freedom to roam and discover. She\u2019s asking the cats to be curtailed to maintain this artificial environment that she created to give her pleasure, but the birds don\u2019t need that.\u2019\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

But Lodynsky, who has owned felines in the past, said that it\u2019s folly to consider a cat part of the natural world.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThey were brought here and domesticated; they aren\u2019t part of the natural food chain,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cBoldly, I would say Thoreau would support me because he respected natural species and biodiversity. When people say, \u2018Leave nature alone,\u2019 I say nature hasn\u2019t been left alone since we moved here. My stand is that I\u2019m trying to help these birds survive us.\u2019\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Forget, for a moment, the debate over ever-more intrusive animal regulations, the debate over \u00a0indoor vs. outdoor cats, and ask yourself: what would\u00a0<\/em>Thoreau do?<\/p>\n

\n

* The vote was scheduled for Wednesday night, but there was not enough time to vote on the cat measure.<\/sup><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tonight,* the citizens of Concord, Massachusetts vote on whether or not troublemaking cats — cats who relieve themselves, eat birds, etc. while off-property — must be confined indoors or allowed outside only on-leash. It’s pretty mild as far as animal laws go: basically, if a neighbor doesn’t mind an owner’s cat on his or her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98,"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions\/98"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naiaonline.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}