Children are also happier running around free, into the streets and highways, but we don't let them now, do we?

Some people feel differently than you do about this issue, and many of the folks here actually work with rescues and at shelters and see first hand the truly sad and horrible things that can happen to strays. Have you? Or are you just sitting in your own rosy world, thinking everything must be free and wild to be happy? But the reality is, being stray is not an ideal situation for any cat. They die, they die horribly, and they die often.