By WILIAM HUNTER, SENIOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER
Published: 11:41 BST, 15 August 2026 | Updated: 12:10 BST, 15 August 2026
If you're a cat owner, one of the biggest questions you face is whether your kitty will be allowed to roam outside or kept safely indoors.
This is a debate that has left pet owners divided, with some claiming it is cruel to confine a cat indoors while others worry about an outdoor cat's safety.
Now, a group of scientists have put this question to the test.
And their findings suggest that letting your cat roam outdoors could help curb some of its more destructive habits.
In a paper, published in Applied Animal Behaviour Science, researchers discovered that cats who were allowed unsupervised outside time had lower levels of disruptive behaviour.
While the results were modified by other factors, like the presence of other cats in the house, outdoor cats were much less likely to ruin your furniture by scratching.
Lead author Dr Lee Neil, a a behavioural biologist from the University of Guelph, Canada, told the Daily Mail: 'One possibility is that cats who scratch household items have not been provided with their preferred options for scratching indoors.
'Cats with outdoor access have more opportunities to find these preferred options when outside which might give them an outlet that prevents the behaviour indoors.'
Scientists say that letting your cat roam outside can make it less destructive and less disruptive at night (stock image)
As Dr Neil acknowledges, uncontrolled outdoor access for cats is a 'controversial topic'.
Recent studies suggest that 31 per cent of cats in the UK are exclusively kept indoors, but owners are divided over whether this is healthy.
One one hand, many cat owners point out that the life expectancy of indoor cats is significantly higher than for outdoor cats, due to the risk of injury and illness.
The lifespan of an indoor cat is 15 to 17 years, while an outdoor cat's lifespan is two to five years, according to researchers at the University of California-Davis.