It is the cycle of nature. Cats kill birds. It’s OK.
I have many feral cats in my area. They kill and eat anything that moves that they can catch, lizards, birds, mice, vols, little rabbits. I’ve feed and tamed two of them. They are mice killing machines.....even when fed daily.
There was a study several years ago in San Diego County looking into the number of birds killed by feral and domesticated outdoor cats - the numbers were staggering - extrapolated over the country there were something like 1.5 billion birds killed every year. It was interesting to note that as coyote populations went up, so did bird.
Weenie dogs catch and kill birds, too... :-)
[along with squirrels and gophers and snakes, and so on...]
Neutering wild male cats is a waste of time. You will never get all of them and it only takes one male to impregnate hundreds of females. Spaying wild females is probably a waste of time too. Cats produce way way more offspring than can possibly survive off of what mother nature provides. Reducing the number of kittens born probably only makes it easier for the ones to survive that you don’t get.
A better solution would be to introduce a predator that eats cats but doesn’t eat songbirds. Raccoons, wolverines, badgers...maybe these would do the trick?
I don’t want to hear anyone who probably ate chicken for lunch complain about cats eating birds.
The problem of cat versus bird is as old as time. If we attempt to resolve it by legislation why knows but what we may be called upon to take sides as well in the age old problems of dog versus cat, bird versus bird, or even bird versus worm. In my opinion, the State of Illinois and its local governing bodies already have enough to do without trying to control feline delinquency.For these reasons, and not because I love birds the less or cats the more, I veto and withhold my approval from Senate Bill No. 93.
I dislike birds and love cats so it’s a win-win for me. I keep our herd in the house constantly.
I hate people who let their cats out to crap on my lawn or to caterwall at all hours. It’s not the cat’s fault, it’s the idiots owner’s fault. Cats are predators and if they weighed 50 pounds, we’d see a lot more missing kids around.
And finally, get off my lawn!
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
If someone's domestic cat roams outdoors and gets in a fight with one of them...well, the cat will get feline aids.
So it's a good idea to have a house cat who goes outside inoculated with the feline Aids vaccine.
sw
One of my cats is quite a hunter, but rarely does she get a bird. She gets lots of rodents and unfortunately a rabbit from time to time.
Cats are a very small part of the overall problem of declining songbird populations. Habitat destruction is WAY up there. Many of these bird species have very specific diets, and can’t survive when their short list of acceptable foods aren’t available. And while development is a big reason for habitat destruction, so is the artificial elimination of predator populations — in many parts of the northeast, all the natural predators of deer have been virtually wiped out, leaving deer to multiply out of control, and wipe out vegetation. There are big swaths of northeastern forest where (other than trees) virtually nothing is growing except barberries and ferns, because those are the only plants the deer don’t eat, and thus the only ones that haven’t been eaten out of existence. This has in turn wiped out populations of certain insects and worms which certain species of birds depend on. And some of the missing plant species are ones that birds directly relied on for seeds and berries.
But to a large extent, the claims of songbird destruction are exaggerated. Solid evidence of population decline of specific species should be taken seriously, but raw number claims of how many songbirds are killed by cats are idiotic. We have also decimated the populations of many of the songbird’s natural predators, so much of the killing by cats is simply replacing killing by natural predators. If we weren’t destroying habitats and food supplies, it’s doubtful that there would have been any significant decline in songbird populations — just a substitution of predators which naturally kept the populations stable.