No Winter Shelter for Pet Cat is Animal Abuse

 

Our area is bitterly cold with temps dipping to 15 below zero and night with a high in the single digits during the day. Throughout the week there have been winter weather alerts on the news, and at the animal shelter to bring outdoor animals indoors or to provide an insulated shelter with a heated pad or self-warming pad and straw bedding. But in spite of all the warnings people in my neighborhood put their pet cats out even though there is no winter shelter. 

No insulated shelter for an indoor at night / outdoor during the day cat when weather is extreme is animal abuse in my opinion.

Yesterday when the windchill was 15 below zero I heard a sorrowful meow and followed the sound until I found a black cat sitting in the snow covered leaves. It didn’t run for me and I picked up the cat and brought it indoors. The tips of the cats ears and the bottom of its paws were ice-cold / freezing.

Cold cat laying on the bed. He seems happier

I brought the cat indoors to my heated mudroom and the cat laid on the pet bed next to the heat vent. The mudroom is close to the side entrance and if the cat wanted to go outdoors into the bitter cold it had many opportunities. The cat stayed put only leaving the bed by the heat vent to eat, drink or use the litter box.

I wonder what would have happened to this cat had I not searched for it. Would it have frozen to death like the family of dogs did in the doghouse in St. Louis, MO?

Apparently this cat belongs to one of my neighbors who put the cat out daily at 6 AM then allows the cat back into the house at 6 PM. This pet owner does not feel a shelter is necessary because the cat has fur, and that cats have survived harsh weather for thousands of years.

I will agree that feral cats will survive the harsh winter better than a domesticated house cat and that is because the feral cat has adapted to their surroundings and knows where to go for shelter.

A feral cat in a groundhog den

When people do not heed the advice of experts concerning weather alerts and safety measures for their pets that are outdoors without a winter shelter then I think these pet owners are animal abusers.