cynbob - yes, I'm sure a cat that's kept indoors from birth will be perfectly happy, as it's all they know and over time their natural instincts become suppressed as they're unable to act on them. And I never said it would affect their health.

When I say I think it's cruel, I didn't mean that the cat becomes mentally tortured and upset or whatever. They don't have the mental capacity for that. Perhaps cruel is the wrong word.

For what it's worth, if I had a cat in Qatar I wouldn't let it outside. That's why I don't have a cat here.