This is Conan. Gets into too much trouble on his own so he has to wear a leash out on walks.

  • It’s good that they are indoor cats, but whether or not the article is personal is irrelevant, the point is the amount of havoc they’re causing. They’re an invasive species, they kill 1.4-3.7 BILLION birds and 6.9-20.7 billion mammals in the US alone annually.

    They are in fact, the most damaging invasive species in history, and we feed and house them to ensure they keep going, the fact of the matter is we’re letting loose efficient little murder machines, and that isn’t the cats fault, its ours. We shouldn’t allow people to keep invasive species outdoors, the ecosystem is vital.

      • As others have already said to you, please try to be respectful and engage in good faith. We’re trying to build something different than what we left. If you’re honest with yourself, you can see that you’re being flippant. Choose grace instead, friend.

        • No, no I don’t think I will.

          I wasn’t trying to argue or engage. This whole thing could have been over after my second comment. The rest was an attack on me for disregarding the mod opinion that could’ve been handled in more tackful ways if they wanted it known

          • For what it’s worth we don’t have great tools to toggle posting as a mod or not. I understand that it likely looked like a show of force to you, and that’s why I stepped in and addressed everybody involved in escalating it, and did it respectfully. We can all choose to act and speak tactfully, which in my experience includes not rising to something you no longer need to.

      • Let’s remember to be(e) accountable for how we converse with each other. I think you posted a lovely picture, and hope that you regularly bring your indoor cats, well, indoors when you’re not able to keep an eye on them in the yard like a responsible human.

          • It’s about participation in a group conversation, and one where we recognize that it’s not generally okay to continue to shout at each other when there’s other folks trying to have a nice time. I’m willing to presume that you keep your cats monitored, and nothing you’ve said here would suggest that’s not the case. You could, given the circumstances, suggest people take an active role in monitoring a species many of us love that is also notably dangerous for other animals.

              • That’s a different space, with a different set of expectations. There will obviously be some overlap in online behaviors, but escalation-as-conversation on the internet is nothing unique to reddit. It’s just not a necessary comparison here, or at least not germane to our interaction here. You’re not the only one I’ve reminded to be accountable in this thread, and I intentionally tagged you to show that. You can see @communist@beehaw.org responded to my reminder, and I think if it can’t be hashed out I’ll have to.

                You’re both free to disengage here too.

          • This does not seem like an argument made in good faith.

            You must know there’s a difference between people living places, and encouraging the spread of invasive species. Not to say you are doing that.

            • I wasn’t trying to have an argument. Given the context of the post I was just trying to showcase my own pets for the sake of joining in the joy of animals. You are the one that decided to try to force your own views on to my comment. I truly do not care about what you’ve presented. Hense the antagonistic responses

              • I don’t know if it’ll help or not, but I think a lot of this boils down to a misunderstanding

                • OP has a cat on a harness, which allows the person holding the leash to prevent the cat from killing birds or entering dangerous areas
                • You posted a picture of your cats (which are adorable by the way) but without context, outdoors off-leash
                • Communist saw cats off-leash outdoors, and wanted to advocate for keeping cats indoors, since they weren’t aware your cats are indoor

                They just didn’t know that your cats are indoor cats, and wanted to advocate for something that they (and myself) are passionate about (keeping cats indoors to help prevent ecological damage).

                It seems to have escalated from there, and I’d love it to get back to square one and get the conversation back to positivity! We can all be friends :)

              • It seems odd to me to antagonize something you don’t care about. The point was not to upset you, or to say that you’re doing a bad job, I simply believe it is important to raise awareness about the subject of keeping cats outdoors.

                I’m not trying to attack or upset you. I’m sorry it came off that way.

      • it’s not like anyone can stop you from letting your cat outside unharnessed, but this is a weird way to respond to the objective fact that cats do a huge amount of harm to environments they’re introduced to–and that at the very least we shouldn’t encourage that behavior and people who do it should know the harm it’s causing