Your honors, the defendant - one Phoebe O’Furniture - was caught red-pawed snatching a sparrow from a bush yesterday evening after sunset and carrying the apparently lifeless avian back to her home. The body was unashamedly deposited on the kitchen floor in full view of the local authorities.
The bird was limp and had one wing fully extended. I picked the bird up and carried it back outside, setting it down in a densely overgrown corner of the house near a window. It did not appear to be moving at all. Then I went back inside and chased Phoebe around the house a bit while delivering a harsh tongue-lashing.
It has been almost an entire day, and any punishment delivered now would almost certainly not be associated with the crime. But I’m wondering if I should have immediately tossed her in the shower or given some other kind of scary-but-otherwise-harmless punishment to let her know that the O’Furniture household does not condone avicide, no matter how deeply ingrained in our basic instincts it might be.
If harsher/scarier punishment is contraindicated, the court recommends at a minimum that the defendant be fitted with a collar & bell for the rest of her natural life.
I’ve read that bell collars don’t really work to prevent this kind of thing. Birds don’t associate the sound of a bell with danger.
They do make outdoor enclosures for cats. That would be one way to let her still be outdoors while keeping her from harming other wildlife.
Cats can’t help their instincts to kill, but I definitely advocate keeping cats either indoors or in an enclosure. Roaming cats can do a lot of harm to songbird populations.
Amazingly, this morning the bird was conscious in the same spot when I left it. It was dancing around on the window ledge as I approached, apparently trying to get away but unable to do so with a bum wing. The previously outstretched wing was pulled back against the body in what appeared to be a normal resting position, but you could still tell that it had undergone some serious ruffling the night before.
I went back inside and watched it for a while, and other sparrows started gathering nearby, apparently checking up on their buddy to see why it was camped out in the weeds all night long.
This evening when I got home there was no sign of it. Therefore, in my mind I have decided that it has fully recovered and flown back to its family to live happily ever after. It must have been just a sprained wing.
So I am downgrading the charge to attempted avicide. I still think a kitty shower would have been in order. I feel somehow disappointed in her.
Nope, can’t punish a cat for doing what comes naturally. If she’s not meant to be killing things, keep her inside. I, for one, get very excited when my cats kill birds…but then all we have around here are pigeons.
She’s not roaming; I don’t want fleas in the house for one.
I live in what’s called an English basement type of apartment and she often walks out through the front door/gate and sits on the front steps. I’m right on a traffic circle and she’s very skittish. If anything louder than a baby stroller drives by, she runs back inside and hides under the bed. I was very surprised to see that she found the courage to wander over to the garden for some sparrow hunting.
Now that she has the taste for feathers, I will not let her out front unless I am sitting on the steps with her.
Don’t we commonly correct cats for furniture scratching? I’ve often heard of people suggesting water guns to correct undesired behavior. I’m thinking in this case, I should move to the super soaker.
She didn’t do anything wrong. If she brought it to you she was giving you a present. Poor kitty, trying to show you how much she loves you and you reject her gifts!
There is a lot of controversy about the true impact of cats on the songbird population. At most, it’s truly inconclusive, and at best it’s still no comparison to the impact of humans on the songbird or other avian population. Link to a comprehensive list of articles on the subject.
Punishing your cat for killing a bird is silly. Your only accomplishment will be to make her wary of you, the Bringer of Punishment For Unknown Reasons. If you want to make her permanently skittish of you, keep it up. Allowing her freedom to roam outside means she will kill stuff, no amount of “punishment” on your part will change that. I don’t have any personal experience with bell collars and whether they alert birds to a predator nearby. I do know you need to make it a breakaway collar at any rate, and be prepared to replace as needed as she may figure out how to pull it off, but non-breakaway collars are really dangerous for cats if they get a branch or something between it and their neck.
If you really want her to have some outdoor time, but don’t want to deal with what cats do when they’re outside, then explore outdoor enclosures for cats.
I often reprimand animals for various atrocious behavior: snakes slithering around in the dirt, spiders making a mess of my garage with their webs, etc.
Animals must be taught a lesson, spare the rod spoil the animal!
Does that work? Ive got a bear tearing apart my garbage cans and moles eating my bulbs. If this is a valid method, Im about to go medieval on their furry asses.
It’s not suggested to “punish” by direct behavior on the person’s part. One reason a squirt gun works is that the cat doesn’t associate the water with the person. The key to that is to not look directly at the cat, though, or they may still figure it out. Correcting cat behavior has to include deterrent plus positive alternative. Example for furniture scratching is to use double-sided tape on the areas that the cat is finding good to scratch, placing a STURDY post (at least 4x4 and 36in tall with wide base) nearby with catnip rubbed/sprayed on it. (when posts aren’t sturdy enough and kitty thinks it might fall or wobble too much, they use furniture) When kitty tries to scratch the furniture, she will encounter unpleasant sticky tape. A sharp “NO” from you, accompanied by moving her from the furniture to the scratching post is another example, but I haven’t found that very useful, yelling at them just makes them run away and hard to show them the “correct” spot for scratching.
Moving this kind of training idea on to bird killing, sure the super soaker might work, but you have to catch her in the act of catching the bird. Squirting her after she brings it into the house will only teach her to leave it outside. That won’t deter her from hunting.
You describe a cat that is already skittish. Chasing her around the house, yelling at her, and tossing her in the shower will only serve to terrify her and teach her to be afraid of you. She may become more confident with people over time and with patience, but doing that stuff will only reinforce people=scary.
We haven’t had outdoor cats for many years, but, to be perfectly candid, I find it fascinating to watch a cat hunt.
As far as punishing her, that would be futile. Not only is it part of what makes a cat a cat, but she would have no idea what she’s being punished for.
Short of keeping her in, you might be able to take some steps to make birds safer on your own premises by providing attractions for them, such as feeders, well out of reach of the cat.
Yes, especially bears - although I typically use more of a psy-ops approach - first I’ll build them up “nice bear, good job on the garbage can” and then I’ll turn around and rip into them “are you kidding me? you’re eating my garbage? some of that’s been on the floor…man what a loser” - and when I have them confused I try to redirect the behavior “have you ever checked out the neighbors garbage? seems like they throw away some pretty awesome smelling stuff, I bet you’re smart enough to get into their garbage can” - it usually works.
Good luck with that idea of a bell on a collar. We tried that once, and found that a cat is perfectly capable of moving and pouncing without that bell making a sound.
Our resident cat doesn’t bring in too many birds, but just last month he came in and proudly presented my wife with a fresh caught hummingbird. Took Sarah a while to get over that one.
Back about 1998, I was around the side of my house working on it with my two cats in the back yard when I heard the loud KA-CHUNK of something hitting the (allegedly) squirrel proof feeder pretty hard. The thing was at the top of a 6’ pole. I walked around back, tools in hand, just in time to see the backside of my female cat Bertie disappearing into the house. I set down the tools and went after her.
Had a devil of a time finding her. Eventually found her in the middle of my bed with the slightly wounded and utterly terrified bird. I took the bird away from her and carried it outside.
Her punishment was following me down to the back door, thoroughly distraught that I had taken this ‘toy’ and was carrying it away from her. Then HOW DARE I not only not let her follow me outside, but place the thing on the ground, come inside and close the door! She was besides herself! Alternating small yowls and tiny peeps, walking in circles wide eyed and shocked looking, rubbing against my legs and then looking at the bird, etc.
Bird was still here a couple of hours later, then gone after that.
Damn, cat. In the middle of my bed??? That was honestly the only part of it that annoyed me. The rest I found very funny, especially her behavior as I carried it out the door.
