If I wear makeup to bed my skin feels disgusting the next day. If I leave mascara on, my eyelashes clump together and it's a pain in the morning. Overall I find it healthier and just plain refreshing to remove it at night and go through my skincare routine.

THIS. It is plain selfish to basically say you don't give a shit about the environment as long as your CAT is "happy". Your cat's life is not going to be significantly affected by staying inside; just take the time to make sure it's got some kind of stimulation and all is well!

I guarantee you have many species — birds as well as other creatures that are very important to the ecosystem — that your cats are affecting. Mr. Chilaquile is a wildlife biologist; when we still lived in the mainland US, I can't even tell you how much damage he had to deal with everywhere, suburban and rural areas…

I came here to say this.

It's not just birds. Lizards, insects and arachnids also fall victim to cats. And this is New Zealand we're talking about. Many of our native birds are flightless and have no natural defenses against mammalian predators.

That's because you're not looking for them, numbnuts. I'm an avid birder and have seen everything from rose-breasted grosbeaks to wood thrushes in suburban areas, especially in migration.

The attitudes in these comments by cat owners are why bird populations are being destroyed. It just can't be about how much your cat is born to hunt. They don't belong in the woods in a suburban area, killing birds. It's not cute. It's terrible for the environment. It's not considerate of your neighbors. I am sure…

Again, the point is that once you decide to have an animal as a pet, you take responsibility for it, and sometimes that means doing things that might make it MARGINALLY less happy. I think in rare circumstances there are cats that have always been allowed out and might not ever adjust to being indoors only, but most…

Cats do not NEED to go out. It's just a total fallacy to say that. Cats can be perfectly happy indoors if they have plenty of room to run and play and they get lots of exercise. And if they don't get let out, they adjust perfectly well to being indoors.

Cats are a direct cause of migratory song bird decline. Cats kill hundreds of millions of migratory songbirds. A study conducted by Stanley Temple of the University of Wisconsin showed that domestic cats are responsible for the death of 19 million migratory songbirds a year in Wisconsin alone. Being that domestic cats…

Funny, when I adopted my cats from the rescue groups (in the U.S), part of the agreements I signed was that I would NOT let me cats outside - that they would be strictly indoor cats. My vets have always asked whether I let them outside (and supported me saying I do not)

The thing is, this isn't about making your pets happier. It's about saving native species. The oatmeal did a great cartoon a while ago that showed the destruction that cats impose on their environments:

Right, and there are lots of good reasons to take strong measures to cut down on feral cat populations. I don't have any quarrel with the essence of his position; I think it's mostly his nasty-tempered presentation that's off-putting.

I know it is a difficult and emotionally wrought decision to have to make, but what alternative suggestions do you think should be considered. The fact of the matter is that there are a lot of feral cats that are killing a lot of wildlife, and even if they were all captured and put up for adoption, they wouldn't all…

Keep your cats indoors. Make sure your cats are spayed and neutered.

I guess I should have included the following...

Oh I have a boy. Don't worry: I am really nice to him... But only because I don't want him to catch on to my plan to destroy all males to establish a matriarchy.

"The doctor though my butt was my head, but it wasn't. It was my butt."

I agree completely. But giving a reasonably older child a firearm that they can claim "ownership" of? I'm not entirely against that. But it has to be on a case-by-case basis.

I'm actually fairly pro-gun, but I'm not sure it's fair to call this coverage hyperbole when it's the second pre-schooler to kill a kid this month. It's all well and good to say that it's responsible to teach kids how to handle guns, but parents who give them to 4 year olds, don't store them properly, and don't even…