Domestic cats kill billions of wild animals annually. This creates a genuine tension between cat welfare (benefiting from outdoor access) and wildlife welfare (harmed by predation). Solutions require honest engagement with both sides.
The cat-wildlife tension involves real welfare on both sides. Birds and small mammals killed by cats experience fear, injury, and death. Cats benefit psychologically from outdoor hunting behaviour. The honest welfare analysis requires acknowledging both: cats do not need to kill wildlife to have good welfare, and the scale of cat predation on wildlife causes suffering to enormous numbers of individual animals. Solutions that maintain cat outdoor access while reducing hunting success — collar covers, curfews, catios — address both welfare concerns simultaneously.