# My cat caught a bird. Should I punish her? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 20, 2011, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-caught-a-bird-should-i-punish-her/582629 "2011-05-20T22:42:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2011, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-caught-a-bird-should-i-punish-her/582629/21 "2011-05-21T02:02:58Z")
> [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#): > > 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. More likely, it became a tasty snack for a opportunistic predator. You know, like a hawk, coyote or…cat. Sorry to burst your happy bubble, but nature is red in tooth and claw. Get used to it. If you punish your cat for bringing you a bird, how does it know what you are punishing it for? Are you upset because it brought you the prize? Then next time it won’t do that, but eat it on the spot, and all you’ll get is bones and feathers. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2011, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-caught-a-bird-should-i-punish-her/582629/22 "2011-05-21T02:06:23Z")
She brought it to you acknowledging you as pride leader. You were supposed to eat your fill and leave her the rest. ---
**Author:** ![Sierra\_Indigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2011, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-caught-a-bird-should-i-punish-her/582629/23 "2011-05-21T02:10:12Z")
You don’t want cat to kill birds. KEEP THE FUCKING CAT INSIDE. It’s fucking simple. Don’t punish the cat for doing what cats do. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2011, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-caught-a-bird-should-i-punish-her/582629/24 "2011-05-21T03:30:47Z")
You have to punish her. Force her to eat a whole can of tuna. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2011, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-caught-a-bird-should-i-punish-her/582629/25 "2011-05-21T03:42:51Z")
No. She’s just being a cat. It goes with the territory with cats who spend time outdoors. Now, for my question: would you be thinking about punishment had she caught a mouse, snake or mole? ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2011, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-caught-a-bird-should-i-punish-her/582629/26 "2011-05-21T03:45:08Z")
> [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#): > > But I’m wondering if I should have [punished her] 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. That would be cruel. Instinctive behavior can not be helped. I’m ashamed that this would even be considered. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2011, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-caught-a-bird-should-i-punish-her/582629/27 "2011-05-21T11:26:38Z")
Expect more of these trophies. My friends have 3 cats and their trophy of choice these days is baby bunnies. What can you do? They’re cats. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2011, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-caught-a-bird-should-i-punish-her/582629/28 "2011-05-21T16:28:38Z")
Geez, the cat tries to be nice and provide, and this is the thanks he gets. You don’t have to write him a thank-you note, just say “Thanks, kitty” and toss the bird outside. Break the bird’s neck first - it will just suffer otherwise. It’s a cat. That’s what they do when they like you. When they don’t like you, they wait until you fall asleep, suck your breath and then eat you. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2011, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-caught-a-bird-should-i-punish-her/582629/29 "2011-05-21T16:42:39Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > She brought it to you acknowledging you as pride leader. > You were supposed to eat your fill and leave her the rest. According to number one on this [article](http://www.cracked.com/article/226_6-adorable-cat-behaviors-with-shockingly-evil-explanations_p2/) she was giving you the bird because you suck at hunting and was trying to show you that. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2011, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-caught-a-bird-should-i-punish-her/582629/30 "2011-05-21T17:09:59Z")
> [@Sierra\_Indigo](#): > > You don’t want cat to kill birds. > > KEEP THE FUCKING CAT INSIDE. > > It’s fucking simple. Don’t punish the cat for doing what cats do. OK. Next time try the decaf. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2011, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-caught-a-bird-should-i-punish-her/582629/31 "2011-05-21T20:37:15Z")
I’ll just echo what most of the posters have said. It is insane to punish a cat for being a cat. My family once had a cat that killed a skunk. He disappeared for three days and smelled funny for a week. The following spring when my father got down the storm windows that had been laid horizontally on a shelf in the garage, we found the skin and bones of the skunk that the cat appeared to have dragged up there. Or maybe cornered it up there and killed it. ---
**Author:** ![Vihaga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Vihaga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vihaga)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2011, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-caught-a-bird-should-i-punish-her/582629/32 "2011-05-21T22:17:22Z")
You guys have no sense of fun. If you want to punish a cat for hunting, you have to do it BEFORE it brings you the kill. Wait until it’s stalking, sneak up on it (not that hard, really, when they are focused on a bug, prey animal, or the dog) and then scare the ever-loving bejeesus at it right before it gets ready to spring. (I prefer clapping my cupped hands to make a loud bang or yelling “HEY” at full volume.) Cat jumps three feet in the air, bunny runs away, and if you do it enough the cat doesn’t even take a swipe at the dog without watching his back. I don’t recommend it if you have a cat so skittish that it runs when you clap anyway. Then, use a water gun. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2011, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-caught-a-bird-should-i-punish-her/582629/33 "2011-05-22T00:55:23Z")
> [@Sierra\_Indigo](#): > > You don’t want cat to kill birds. > > KEEP THE FUCKING CAT INSIDE. > > It’s fucking simple. Don’t punish the cat for doing what cats do. How many 'fucking’s do you need? Dial it back a bit. And there’s no need to yell. [not moderating] While I agree in general about keeping cats inside, there are people (and cats) for whom that’s not practical. ---
**Author:** ![Sierra\_Indigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2011, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-caught-a-bird-should-i-punish-her/582629/34 "2011-05-22T01:51:30Z")
Yes, it is practical. It’s a cat. You shut the doors, it stays inside. People who let their cats roam and then pule and moan about cats doing what cats do “Oh fluffikins killed a bird/roamed away/got in a fight/ got hit in a car” are fucking morons and deserve to be told so. At high volume if required. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2011, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-caught-a-bird-should-i-punish-her/582629/35 "2011-05-22T02:36:17Z")
> [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#): > > Your honors, the defendant - [one Phoebe O’Furniture](http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1244668283619.137895.1436742603&l=245e391b46) - 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. Not to belabor the obvious, but … it’s a cat. Seriously… you’re going to punish a creature that is essentially, and primarily, a wild animal with hard wired hunting instincts, and a brain the size of walnut, because it does not make the fine distinctions you require between acceptable and non-acceptable prey animals? Beyond the obvious point that the delay between action and punishment would have been far too long for the punishment to have any meaning to the cat other than terrifying it needlessly, what did you think you were going to accomplish by tossing it in the shower of terror. Did you really have some anthropomorphized cartoon fantasy playing in in your head that the cat was going to go sit in the corner and have good, long think about the crime she had committed? ---
**Author:** ![Indygrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@Indygrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indygrrl)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2011, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-caught-a-bird-should-i-punish-her/582629/36 "2011-05-22T02:53:21Z")
My cats only kill mice and the occasional chipmunk, and the only thing about it that bothers me is having to discard the carcasses. I wouldn’t keep them inside because of it. They’d drive me crazy. ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2011, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-caught-a-bird-should-i-punish-her/582629/37 "2011-05-22T03:17:23Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > Expect more of these trophies. My friends have 3 cats and their trophy of choice these days is baby bunnies. > > What can you do? They’re cats. My dogs are the bunny predators in my yard. Just how smart can an animal be that intentionally dig into a into a yard with 5 dogs…? Darwin Rocks. ---
**Author:** ![2gigch1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2gigch1/32/3313_2.png) [@2gigch1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2gigch1)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2011, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-caught-a-bird-should-i-punish-her/582629/38 "2011-05-22T13:36:30Z")
Congratulations! Your cat loves you and she _gave you a present!_ Even if I didn’t like the present I would praise that wonderful cat up & down, and try to think of how to keep it from happening again. We live on a small farm. Our various critters off each other a lot more than I like, but it’s their nature. The best we are able to do is to remind the dogs & cats that we view chickens, geese and other critters as family, and we prefer thy don’t get pestered. Generally works. Anyway I vote love your cat and praise her. She loves you! ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2011, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-caught-a-bird-should-i-punish-her/582629/39 "2011-05-22T15:00:57Z")
I really don’t get people objecting to “punishment for natural behavior.” That’s what training is. That’s what we are doing when we train an animal–creating negative enforcement for natural behavior we don’t like, and positive enforcement for behavior we do. I mean, my dog naturally chews up everything and goes to the bathroom inside. My cat’s naturally did the same, even when we had a litter box. I can’t train any of them to do what I want? That’s silly. I also wonder why no one yells about people who let dogs outside. If a pet wants outside, they will eventually find a way out–unless you, OMG, train them. Cats may be harder to train, and you might not consider it worth it. But there’s nothing morally wrong with it. ---
**Author:** ![Ludy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Ludy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludy)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2011, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-caught-a-bird-should-i-punish-her/582629/40 "2011-05-22T15:25:40Z")
Let me tell you a story about one of my MIL’s cats. Yea I know that they do some things that people on this board disagree with. But please keep that to yourselves. Hunting is the point of this story. They live in the country and there are lots of barn cats in the area. If one finds it’s way to my in-laws back door in the cold of winter they will find a box with a light bulb for warmth, and if they keep coming back, maybe the off bowl of food. Well one of those barn cats had a litter of kittens and one of those kittens was not looking so hot. So mamma cat brought it to the doorstep of those nice people who keep her warm in winter and left him there. He had a huge lump completely covering one eye and a smaller one on the other. MIL packed up the kitten and took him to the vet. One of his eyes was removed and the vet figured he might have partial vision in the other. The decided to keep him and had him declawed (yea yea yea remember that keep it to yourselves part). They have a wrap around balcony that they let their cats outside on. The cats can’t leave the balcony and they love to curl up in the sun. This one eyed, no clawed, partially blind cat catches more birds than any of the other cats in the house. Some cats just gotta hunt. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-caught-a-bird-should-i-punish-her/582629.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-cat-caught-a-bird-should-i-punish-her/582629.md?page=3)