The American fetish with locking cats indoors is extremely weird, and your neighbour sounds like a first class bellend (and the one who belongs in confinement, at best).
Today I learned that part of "America" is in the southern hemisphere.
https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/news/2024/05/roaming...
Assuming the pet cat in Australia is the same pet cat in Europe.
Not sure how to classify the ones in Istanbul, but the point stands that the amount of harm claimed in the article is overblown.