Dutch cats could soon be feline claustrophobic.
A legal case is being prepared to force domestic moggies to be kept indoors in a bid to reduce the millions of birds and small mammals being killed every year.
A Dutch foundation, Huiskat Thuiskat (domestic cat indoor cat), is preparing a legal test case to force caretaker agriculture minister Carola Schouten to act against people who let their cats roam freely outdoors.
The Netherlands is home to between two and three million domestic cats and some 10,000 feral cats and strays.
“The minister has a legal obligation to act if damage is done to protected species, even if it is indirect damage caused by roaming cats,” the foundation’s lawyer Roel van Dijk told the Parool.
One suggestion is that domestic cats should be subjected to an 8pm curfew.
