Posted on 03/02/2019 12:29:49 PM PST by Albion Wilde
Here’s an alarming but little-known figure—stray cats and pet cats allowed outdoors kill 3.6 million birds every day on average in the United States, for a total of at least 1.3 billion birds per year. That’s most likely a sizable chunk out of the U.S. land-bird population, which the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center estimates is around 10-20 billion....[snip]
But some cat lovers are also bird lovers. Two of them, a birdwatcher named Nancy Brennan and a bird biologist named Susan Willson, have developed what they believe is a solution...
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
I think your comment is supposed to be directed to somebody else. I don't let my cat out of the house................
Geez, my mistake, JAYS. They’re just plain mean.
Why not put a .10 cent bell on its collar?
Problem solved!
Um...how about keeping your cats indoors? Then there is no problem and no need for another tchotchke. Collars can catch on things and accidentally hang cats.
Pretty simple to me.
I guess when Trump was elected your baby felt like its work here on earth was done.
Good kitty...
I like it! Now, how do I get my cats to wear a collar?
New Jersey has bird carcasses a foot high?
I blame deBlassio
My Uncle in Price, Utah had over 100 feral cats buried in his backyard. He’d sit out there with his 22 and pot them every weekend. He sure had a productive garden.
People who live in the exurbs, near forests and other abundant nature, do not want to act as jailers to their cats, who also love nature. We would not be able to enjoy our patios, decks and indoor/outdoor living 8 months of the year if we had to constantly imprison the cat.
The collar thing is explained in the article and/or the company's literature -- there is a snap-apart collar that they recommend is the only kind that should be used under the colorful device, in case it does get snagged on something.
Our county requires all cats to wear their vacination tag if they go outside, so a collar is necessary. We live near a vast nature preserve, and yes, our cat goes out. But she has only ever brought home one bird. She seems to prefer mice, and baby snakes.
17 HMR?
Walmart, last time I looked, had a plastic collar infused with cat-calming pheromes that smell like a feline mother's milk. I used it with great success when I adoped an older, bereaved cat whose longtime owner had died. It helped him shake off his sadness. You might try starting with that.
Or, the product literature recommends an elasticized, snap-apart collar as the only kind that should be used, in case the collar or device gets snagged on a fence, a nail, etc., so the cat will not strangle itself by jumping and getting hung up.
Then, there's always using treats to bribe the cat to accept it for short periods, longer and longer each time you try it.
Pleae don't leave your cats out for the night. That's when the possums, owls, possum, bobcats and coyotes are all hungry.
Ow! Gross!
One time I lay down on the floor, on the white carpet to take a brief nap. Half hour later, when I drowsily opened my eyes, the cat was lying facing me, with a proud smirk and a bloody mouse laid in between our faces. Ewwww!
We used to have tons of whippoorwills around here, but I haven’t heard one in at least 15+ years. I think cats may be a big reason, the whippoorwills nest right on the ground, I think most night jars do as well.
Freegards
A lesson for us about Kim Jong-Un. /sarc
Seriously, that must have been quite a show. Cats are amazingly strong and athletic, in spite of all their sleeping.
I discovered my cat was Italian. He loves pepperoni and mozzarella.
Great idea! I have a couple of day-glo rolls around here to tie on the low garden fencing for when I seed new grass near where the neighbors like to trespass.
Not jus the ferals
Back in late 90s we lost some really nice potted plants and had to throw away over a thousand $ worth of lawn furniture cushions because of the damned cats roaming and pissing on everything
In two weeks i quietly put arrows through about 8 of them and that sloqed to problem for a couple months until the cat loving neighbors acquired more
Got another jack russell terrier to go with my young one and they became the most proficient killers of anything in our yard under 30 lbs that ever existed
Called nieghbor one day to ask if it was his car they were disassembling and they immediately ataeted kwwping their cats inside
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