Thank you, I think you're right.

I'll note that, having grown up in a "village" (or actually "hamlet") setting, there are just as many wild predators around as there are in the city, they're just less remarked upon.

@akostadinov do you let your children out into the busy street to play? Or do you give them a safe fenced yard and teach them to stay out of the road? Your cat is NOT stopped by the fence and will not learn to look both ways before crossing.

@akostadinov I'd appreciate a less accusatory tone without such personal remarks next time, thanks. And especially considering that your comment presents a completely valid point, which stands solid enough on itself and doesn't really need to be spiced-up by emotional charge. Oh, and welcome to Pets ^.^

@AllisonC It's a valid point, I don't refuse to admit that my judgement might be biased for the exact reason you've mentioned - dangers of the city are usually loud, immediately obvious and evident, predators in the wild are sneaky, stealthy and mostly invisible for us which creates a flawed cognitive experience of the village being much less dangerous. I still stand with my point, though - I might be traumatized by occasionally having seen fresh corpses of cats on the busy road - I always felt so sorry for them, and if they had owners I cannot imagine how traumatic that must had been.

@AllisonC I have heard some people who claim to have seen some experienced outdoor cats actually do look before crossing the street.

@DKNguyen I can confirm your belief because I've actually seen it live a few times :D but I guess the point of AllisonC was more a figure-of-speech - yes, the cat might learn this, but it might still not be doing that reliably, or might not learn it at all. Also, you wouldn't be able to reliably help in the learning process - you'd need to hope the cat will learn it by itself through its own experience, so it's unreliable to rely on that. I believe that was the point, at least that how I understand it.

@lila For sure. I don't think a human can teach a a cat to do that. Another cat, maybe.

So I made an account just to comment on this, but it is not an answer. There are middle grounds. If you teach your cat to walk on a leash, for example. A guy who lives in the same apartment lets his cat out but keeps an eye on it. These may be options worth exploring. My family once took in a stray and she loved living inside, so it may be that even if he gets out he won't go wild.

@Jake Hi, welcome to Pets ^.^ please take into account that, as I've noted and disclaimed, my answer is based on my subjective point of view and thus is safety-prioritizing. Maybe my tone isn't being received as I intended, but I didn't attempt to sound imperative and tell the question's author what to do - I rather attempted tell what I would do myself if I were the owner of this cat in the presented scenario, so that the author could also receive, among others, a strictly safety-oriented point of view, and then consider them all and come up with the best solution themself.

@akostadinov Oh, by the way, I'm currently living in a large city and one of the reasons why I'm not currently planning on having a cat, despite loving cats, takes its origin from the same point of view as your comment. I just believe that the cat would be missing something in its life. But if I were to somehow, unexpectedly, end up owning a cat in my current situation - e.g. I'd find tomorrow that someone dumped a kitten near my front door, owner would be nowhere to be found, and the cat would end up staying because of me falling in love with it (100% chance of that) - I'd not let it outside.

@lila, makes sense, that's the reason I don't have a cat atm. Not suitable where I live.

Where did you get the 4 years life span number from? I googled a bit and found lots of articles stating widely different numbers (highest was 13-15, lowest was 2-5) but none which referenced any scientific sources.

@Philipp pets.webmd.com/cats/features/… it's for now, I'd still search for more sources and message you if I find them; maybe also include the links in the answer itself.

The 4 years number is widely repeated lie. There is no factual basis for it. The only source refers to feral cats not to domestic cats permitted to go outside.

@JackAidley Okay thanks for your input, if my presented numbers are indeed off, then I am willing to correct them. I'm going to go for groceries shopping soon, though, so I will do my further research and eventually modify the answer later - around evening/night.

Whether or not "4 years" is precise, it is a fact that outdoor cats, domestic or otherwise, will have a more dangerous, and therefore shorter, life. Where I grew up, we had a large number of barn cats, well cared for and protected, and a scant few making it to ages with double digits.

@JackAidley I did research and found multiple sources that confirm my claim. But even if my numbers were to be a little bit off, my point, about outdoor cats having on average a shorter lifespan than indoor cats, still stands. vetmed.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk491/files/inline-file‌​s/… - indoor 10 to 15 years vs outdoor 2 to 5 years; cattime.com/cat-facts/health/78-indoor-outdoor-cats - 13-17 vs 2-5; thehumanesociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/… - 18-20 vs less than 5;

@JackAidley catster.com/cat-health-care/… - 14-20 (average 16.875) vs 3-10 (average 5.625); petco.com/content/petco/PetcoStore/en_US/pet-services/… - 12-20 vs 1-5; petmd.com/cat/care/can-indoor-cat-be-part-time-outdoor-cat - 15-17 vs 2-5; pets.thenest.com/lifespan-indoor-outdoor-cat-8777.html - 12-15 vs 2-5. Have a nice read, good night.

@lila As I said it's a widely repeated lie. None of those are primary sources.

@JackAidley I consider these sources to be credible and more than good enough. I will paraphrase one of my fellow's words for you - if you won't accept anything but "primary sources", please try Skeptics SE. Also, as the one challenging the numbers in my answer - do you have any "primary source" supporting your argument that it is "widely repeated lie" and these numbers are wrong? Constructive criticism is fine; calling out "that's a lie" and then discrediting the credibility of all the presented sources without offering any meaningful input isn't constructive at all, but actually disruptive.

"while outdoor cats of only around 4 years" Where did you get that number? Please include it in the answer, not the comments. Comments are not forever. Around here, outdoor cats average twice that easily. But that's not in the city, so I expect your number to be for a more precise sub-set of 'outdoor cats'.

@Mast Excuse me? Would you please mind toning down your imperative and demanding language a bit? And also, the exact time I've read and replied to your request, your "heavy formatted" part wasn't even existing there yet, it was edited in later. I missed it, because the notification from your new comment appeared before my eyes and I started writing the reply immediately for you. I included these links for the second time just for your convenience, in case you have missed them among other numerous comments. And don't worry please, I'm planning on including these sources soon, it's just that ...

@Mast ... the point of my argument is about outdoor cats leading more dangerous lives than indoor ones, and thus on average having a shorter lifespan; then exact numbers aren't directly and immediately essential for the argument, thus including them is not as urgent. Please take into account that I don't just want to copy and paste all the mess with these links from my comments into the answer, because their readability is sub-optimal and I'd prefer to take a little time and thought about how to neatly integrate them.

I wasn't aware my tone would be considered harmful. The current state of your answer seems to suggest it's close to murder to let your cat outside and as expected you get a lot of negative comments on not properly sourcing those statistics (as a moderator, no less). Perhaps I was more offended by that than I thought and let that afflict the tone of the comment. I'm not trying to demand anything here, just hoping to increase the quality of the answer.

@Mast Oh I understand, it's okay, now as I think of it, it's because we misunderstood each other from the start - a brief moment after writing your comment, you've edited it inserting that part about sources belonging in the answers instead of comments, and you just didn't expect that I would be even faster, notice your comment at instant you've posted it and start writing a reply before you have included that edit. I could imagine that, from your point of view, it could have seemed as if I ignored your request and hence was your tone about having to use heavy formatting.

@Mast This discussion is getting slightly out of hand. Do you consider your criticism heard and the dispute settled? The I'd like to delete the comments concerning it. (BTW your comment "Do I need to use heavier formatting in my comments?" was indeed flagged as unfriendly by several users).

hi