Interesting post, everyone has to do what they think best for their animals, a lot depends on where you live, my cat is allowed outside whenever she wants as was my previous cat who lived to be 14. We live in a rural area and she hunts, kills and eats mice on a daily basis, despite being well fed. I have never seen her with a bird, of which I am glad, probably too much trouble. In a city centre the motality rate from cats being knocked over is very high, as a teenager we had a cat killed at 5, being knocked over, but another lived to be 17.