All my 4 cats are spayed/neutered, have current rabies vaccinations, and wear collars with tags to prove it, and they all roam freely outside. The most recently deceased of my cats was 21 years old when he died, and was still roaming the garden happily the day before he died.
Any cat owner who ever takes their cat to a vet is getting it vaccinated for rabies. I’ve never known any vet who would do anything — not even a simple exam — without making sure the cat has a current rabies vaccine or giving it one, and I think most if not all states have laws requiring that. If you never take your cat to the vet and you also let it roam outside, it’s not clear that you’re a “cat owner” — if ownership of the cat was ever disputed, you’d be hard-pressed to show that your relationship to the cat was anything but a person who feeds the stray and sometimes lets it in your home.
Neutered male cats don’t have that “special” smell to their urine. As far as I know, everywhere that it’s legal to let cats roam free, it’s contingent on thier being spayed/neutered as well as vaccinated, and that’s how it should be.
I got a purportedly neutered tom who must have a third hidden ball, because he STINKS.
Requirements regarding spay/neutering - how do you enforce that? Most free-roaming cats (pets or not) are not, in my experience.
As far as male cats who are neutered not having that “special” smell. It might not be as potent, but cat pee is still EXTREMELY irritating to my nose. If I am around it much, it makes my ill.
And I firmly believe that you are in the minority regarding cat ownership. I know quite a few cat owners. I would say less than 2 out of 10 take their cats to the vet. The percentage goes up for full-time house cats.
There are some pretty big fines for letting your pet roam freely here where we live. Not many dogs running free (in fact, haven’t seen any in the 16 months we have been here). But lots of cats.
Still - personally, I just can’t grasp allowing a pet to roam freely outside. Dogs - letting them out into a fenced yard or run for extended times - sure. But cats don’t respect fences (or property lines - or, apparently, wood piles that belong to others).
Actually, I think it’s kinda like cigarette smoke. Smokers don’t notice the smell as much as non-smokers. If you don’t have a cat, it smells like hell.