Keep your cat indoors!

[Worker 11811]

I was walking around my back yard early today and a mourning dove sprang out of the bushes next to my house. My first thought was that it's nice to see a dove up close. A few seconds later I noticed it was having trouble flying. It could only fly a ten or twenty feet at a hop and it couldn't fly very straight at all. A closer look revealed that the bird had no tail feathers!

(Birds need their tail feathers to stabilize them in flight.)

 

I was dismayed that one of the neighborhood cats had pounced on the bird and pulled out its tail feathers.

 

My wife came outside to see what all the commotion was. I showed her the bird and told her that the bird will probably die of starvation because it can't fly far enough to find food.

 

A little bit of happy news: I found the bird sitting in a tree a few hours later. At least it will be safe for now. If it can find food and stay alive long enough for its feathers to grow back it will be okay. (Cross my fingers!)

 

Tomorrow I'm going to go to the store and buy some bird seed. I'm going to set up a feeding station on the garage roof where ground critters won't be able to get at the birds that come to feed.

 

That's not really much to squawk about. I wouldn't be making this post, normally but for what happened afterward. I was mowing the lawn when I happened upon the carcasses of two more dead birds that appear to have been mauled by a cat and left to rot. I buried them in the compost heap so, at least, they won't go to waste.

 

This is what got me thinking... peeved off is more like it!

 

I dont' have a cat, nor do I care for one. But, if you have a cat would you keep the damn thing in the house?!

 

Check out the following website:

 

http://www.abcbirds.org/cats/

 

 

Birds and Cats - The "Cats Indoors!" Campaign

 

The Problem

 

There are more than 90 million pet cats in the U.S., the majority of which roam outside at least part of the time. In addition, millions of stray and feral cats roam our cities, suburbs, and rural areas. Scientists estimate that free-roaming cats kill hundreds of millions of birds, small mammals, reptiles and amphibians each year. Cat predation is an added stress to wildlife populations already struggling to survive habitat loss, pollution, pesticides, and other human impacts.

 

There is a document for download on that page which is pretty good.

Download it at: http://www.abcbirds.org/cats/factsheets/predation.pdf

 

Okay... The site is pretty tree-hugger-ish but there isn't any anti-fur propoganda in it, AFAIK. I agree with them on this point:

 

Keep your damn cats in the house!

[Ravens8]

What you got against cats worker?

 

People do far more damageto the environment. Every day we render species extinct, destroy the habitst, shatter the patterns of bio-deiversity, and generally mess everything up for every other living creature we share the world with

 

Maybe we should all stay in doors until we all rot. Cats have got NOTHING on us.

 

IT's only because we create artificial environments that lure birds in for easy living that they fall prey to cats so frequently.

 

Out in the hedgerows and woods, cat predation would have much less impact.

[White Fox]

Hey, pigs are better...

 

A dog wants you to be a master.

A cat wants to be your master.

 

But a pig. Is just right!

 

W

[ReFur]

Worker,

 

I know how tender-hearted you are. But, sweetie, this is the natural part of nature.

 

I have several cats and they are outdoors during the day. They are hunted by the Coyotes. In the five years we have been here, the cats have killed two birds. I could have saved the one bird but it would not let me. Sure it bothers me. It also bothers me to see deer and road kill.

 

I was able to save one morning dove from the hawk last year! 8)

 

It looks like we are moving to Florida, and I may have to put two of my cats down. They are Ferrel cats that would be in hell if caged again. With so many kittens without a home, I just cannot take them to a human society. It is killing me.

 

There are special groups that will take in animals, but they agree. There are so many animals that need help, this would just not be fair to them.

 

Linda

[Worker 11811]

It isn't the cats themselves, really. It's the humans who own the cats who are the problem. The cats are only doing what their instincts tell them to do.

 

The overproliferation of cats because humans have imported them into places where they wouldn't naturally live is what's causing the destruction.

 

Cats are basically just another human-introduced invasive species.

 

Feral Cats are an offshoot of the problem.

 

Generally, people just don't think of cats as being a problem but they really ARE. If they would just take a moment to think about what their cats do when they aren't looking, they'd save the environment a whole lot of trouble.

 

It's many of the same people that sit around, talking all warm and fuzzy about the environment who are causing all kinds of crazy destruction to the environment because they don't think that their cats really are "natural born killers."

 

Generally, I "like" cats. I don't have anything against them, per se. They're not my favorite pet, nor do I hate them. I've had three cats... Two of them were officially mine. One of them was my college roommate's cat. All of them were house cats, which lived INDOORS.

 

If I let my dog roam the same way other people let their cats roam, I'd catch holy hell for it. Woudn't I?

 

I'm pretty sure I know which cat is killing all the birds and squirrels and leaving them in my yard. I wouldn't really hurt it but, I've got nothing against giving it a swift kick in the hind end if I catch it stalking in my yard again.

 

Then, again, I wouldn't feel bad if the coyotes got it.