If there were birds making pests of themselves on my property I’d certainly eliminate them. You know, I’ve never had my porch stink because a male bird scent marked it. Birds have, to date, never dug up my wife’s flower beds and shit all over them. Birds don’t leave footprints all over my car. I don’t have to bungee cord the lids down on my trashcans to keep birds tearing open the bags and scattering trash. Last, but certainly not least, birds don’t kill other creatures that I find pleasing to have around.
I really, really don’t get this “foo-foo kitty must be free to roam” attitude on the part of cat owners. You’re the ones who love cats. Keep it in your house, or failing that, in your yard. When it comes in my yard and indulges its feline nature through activities I find undesirable, it isn’t a pet; it is a pest. Pests of any species are eliminated.
Shrug
I don’t get it either. I keep my cat indoors, because I love my cat and don’t want anything to happen to him.
That said, I consider birds to be a pain in the ass. They’re loud, they shit all over everything, and I don’t find them the tiniest bit aesthetically pleasing. But I don’t assume that gives me the right to shoot at them.
It’s the same right that lets you swat a fly, spray a hornet nest, uproot a weed, trap a rat, or eliminate any other pest. I do draw the line at trick-or-treaters.
This discussion seems to have shifted from whether it’s okay for your cat to kill birds in your yard to whether it’s okay for someone else’s cat to kill birds in your yard.
I think shooting someone’s cat for paying your yard a visit is WAY out of line. You should talk to the owner first (assuming that it’s an ongoing issue) and state that there’s a problem. Give the human a chance to fix the problem before you take out your frustration on the cat. Even indoor cats manage to sneak out sometimes, and that shouldn’t be worthy of the death penalty for a first offense.
If there’s a feral cat causing trouble in your yard, then I agree you should treat it as you’d treat any other pest.
I usually feel the same way about birds too. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to wreak havoc on the local Canadian Goose population with a nice 5 iron.
According to an article I read some years ago in a magazine for city planners, one Canadian Goose can produce two POUNDS of goose poop per day.
After reading that, I went down the a local park with a lake and counted about 250 geese in and around it. Doing the math, that’s close to a ton a week just in that one park. No wonder the water is cloudy and smelly.
Geese are quite tasty if prepared properly.
Arnold Palmer uses a 7 wood for that shot.
Well sir, I am no Arnold Palmer. 
Enough with the blaming! The species most responsible for changing the balance of our ecology is our own. Let’s face it, we can’t turn back the clock. You could quit your job to kill cats, kudzu, and house sparrows full time, and you’d never make a whisker of difference in the overall picture. We can only deal with what is here, and now.
We have changed the habitat irretrievably. The most we can hope to do is make a very small change in the balance. If you want to help out the ground-nesters, buy up some land and return it to prairie grasses. We may be over-catted, but we are under-weaseled.
Birds do a lot of those things. We have entire city parks that stink because big honking birds leave their marks everywhere. The ponds there are officially unsafe, with massive e. coli numbers. Birds have systematically yanked up every seedling in my veg garden, until I learned to cover up the plants until the roots were strong enough. Right now my truck has a big streak of bird “track” on the side of the bed. I’ve never seen birds tear into my trash. Lastly, birds certainly do kill other creatures that I find pleasant. The imported house sparrows routinely kill bluebirds, purple martins, and woodpeckers, in order to take over their nests. I have seen owls swooping through my neighbor’s hedge to harvest smaller birds. I watched a hawk on top of a power pole, calmly tearing apart a mourning dove, at the corner of my yard.
How many of those birds are somebody’s “pet” set loose from the house? Did the neighbor’s Norwegian Blue shit on your truck? Did somebody’s cock yank up your seedlings? Was it the local falconry afficianado’s hawk tearing apart that dove?
I didn’t check any of their identification cards. It’s safe to assume most living creatures are somebody’s sweethearts. 
As for somebody’s cock yank, I’m leaving that one alone. :rolleyes:
Because in the long run the native species tend to come out the losers in these confrontations. The overall number of species on the planet decreases, and once they are gone they never come back. As an extreme scenario we will end up with an entire planet dominated by a relatively small number of invasive species.
I think we have an obligation to future generations to try to maintain what we have, within reason. (For the record I am not in favor of shooting peoples’ pets).
As far as Africa, Asia and Europe the situation seems to depend on which hypothesis of human evolution you subscribe to, the so-called Recent African Origin hypothesis or the Multiregional Origin one.
Molecular evidence seems to indicate humans arrived in North America between 30,000 and 14,000 years ago: Early human migrations - Wikipedia
Interestingly, there was a wave of large animal extinctions in North America about 10,000 years ago which some people (not without controversy) have claimed was caused by early human hunters:
I don’t agree that an indoor cat is a healthier cat. They need their exercise, and enjoy being in nature, climbing trees and whatnot.
As for the statistics, it’s probably true that indoor cats live longer on average, what with the dangers of cars, angry bird owners, whatever. 
Then again, my parents’ outdoor cat was put down 2 years ago at the ripe age of 20. Her sister died at 3 under the wheels of a car, though.
We live relatively sheltered from fast traffic, in a housing zone where the speed limit is basically “pedestrian speed”. I feel comfortable letting the cats out during the day (they come in at dusk and the hatch is closed for the night). They hunt the odd mouse or starling, but that’s about it. With a kill ratio of about 5, 6 a year between the two of them, none of it endangered, I don’t feel in any way responsible for upsetting any eco systems.
So in short, those who preach that I ought to keep my cats inside for the remote chance that they might catch something endangered: focus on feral cats all you want, but leave the responsible cat owners alone. These two dumbasses ain’t putting a dent in ANY endangered population. They’re far too well fed and stupid.
And you’re confident you know the quantity and species of everything they kill?
Those who keep their cats indoors are responsible. It’s very hard to be sure about the others.
It requires neither intelligence nor hunger for a cat to hunt - it’s instinct.
Yeah, I think I’m about done with Xema. There’s probably nothing I can or will say that will change his/her mind from being convinced I’m an irresponsible idiot whose cats endanger all near-extinct bird species of The Netherlands on a daily basis.
So, buh-bye.
Likewise, there’s nothing that’s going to convince you that letting your pets roam is anything but rainbows and unicorns.
Sorry that we have to agree to disagree on this.
I don’t think you’re an idiot, nor even especially irresponsible. It’s easy for cat owners to get reinforcement for letting them roam (after all, lots of other owners do so, and outdoor cats are a daily sight) and natural to downplay the potential for harm in this innocent-seeming practice.
But outdoor cats do kill birds, sometimes in alarming quantites (yes, the numbers vary a lot from cat to cat). I have a number of friends with outdoor cats, essentially all of which provide evidence of killing birds, especially during the nesting season. I also know a decent number of indoor cats, none of which gives any evidence of leading a stunted or unsatisfactory life. So when there’s an easy way to enjoy cats without any possibility of harm to birds, it seems to me rather natural to prefer and advocate it.
So, would it be OK if I put a cat feeder in my back yard? See, I have a big dog and it’s his nature to kill cats whenever he gets a chance.
Just for the record, I am an equal-opportunity killer. Today, at great personal risk, I climbed to the roof of my house and destroyed a bird nest. They had found a gap between the fascia and soffit which they exploited as a nesting site. I destroyed the nest, flung the nestlings to their death, and fastened the sheet metal back into it’s proper place.
Mama and papa shitbird were very unhappy, but they should have built their home elsewhere. Perhaps, if they hurry, they can hatch another batch of eggs this year.
A pest is a pest.