Cats are not designed to walk on a lead wearing a cat harness. Liken it to humans being put in a straight jacket! If you are using a cat harness on your cat to move your cat from one place to another for goodness sake, this is what cat carriers are designed for! Why cat owners insist upon trying to make cats the same as dogs. If you want a pet that does the things a dog does then why not get a dog? Cats have survived as a species because they are fright and flight creatures. What that means basically is when they are frightened they takeoff and hide. The cat’s ability to hide is part of their survival instincts. Cats are also designed to run and jump and climb trees. Dogs are not designed that way.
If you are using a cat harness simply to walk your cat, throw the cat harness away and build cat runs. Properly fitted out cat runs permit cats to do cat things. It is so sad to see cats with these things imposed on them creeping along the ground because it frightens them. They understand completely that they have lost control over their own protection. It is much better that your cat never goes further than its cat runs than wear one of these man made contraptions. Behaviours based mainly around fear and aggression often result from being forced to wear a cat harness.
Most times when we witness these things on cats is because the owner is treating the cat like a dog. Cats are not meant to travel around in cars with their owners just for the ‘drive’. Dogs are. Naturally there will be some cats that will adjust to wearing a cat harness – do they have a choice! However when considering the billions of cats worldwide who would be terrified and dislike a cat harness enormously you would wonder why cat owners use these things. You would only have to witness one cat rescued off the streets wearing a cat harness and you would immediately put all cat harness’ where they belong –in the rubbish. The cat harness eats into the skin, similar to cat collars on cats that are lost that are not fully grown. For the cats that are fully grown their legs get caught in these things and cut deep wounds in to the cat often leaving the cat to try and limp along on three legs. There may be the rare situation where a cat harness is warranted but unfortunately for cats this is not how they are being used……cheers Dawn
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