Posted on 02/10/2013 1:42:55 PM PST by San Rafael Blue
Look around on the Net. In the last few weeks, a new fad has come to fore; the belief that CATS ARE BAD for natures balance. All of a sudden there are articles written that say that according to specialists, Cats are not simply the furry pets we've come to cuddle or avoid, depending on the person. Cats, especially domesticated cats, present an ever creeping danger to the safety of birds.
A New Zealand report asks the question; Where have they gone? Where are the species formerly common to this region? Almost gone, are the Kaka, the Wika, Kokako,and the Kiwi, says Gareth Morgan, a businessman and phianthropist. Mr. Morgan refers back to recent American reports from the Smithsonian Conservatory.
The Smithsonian has given a concluding assessment of damages now wrought by the undisciplined feline. Smithsonian representative Mr. Scott Loss speculates; There are approx. 84 million house licensed cats plus over 30 million stray cats to consider. These kill from 1.4 Billion to as much as 3.7 Billion U.S. birds A YEAR!
My first response is five-fold; a. All creatures eventually do go extinct, even ours will someday. b. Even if this estimate is true, does that mean the cats perform a service of sorts, keeping the bird population from exploding. A huge bird population would put much pollution in our natural waters, I would think. A huge bird count also takes away from bugs and worms that our fish buddies could be snacking on. c. Who is REALLY behind this new fashionable snub of the cat? I think it's some org like PETA, who does not think we humans should have any kind of pet any kind of way from the start. d. More unwanted 'Bloom-berging' or snooping into or lives, ready to create yet another government agency with a case of Chronic Giantism. e. Stay out of my life with your government strife!!
Over my cold odorless litterbox.
Ferel cats are very bad.
Those numbers are just wildly off. Hundreds of millions of mice and a good number of chipmunks, I could believe.
But even wildly successful outdoors kitties catch birdies less often, and most of our outdoors cats today are lazy, overfed, not in their prime years, house cats at heart anyway.
Perhaps we should paint cat faces on wind turbines to make them really scary
I agree. Feral cats, protected by animal-loving kooks, slaughter tens of millions of song birds every year.
They should be trapped, and eliminated.
Ed
"...third branch on the left, got it?"
"got it"
"...wind at 5mph"
"got it"
"send it"
uh-oh.
I’m presently feeding a feral kitcat.
I did notice the mouse population dwindling.
I haven’t noticed less birds.
Seriously, how many birds can a cat eat per day?
Mrs. BCC and I are signing our cats up for political correctness classed, post haste!
classed=classes DOH!
... possible consideration for your cold blooded, homicidal, psychotic, blood thirsty kitteh ping. LOL!
I had a male Maine Coon who would bring grouse inside, cripple one of their legs and then keep it around to play with, until, of course, we put it out of it’s misery and out of the house.
40 years ago, my inside only apartment cat somehow found a dormouse. It ruled the roost until we got rid of it. It would get up on its hind legs and chitter at the cat, who just sat there, watching it.
Don’t tell the PETAs, but most Northern Spitz dogs will devour entire mouse & bunny nests every Spring. Still, there is no shortage.
I have one cat, one Akita and we occasionally get feral cats on the farm. I have all sorts of song birds, from oriels to bluebirds to thrush and finch. They thrive on wild thistle and invade the wild junipers for the berries.
Rabbits do more plant damage than cats in the flower bed, as far as that complaint goes. I have noticed that the same folks who rant about cats think coyotes have a right to life, yet coyotes will decimate bird nests, as will fox.
ping!
It aint home without one...
The references read like a who’s who list of the top zealots. They are anti-cat, wildlife advocates. And the Smithsonian is the one that hired Nico Dauphine to run her kitty cam project - she’s the one that was found guilty of poisoning food left out for feral cats at her apartment complex (cats in a managed TNR program).
They’ve just found a new way to inflate the numbers of birds and mammals cats kill.
This is Peter Marra’s research history: http://www.voxfelina.com/2011/03/catbirds-cats-and-scapegoats/
I prefer the UK wildlife conservation organisations. They actually read the science, and understand the problem of extrapolating cat predation studies from one area to state- or nationwide estimates:
What none of the predation studies takes into account (cat scat predation studies, stomach content predation studies, etc.) is whether the cats hunted the animal it ate, or whether the animal was dead - or sick or dying.
There are studies of cat predation in birds that clearly indicate cats more often than not hunt sick birds.
The astronomical figures of these reserachers alone raise questions of credibility. If the breeding population of North American landbirds is 4.9 billion, then the 1.4–3.7 billion mortalities reported by Loss et al. (which the authors argue throughout their paper is a conservative estimate) represent an astonishing 28.5–75.5 percent of the total population. That’s on top of the 21 percent Arnold and Zink attribute to collisions with towers and windows.
While some species are, unquestionably, on the verge of extinction, the entire population of North American landbirds most certainly is not
My two torbies completely ignored a junco nest that was built at ground level in some juniper bushes out back. I question the birds’ judgement in building there, but there was no carnage.
Maybe my two girls are just lazy.
You have a very good point 9Yearlkr. Most of our fuzzy beasts know when they’ve got it made. Why shop in the gutter when you get food brought to you daily on a silver (or stainless steel) florentine platter?
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