Lynette Vybiral smiles in re-telling an anecdote about a cat that arrived at the Butler County Humane Society with a peanut butter jar stuck on her head.

“We named her Jiffy,” Vybiral said, noting the story has a happy ending: The jar was removed and the cat found an adoptive home.

But Vybiral is quick to point out that other animals left to the great outdoors met less amusing fates.

Cats and dogs — most likely owned by someone at some point — arrive at the agency with scars from their journey from your house to theirs: broken legs, missing eyes and ears. Animals in the outdoors also encounter diseases. Other animals. Cars. Sloppy hunters and cruel teenagers. Ticks. Toxins and poisons.

Vybiral, like many animal proponents, sides with the position that cats and dogs belong in houses not outside.

She says she has heard many arguments from the other side of the indoor-outdoor debate over the years. People who want to keep outdoor only animals often say things like:

“We have a lot of land.”

“We let them run loose, and they always come back home.”

“They want to go outside. Cats are supposed to be outdoors.”

But Vybiral says the bottom line is this, “We want your pet to have a long, healthy, happy life. And in our experience, having an animal stay outdoors shortens their lifespan.”

The average lifespan for an indoor cat is 10 to 20 years. The average lifespan for a cat permitted outside is 2 to 5 years, according to the Animal Friends. Dogs’ lifespans are more dependant on their breed.

In addition to length of life, indoor pets also have a better quality of life, experts say.

“In Butler, we are becoming renowned for our Lyme disease,” said veterinarian Dr. Paul Lombardo of Butler.

Lyme disease is an infectious disease carried by ticks that can be fatal.

Lombardo said his office had traditionally diagnosed 5 to 6 cases of Lyme disease annually. But that number has hiked in recent years to 150 to 200 cases annually.

Lombardo said there is a direct connection between the spread of the disease and the population boom of ticks in our rural county.

“It’s a big thing in Butler,” he said. “We’ve seen dogs with more than 100 ticks on them.”

Ticks, which can survive winter months, are year-round threats to pets who go outside. An equally dangerous threat are cars and trucks and other motor vehicles.

During the summer, Lombardo said, his office treats mainly trauma caused by vehicles and heat exhaustion. In the fall, he said, animals run into antifreeze, which is apparently attractive to animals but poisonous. And other diseases seem to become more prevalent during the winter, he said.

There’s also a constant threat of other animals. Even friendly animals fight if they stray into the wrong yard or pack of animals, Lombardo said.

“A deer kicking, for example, can rip the skin off a pet,” Lombardo said.

Chris Kachmar of Helping Paws in Cranberry Township said the very nature of animals makes leaving them outside all day a bad idea. Dogs, for example, are pack animals that need to socialize with their “pack,”in this case, their owner.

“How would you like to be tied to a tree all day?” Kachmar asked.

Kachmar said cats that roam free often become injured, pregnant or lost to circumstances.

“There’s a lot of stray cats out there that used to belong to someone,” Kachmar said. “We are supposed to be the caretakers of these animals, but we’re doing a pretty poor job of it.”

The humane society’s policy is to adopt pets into families that plan to keep their cats indoors only and dogs outside only on a temporary basis with the right accommodation.

What they don’t want, Vybiral said, is animals chained to a tree year-round or owners who open the door and let them run.

“They end up here,” she said, noting the majority of animals that arrive at the shelter appear to have been socialized by a caring family at some point. “A tame dog in the backyard can panic and run at the sound of thunder.”

Outside dogs in particular can be distracted following a scent and be lost for good.

Of the 530 dogs that arrived at the shelter in 2011, 87 were returned to owners.

Vybiral said agency officials educate potential adopters about the police and even consider people’s reasoning for wanting an outdoor pet.

In cases where potential adopters claim they have outdoor facilities to accommodate an animal, agency officials sometimes will make a home visit to evaluate the situation. Sometimes, the property owners are right about their outdoor accommodations, and are approved.

“We do make some exceptions. It’s rare, but if it’s for the betterment of the animal we will do it,” Vybiral said. “For example, just the other day we adopted a cat to become a barn cat. But we knew with that particular cat’s personality it could never be an indoor pet.”

Vybiral said it is only once or twice a year agency officials turn away a potential adopter because he or she is adamant about breaking the indoor rule.

“It’s mostly with cats,” Vybiral said. “Dog owners understand the responsibility.”