Posted on 05/25/2007 5:47:11 PM PDT by JRochelle
As long as collars are kept snug, the problem of getting caught on something and strangling is virtually eliminated. Even if they’re not kept snug, the strangling risk is still certainly much much lower than the hit by a car risk. If cats don’t have a collar and tags, they’re likely to end up at a shelter, or getting adopted by someone who imagines they’re homeless, or you just won’t get notified that someone found them hit by a car. My cats always have their collar and tags on (ID and rabies tags), and there have been many occasions over the years when I’ve gotten calls that they seemed to be lost or otherwise in need of help.
If cats are well-fed, spayed/neutered, and wearing a collar with a bell, they will have little to no impact on the bird population. The few they do catch are the ones who are sick or slow-witted, and would normally have been taken out by a hawk or other predator (predators that have been all but eliminated in most populated areas where pet cats are roaming). All songbirds reproduce at many times replacement rate, because the normal course of events is that most birds that are born don’t survive to reproductive age.
“Cats are mentally very fragile already!”
I understand what you mean, but reading this set me off on howls of laughter. Thanks for giving me a chuckle.
I can’t even keep a collar on Bob the Cat.
Beautiful song birds are prey animals and, as such, need preditors to stay healthy. BTW, we saw an indigo bunting today. Now that is a beautiful bird.
I’m late to the party as always... Does that keep the feathers and blood off their coats?
I think a small bell would do the same thing. Sounds like the bibmaker is pimpin his wares.
Go ahead, release the wolves in MY back yard. I’m pretty good with my pea-shooter. (And you thought my CATS were predatory...)
Few cats are really good at getting birds. They seem to only get the ones that are frail and have bad reflexes. On the other hand, we had a dog for awhile (he has a new home) who darned near killed everything that moved on our property. He was pretty much a killing machine. He was nice to humans, but we were glad when we found him a new home.
Beautiful songbirds already have natural predators that are native i.e hawks, raccoons, fox, etc. HOuse cats are not native or a natural predator to the birds around here. THey have a huge impact on wildlife population. A scientist in wisconsin or somewhere suggested killing feral house cats in order to help out wildlife. He got death threats from PETA. Unfortunately a lot of non-native flora and fauna wreak havoc on a healthy ecosystem.
OTOH my dogs, 2 Jack Russels and a Black Mouth Cur, are killing machines but only when it comes to rabbits. They chase birds and squirrels all day long but so far, no catches.
Exactly-—this is suicide for the cats.....they wouldn’t be able to protect themselves or climb trees. People are so ignorant.
So the inability to climb trees equals suicide? How do you figure that?
BTW, keep your cats inside and the problem goes away.
Check this out and scroll down to find out more about cat predation. Sorry if this isn’t an active link.
http://library.fws.gov/Bird_Publications/songbrd.html
Being able to climb is the outside cats protection against being killed by dogs, foxes, coyotes etc. This is the reason that if you have had your cat’s claws removed to protect your furniture, you should never let your cat outside again.
Keeping cats inside is like keeping birds off property. Unatural and impossible. Cats are natural born hunters, stalkers and hunters for a reason....and it’s not to sit on your window ledge. Cats need to climb trees to get away from animals that chase them....
Read my web page for info on what a lie that is.
If you are that concerned about what is natural then maybe you should not keep cats to begin with. Because it sure is not natural to let this predator loose among the native wildlife.
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