Road traffic accidents are among the most common causes of death in outdoor cats. Understanding the welfare dimensions of cat outdoor access guides better risk management decisions.
Road traffic accidents cause traumatic injury and painful death for many thousands of cats annually. Surviving injured cats frequently present with polytrauma including traumatic brain injury, diaphragmatic hernia, limb fractures and internal haemorrhage, requiring emergency veterinary treatment that is expensive and not always successful. The welfare cost of fatal and non-fatal road traffic accidents is substantial both for individual animals and for their owners. The decision to allow cats outdoor access involves balancing the welfare benefit of natural behaviour expression against the welfare risk of road traffic injury. This risk can be substantially reduced through night curfews, high-visibility collars and risk-appropriate cat doors.