The Zoo-owner, animal wrangler and Conservationist Gerald Durrell once commented in one of his books that animals are not the great lovers of the wild that we would have them believe. On one of his collecting trips (to the Cameroons?) he had to let all his specimens go and had the greatest difficulty in getting them all to go back to the wild. In 'The Bafut Beagles', another Cameroon trip, he describes how he showed an eager young woman who was adamantly against animals in cages, just how badly they fared in the wild. He had a new specimen of monkey and showed her the many and painful parasites that infested it, explained how it could lose fingers and toes, acquire suppurating sores from infected bites and be host for a number of unpleasant creepies... the woman never commented on captive animals again.

I allow my cats outside, they have free access with a cat flap, but I don't let them out the front door, which is a few feet away from a busy road. They are free to roam the block and, if they so desire, can leap a few fences and get into the road across the gardens... they don't seem to want to. Even the very active kitty Raven, now 2yrs, seems happy to wander his own little territory of 3-4 gardens and not wander the streets.

It is entirely a personal thing. There are arguments for and against "captivity" for ALL animals. I think it's unkind to not let an animal have freedom to roam, but I know it's not cruel. If the animal has stimulation and freedom enough within the confines of a house or apartment, then fine. As long as the animal is not being hurt or suffering cruelty, then any arrangement that gives it a happy and sustained life, is good.

LTS