It is killing birds. Why don’t you believe that/ care?
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Actually, I suspect a bird (Bald Eagle) killed my outdoor cat.
The OP is going up against a pervasive belief that it is cruel/unnatural to confine a cat to a house or apartment and that it “needs” to roam.* Countering this is the serious risk to the cat from dogs, other wild creatures, disease or vehicular accidents, and as you noted the large number of birds and other critters killed by cats.
Tackling the problem is probably not best served by posting “Why don’t you believe that/ care?”, but on the other hand there doesn’t seem to be a really good way to get through to recalcitrant cat owners.
*there are exceptions to this scenario. In our case, a cat we adopted when we moved into a house (the owners had abandoned it :mad:) had to stay outdoors except on the coldest winter nights, because Mrs. J. who likes cats is also highly allergic to them. We provided regular food, outdoor shelter with heating pad and vet care. The cat which we were very fond of ultimately died after being attacked by some other free-range beast, probably a dog.
I wish people wouldn’t let their pets roam if there’s any alternative. Bad things happen. 
“Tackling the problem is probably not best served by posting “Why don’t you believe that/ care?”, but on the other hand there doesn’t seem to be a really good way to get through to recalcitrant cat owners.”
I’m sure you are correct (and if I hadn’t just witnessed a neighborhood calico’s routine hunt in my backyard perhaps I would have phrased my original post differently) but I have no real expectation of getting through to folk’s that let their cats roam.
Because:
- They don’t believe their cats kill birds
- And/ or they don’t seem to care.
I need proof that the average overfed house cat could catch a full gown, healthy flighted bird. Now ferals are another thing.
I had a bird fly in my french doors one time. My cats went berserk but they never got anywhere near the bird. Birdy had the best defence, a pair of wings. YMMV.
(My Siamese are strictly indoor cats)
Our cat would leave us presents, usually mice, sometimes birds. Perhaps he didn’t actually kill the birds himself. Not all house cats are overfed. However, ferals probably kill more birds than pets do. Still, the birds could use a break, they don’t need extra cats killing them for sport.
i do fucking care, its fucking killing me, i thought about killing them.
no more cats for me after these three
There are a lot of coyote sightings every day within the city of San Francisco, on the actual streets where we live, and yet cat owners still have cat doors and let their cats roam at will. Then we see weeping moaning posts on Nextdoor about how their cat hasn’t been home for 3 days, and has anyone seen Whiskers?
I would think if they didn’t care about the birds, they would care about the cat. I would think that, but apparently I would be wrong.
I have no dog:) in the fight as I have no pets, but does it matter that pet cats kill birds?
Hey, cuts down on cat food costs.
Yes. Wildlife biologists estimate that cats kill between one and four BILLION birds a year in the US. Bird populations are plummeting everywhere, direly. Habitat loss, pesticides, and pollution are also to blame, but cats do enormous damage as well.
It is the main reason I no longer have a cat.
Oooh, yes. A relatively small number of cats can kill thousands of birds. They are very hard on local bird populations and can entirely remove birds from local ecosystems.
Many species of birds are seeing substantial declines in their population in recent decades. I believe that this is largely due to non-cat factors (loss of habitat, declines in insect population). However, given that domestic cats, in the U.S., likely are responsible for killing billions of birds every year is likely not helping matters at all.
It’s estimated that cats kill over 3 billion birds every year.
That’s one of those numbers that many people refuse to believe so lets say it’s only 3 MILLION. Is that too many? Isn’t that something to be concerned about?
Particularly because of this recent news about a massive decline in bird populations:
My outdoor cat is half blind and has a heart condition. He moves approximately six steps off the front porch, and only does that if he is walking toward a human who will give him scritches and cuddles. Thanks to his crappy eyesight, I don’t think he even sees the birds in my yard, and he sure as hell couldn’t catch them.
As a general rule, I don’t approve of keeping cats outside, and the only reason this cat lives outdoors is because he could not get along with my other indoor cat. My reluctant plan was to take him to the shelter, but my veterinarian recommended making him an outdoor cat instead. I felt great trepidation about this strategy, but figured if the vet I trust recommended it, I should give it a try. It has resulted in greater happiness for all the souls, feline and human, at my house, and no dead birds.
So I do care, but no, in my particular case I don’t believe you.
Google tells me that the global population of birds is around 400 Billion, I see birds every time I go outside in the morning, which doesn’t mean there population hasn’t been in decline, just anecdotal observation. Ok cats kill birds, I accept that, my next question is does it matter, is the world going to end or something?
We had two cats growing up one was a flat blob who couldn’t catch a cold and the other a stone cold killer who I watched snag a humming bird out of the air despite wearing a bell. I couldn’t believe the fat one was killing bird if you showed me a video so I guess that answers the OP. The killer eventually got eaten by a great horned owl who moved into my parents backyard.
My wife and I are debating getting a mouser for inside the house to help deal with the mice that sneak into our 75 year old house from the surrounding field but we only want a killer and a 50/50 odds is too much for my wife who doesn’t really like cats.
A word of advice to the OP: if you actually care about saving birds and want to do so by educating cat owners, you are going about it all wrong. Open hostility and zero facts are not generally successful strategies for convincing people.
ETA: You did add some informative links in a second post, so the “zero facts” accusation is not entirely correct. But a friendly OP that included them would have been much better.
I don’t let my cat go outside. But this restriction doesn’t have anything about wanting to prevent birth deaths and everything to do with me wanting to protect my cat. I don’t trust him not to get his fool self to get hit by a car or eaten by a dog.
I know killing animals that are raised solely for the purposes of human consumption leaves a different kind of ecological footprint than killing wild animals. But it still feels hypocritical for me to hate on cats who kill birds while I munch on my two-piece and a biscuit.
Apparently those figures for the decline in bird populations are not so easy to interpret and are possibly blown far out of proportion: Undark | A Second Look at Bird Population Decline - Bay Nature
I know exactly how many birds my cat kills, because she brings each one home to me. About 2 a year. Sometimes she brings them home completely unhurt and I have to shepherd them back outside.