Hm...what's your nationality?I wasn't expecting this to turn into a hate topic for cats.
My cat has gone outside all her life. Happy or not I couldn't condemn a cat to staying indoors all their life. I couldn't deny a cat the fun and wonders of exploring nature. From when she was a kitten I've played with her regular, groomed her, fed her well and so on. With the fuss I give her she goes outside for about 5 hours a day and comes in of a night, though in the winter she stays in most of the day.
I do wonder about families that keep cats. I wonder if they are the type of cats who have a more vicious streak in them due to lack of attention. My cat doesn't bother with birds much unlike others in my area who seem more intent on their prey. I wont lie, my cat has killed roughly 4 in her 11 year life so far. I feed birds in return, and I admit you'll be thinking that sounds like a terrible idea with cats roaming doesn't it? I keep the feeders in small tree thats kept in check (and on a thin fence where cats couldn't run at birds or climb easily) with the area around it bare so the birds have a chance to get away. My feeders are the kind that catch most of the seed and the pigeons are the main culprit for cleaning it off the floor since they can't get at the feeders. Since I moved in a few years ago nobody fed birds. I can certainly see now a surge of them with quite a few nesting nearby.
But as someone mentioned in the thread earlier, prey that is caught is usually the weak and slow. It did sadden me when I found the corpses of birds but its just nature to me. A few years ago my grandmother developed a hatred for birds of prey because she witnessed a blackbird die from one. So it doesn't surprise me to see people hate on cats for doing their business in they garden, killing birds or scratching at things they own..
Whilst non cat owners would scoff at this if I saw another cat doing its business in my garden and I was too late to stop it I'd just accept it. However I could understand the frustration of someone who gets an abnormal amount of cats crapping and scraping plants. Whenever my cat wants to go out to poop or pee I encourage her to go out in our back garden, and to her credit usually does it there.
In short I don't agree at all with being called a terrible owner. There are however some people out there I believe who think a cat is just feed and let outside. I don't think of them as a pet, but a companion. After all, they say a cat owns you :P