But I do not believe they kill nearly 17 billion birds and animals every year in the United States.
Agree, an extrapolated number. However, just in case, I keep my pussy indoors.
I came across this video below the other day.
This kitty kills and eats a mouse...the whole darned thing! It was amazing to me even though I have had cats my *whole* life. Pretty darned gruesome!
My Cat Kills Mice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvdxD4sL-qI
Personally, I wouldn’t have let my cats do this, even though I know they enjoy it and it’s natural. I would be afraid of them getting some kind of intestinal parasite, and I don’t like to see a little animal being tortured. I use humane traps for mice, and set them loose on the trail.
On our acreage we have tons of birds of all kinds. The cats come during the night and kill many. What I hate is they don’t kill to eat or because they are hungry, but just for the sake of killing.
Last week as I was mowing, however, I found the remains of a cat consisting of his tail, two paws and internal organs. Apparently some other animal “skinned the cat” during the night hours.
Just nature I guess.
We have a strictly indoor house cat, and loved to watch the squirrels, chip monks and birds out of our windows.
Then mommy cat came along with kittens. How cute. So we fixed them up with a shelter and started feeding them.
Squirrels are gone, so are the chipmonks. A few birds still come to the feeders.
I’m in the process of getting rid of the outside cats.
Lefties in a neighboring town are neutering feral cats as a humane act to let them continue to kill off what little birds remain there. The leftist nut jobs do not realize that some of those birds are close to being endangered.
Any time the left quotes a number or percentage to support their position I assume that they just pulled it out of their...hat.
Like their number of “homeless” or the percentage of homosexuals, or the number of children going hungry every day.
With the left, everything is fair in love and war, and we know they don’t love us so they are at war with us.
The shame of it is that we have lawmakers that pass laws based on these lies.
Imagine how many vermin animals there would be without our beloved cats.
Not that my cats hunt anything except cat toys, although I have had some good hunters in the past.
I hate these articles written by cat haters, who go on about the supposed carnage that cats wreak, while completely omitting the reason cats are domesticated in the first place: our ancestors prized their skill at removing vermin.
One of my neighbors keeps cat food and water out for her so that she doesn't eat the squirrels.
That has about the same validity as talking about how dogs enjoy killing smaller animals. Regardless, cats more than earn their keep by reducing the population of disease bearing rats and other rodents.
But I have seen him sit and watch a foraging squirrel, with it's back to the cat, 3 feet away, and the cat does nothing.
“Some feline experts now estimate 70 million feral cats live in the United States, the consequence of little effort to control the population and of the cat’s ability to reproduce quickly.”
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/09/0907_040907_feralcats.html
Part of the circle of life, the more needed in the burbs, where even the cutest little rodents multiply quicker than the diminished stock of natural predators can’t keep up. Birds are a different situation primarily because of a loss of habitat and the use of pesticides and herbicides. For that more proactive policies are in order.
Birds aren’t easy for cats to kill. I’ve seen more birds attacking cats than the other way round.
Small rabbits and rodents are another matter. Fun and fairly easy for the cat.
Of course, around here, the bobcats go after the larger prey like large rabbits, adult squirrels, and yippy dogs. Do we include those animals in the outdoor total?
10-20 million birds are not killed by lead poisoning each year.
annual bird mortality now estimated to be 1.3 to 4.0 billion is a cannard and stupid hypothesis.
There are some 50 million feral kitty katz. Most live near three things: food, water and shelter.
They live near walmarts and fast food places, near grocery stores, apartments and placez with open garbages.
They are also being fed by well meaning people.
All of this removes pressure on the ecology and the need fkr kitties to kill for food.
I notice and prolly missed it but, the article doesn’t mention how many ground animals are killed each year by these professional assassins.
They’ve over simplified their guessing game.
50 million katz x 360 days of one kill each = 18,000,000,000.
That’s 18 billion kills.
That isn’t happening. A kat in the wild isn’t going to get a kill everyday and there is way to much free stuff laging around and being handed to them for that number to be even close
Our cat keeps mice and squirrels away; robins and such aren’t touched.
Again, while this number may be exaggerated, it is clear that feral cats kill enormous numbers of birds. I regularly ride off-road bicycles with a group of young wildlife scientists. They are generally politically liberal BUT they all 1. hunt (!!!) from time to time, and 2. would shoot feral cats on sight. This goes for the young women in the group, too.
Cats can be destructive. Catskill mountains.
He’s already declared that “All your base are belong to us.”
Yep -- there is a good reason one of the settlers' favorite names for their farm's cat was, "Mouser".