My mother thinks I'm cruel for keeping my cat indoors (I adopted him three months ago). When I was a child, we had a cat who had three legs, because he'd run onto the road while roaming as a kitten and been hit by a car, and had to have one of his back legs amputated. She considers that an unfortunate accident rather than irresponsible pet ownership.

Additionally, in Australia, where I am, it's estimated that cats kill over a million birds every day. Even if it was reasonably safe for the cat, I couldn't justify contributing to that.

My cat has supervised playtimes in the backyard, and we go out with a harness and leash. He gets plenty of stimulation. But I would never let him roam outdoors.