In 1894 a lighthouse owner brought his pet house cat to Stephens Island (that little speck of land between the two mane islands that form New Zealand). Shortly there after, the cat appeared on the doorstep with a little bird, crushed in its jaws. By the time the little bird was identified as a new species (the Stephens Island Wren) the cat had killed of the entire population. But the problem isn't only on Islands. It is also a problem in North America and other places. Tens of millions of cats are aloud to roam free in the United States alone and they kill hundreds of millions of songbirds, reptiles, and mammals. The statistics are just as scary in Canada where there are some seven million house cats of which approximately 650,000 do not have owners and are 'wild'. Entire populations of birds or reptiles have been whipped out. So after all that is said, it is a really bad and irresponsible idea for cat owners to let there pets outside. Don't tell me your cat dose not kill things; it dose; it just doesn’t show it. Cats are natural killers and with no natural predators, the damage is immense even from one cat.

The conclusion, then, is to keep your cats inside. But it doesn't end there. There is a protozoan that lives in the feces of cats, contaminated water, and undercooked meat. The protozoan is called Toxoplasma gondii and it has been known to give various illnesses (this explains why pregnant woman are warned to stay away from cat feces). Studies show that it may also cause brain damage in people (and cats, which explains why your cat goes absolutely crazy on those certain occasions).

So, then, I leave it up to you to decide; to be or not to be? Personally I would say 'not'.