Posted on 09/21/2016 5:53:13 AM PDT by C19fan
It is not a suggestion that is likely to go down well with millions of cat lovers. An American academic has recommended that all stray felines should be eradicated unless they can be found a home, because of the huge numbers of birds they kill.
Not only that, but Dr Peter Marra, the director of the Smithsonian migratory bird centre in Washington, says all domestic cats should be kept indoors or on a lead to stop the devastating impact they have on wildlife.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Export them to China.
That (birth control ) is being done in places here...people pay to have ferals rounded up, “fixed,” vaccinated, then returned to their home area where they keep the rodent population down
Im going to guess that you dont enjoy feeding and watching the birds or like when they sing in the spring and summer.
Our cat, “Cattbutt”, says tell Dr. Marra to kiss her little
cat butt!
That is a very humane idea to “fix” the ferals. I hate to seeing starving animals of any kind. If this “expert”, cat-phobic doctor is so concerned, why don’t they work on safe wild bird houses or some other constructive idea, instead?
In my town, and in many others, sterilizing stray cats is being tried. The theory is that, if you just kill feral cats, there will always be another one to take its place. But a sterilized cat would prevent other males from entering its territory....and not reproduce.
We’ll see if it works.
A while back the British carried out a study of how house cats affect the small bird and other animal populations, and they were astounded by the vast numbers of these other animals the cats wiped out. Cats are highly efficient killers.
But this being said, the solution to this is not to kill cats or restrict them to the indoors. Instead it should be to breed *replacement* birds, especially, to repopulate and even overpopulate for the losses.
Captive breeding for release is very successful in restoring wild populations of both plants and animals. Done right, so many are released that even with a high attrition rate, eventually natural controls come into play.
It also has the double side effect of increasing the populations of predators that prey on them; but by doing this, to reduce the numbers of unwanted animals, such as mice and rats.
you got that right- - and from the Audubon soc.::
“Wind turbines kill an estimated 140,000 to 328,000 birds each year in North America, making it the most threatening form of green energy. And yet, its also one of the most rapidly expanding energy industries: more than 49,000 individual wind turbines now exist across 39”-
This is an article from this year- 328,000 I believe is on the LOW side- THERE is not much regulation to account for
bird kills by this insane govt obsession with wind mills-
ANY other industry would be SHUT down -if they were eliminating thousands of eagles per year
We’ve got a 21 y/o cat. It spent its first 15 years exclusively outside...and transitioned into full time indoors now. During that transition period, it was miserable - begging to go outside.
We have a much younger cat, who will come inside to eat and use the litter box (for some reason won’t go outside), and will sit by the door for hours, waiting for a chance to go out again.
Some cats like the adventure - a house is like a prison to them.
Build your kitties a “catio”...that’s what I want to do for ours...look on Pinterest...many ideas there
One of our cats is scared of the other one...and will do his business in a flower pot, on the carpet, etc...rather than use the litter box if the other cat is around. So we have placed more than one around the house. Next problem is we have to leave night lights...or he doesn’t seem to find the boxes. Oh yeah, he’s 21 years old...so he’s having senior moments.
Note nearly enough room to roam. We live in the country, and the cats just love to roam and hunt.
Well in the country I can understand cats roaming....on city lots not so much...telling my neighbors that I was putting out cayenne pepper to keep their cats out of OUR gardens created quite an uproar a couple years ago...but then I followed up with reminding them of the coyotes and cars which regularly kill kitties. They shut up...and less cats are in our yard.
Yes I know. We had a huge Maine Coon cat named Junior. He lived inside for 5 years then started slipping out when we opened the door. I wasn’t too worried because he just laid around in the grass.
Then one day I found his body with a little blood coming out of his nostrils. Don’t know for sure, probably hit by a car in the driveway. He only lasted a few months with his outside life.
Pardon my off topic rant, but cats are by no means close to a problem as deer are.
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Not off topic at all....and absolutely correct. Around here they are nothing but giant rats with antlers. Good eating, though.
It is important to have some outdoor cats around. They are very good at keeping mice and rats down.
But the deer are a real problem: they destroy property and endanger humans. My old Dodge pick-up has hit so many deer, that a lot of my hunting rifles are jealous of it.
Around here hawks seem like more effective predators against birds than stray cats - coyotes eat the cats.
Wind-turbines kill more birds
ROADS are the hazard the way the deer see it. The DEER were
here FIRST! Of course, back in the early days of this
country, deer were hunted for FOOD any time food was needed.
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