I have such a cat flap. A) they are easy to modify it to hard wire a power supply into it, but they might not have a wall socket close to where the flag is fitted (Ive mod’ed my cat flap so it’s IoT Bullshit by hacking in an esp32. I can see when my cat uses it and have an idea of if she is in the house or not but little bugger still prefers going though the office window, but she uses the cat flap when I’m not about to be her man servant. I can also lock the flap remotely on days she needs to stay in because of vet visits. Did it need to be done? Nope. I just like taking things apart :-p).
The batteries issue (before I hard wired mine) is a case of him doing it wrong. You keep a stock of fresh batteries near the cat flap and inform people that you will break legs if they nick them. Or say that nicking those batteries without replacing them in a timely manner is like taking someone’s keys without letting them know you have them, it’s inconsiderate to the cat who is a member of the family at the end of the day.
Keep a stock of them in the house and replace the stock as they are used.
As for the whole security aspect. The cat flap removes security in favour of convenience. If you don’t have a dual scan flap (so the chip is check on entry and exit) cats have been known to learn they can pull instead of push and gain entry :-) and that is just your treat vector from other kitties. A human can easily slip the latch and have a nice large hole to fish things in and out of your house (but that’s the same for any pet door).
The batteries issue (before I hard wired mine) is a case of him doing it wrong. You keep a stock of fresh batteries near the cat flap and inform people that you will break legs if they nick them. Or say that nicking those batteries without replacing them in a timely manner is like taking someone’s keys without letting them know you have them, it’s inconsiderate to the cat who is a member of the family at the end of the day. Keep a stock of them in the house and replace the stock as they are used.
As for the whole security aspect. The cat flap removes security in favour of convenience. If you don’t have a dual scan flap (so the chip is check on entry and exit) cats have been known to learn they can pull instead of push and gain entry :-) and that is just your treat vector from other kitties. A human can easily slip the latch and have a nice large hole to fish things in and out of your house (but that’s the same for any pet door).