The Truth About Cats and Birds?

dotearth ^ | June 2, 2009 | Andrew C. Revkin

[JoeProBono]

I’m trying to get to bedrock on conflicting assertions and policies related to free-ranging cats and songbirds. The American Bird Conservancy has posted a new video criticizing an array of programs across the country through which well-meaning animal lovers “trap, neuter and release” feral cats. Search the Web for “ trap, neuter, release” or “ feral cat coalition” and you’ll find such efforts from Indiana to Florida to Washington State. The idea is that, once sterilized, populations of wild cats will slowly decrease on their own accord by attrition. The video, and other experts on bird-cat interactions, strongly dispute this, noting that in some cases enduring communities of feral cats are a magnet for cat owners seeking a place to dump their unwanted kittens or cats.

[Just another Joe]

I hate to shoot cats, can't eat them, but there isn't any other reasonable solution.

Yes, you can, and I probably have in Southeast Asia without even knowing it.
The American prohibition on eating animals we consider pets is just that, an American prohibition that is recent.

The American Indians ate dog long before the European settlers arrived.

[GOYAKLA]

The animals in the swamps are most times more social and safe than those in the cities!

[TheOldLady]

Reply to 50 and 56: Thanks for the cute photo and ROFL .gif. High aspirations, indeed.

[FourtySeven]

Good point about our duty of dominion.

What’s a “grinnie”?

[goat granny]

Way back, my father spent a summer at the cottage killing feral cats as all the song birds were disappearing...Once caught a neighbors cat and released it...but the song birds were coming back by the end of summer...

[SZonian]

If the coyotes in my neck of the woods don’t get ‘em, I will. I’m with Swampsniper on this one. You let your cat roam onto my property and it’s mine. Emotional arguments about being “uncivilized” and “rely on people to do the right thing” don’t wash with me.

If I have to keep my dog controlled, then cat owners do as well. Since dogs are descendants of the many wild canines in the world, the argument that cats are natural predators and dogs aren’t is a load of crap.

Almost every living organism on this planet carries diseases. I do my level best to keep cat crap (loaded with potentially fatal diseases) out of my yard so my dog doesn’t get sick or track particles of it into the house so we get sick. Also to prevent a dog/cat fight by doing what is required to keep the cats out. Just like I did with the flying rats (pigeons).

Now, call me a “meanie” and threaten me with all kinds of legal mumbo jumbo, but the truth is the truth. One shot, one kill. The fact is this, many people feel like I do, they just don’t have the balls to act upon it and fight back against irresponsible cat owners/lovers.

SZ

[goat granny]

I love cats and got a LOL with your post....Dogs have masters, cats have servants...and they just let you live in their house..

[goat granny]

Deer are pests in Michigan and hundreds of thousands are hit by cars every year...(no exaggeration on the numbers) They think landscaping is a salad bar...Pretty animals but destructive...Large also due to feeding on lots of farmers corn..I have 600 foot frontage on a fairly busy paved state road, and have in the last 10 years 10 dead deer on my property..one in the driveway, saw one get hit across the street and it must have flown 100 foot. buried 2 fawns, had to use quick lime to stop the smell in summer of dead carcass's. Someone gutted one on my property and left all the inners for me to clean up...I just cut around the mass until critters and the sun got rid of 99% of it and then cut over it...

[Fawn]

How awful...did your father know that the birds were bringing at least 60 diseases to his back yard? We are more knowledgable today about the demise of some birds. The blue birds all disappeared due to ddt, et all....not cats. Due to much ignorance, cats paid the price....not only by neglectful owners who let them be born, but by people who blamed demise of certain birds on them.
God, please save and help the misunderstood felines.

[Fawn]

don’t wash with me.

Well...you have to be able to understand the whole picture to grasp it all.

[SZonian]

I do understand the “whole picture”. It’s all wrapped up in an emotional argument with a bow on it. Not reality, respect or rational thought.

SZ

[mamelukesabre]

well, for one thing a raccoon could never ever catch a rabbit. Also, rabbits and raccoons do not compete for the same food source.

Raccoons and cats do eat some of the same stuff. Therefore disputes will arise and battles will result...I think. Maybe. That’s my theory anyway.

[PA Engineer]

Your situation sounds like ours. The deer population here is also causing a great deal of damage to the woodlands. They have pretty much wiped out about 90% of our saplings. I have left may land open for hunting and many are culled every year, however this is still not enough. Overdevelopment in some of the suburbs to the east and in our own municipality has contributed to a worsening situation over the last ten years. All of our surrounding land owners (woodlands) are experiencing the same.

To add insult to injury our PA game commission thinks it is a swell idea that black bears have moved in over the past five years. We use to have a small orchard. You would be amazed what a 350lb mule can do to a Stark Red Delicious tree. We have given up now on fruit trees.

[AppyPappy]

There must be a lot of stupid birds everywhere else because my cats rarely bring birds home. It is almost always a mouse or mole or vole. They will actually walk down to a field about 1/4 mile away from the house to hunt.

[TheOldLady]

Thank you.

grinny = chipmunk

Since it’s a local-usage word, I should probably just say chipmunk.

[AppyPappy]

If your dog crosses my property, I don’t shoot it. I tell you to get your dog.

If you have ever lived on a farm or worked in a cotton mill, you know cats are indispensible. Rats and mice can breed faster than you can hunt them.

[Slings and Arrows]

Can't be too careful around a tabby.

[Slings and Arrows]

See post #77.

[TheOldLady]

You’re right. The rabbits are eating the clover and the dandelions, and the raccoons are digging for grubs and worms. They do eat some of the “rabbit treats” I put out though, but the bunnies don’t fight for them.

Putting out cat food my cats wouldn’t eat drew the raccoons in the first place.

Two years ago. someone ran over a whole family of raccoons out on the road, and we didn’t see them again until lately. We thought they were gone for good because I never did put out cat food again, but they’re back. They sure are cute.

[goat granny]

Something being “awful” is a matter of opinion...He also killed coons as they carry rabies and also kill birds...He was born in 1901, grew up on a farm and his family raised their own food..I would dare say, he had more smarts than you could ever aspire to...God didn’t save the pigs and cows they had to slaughter for food and I don’t think feral cats are a priority. They also carry rabies...Man is also a predator and part of the chain of life...and sometimes animals are just vermin, like feral cats and coons, possum, ground hogs etc etc etc...Mother nature is not a sweet little old lady...Feral cats also starve, get taken by hawks or preyed on by coons...So don’t let your bleeding heart drip on my. Personally, I love cats, not feral animals of any type...