I don’t fully buy into this line of reasoning. Domestic cats have lived in Britain since the iron age; they have literally been here longer than the English! Though I admit that you argument might hold water if you’re talking about cat owners living in the new world.
There are lots of causes in that article, but cats aren’t mentioned. Wind farms don’t get a mention either. There’s a four story building I’m often at that kills birds that fly into windows. It isn’t just sky-scrapers. We’ve just made a huge part of the country toxic to wildlife, so that we need bird sanctuaries, butterfly sanctuaries, simply to provide safe reserve to recover every time something goes wrong and we wipe out a local population.
The difference here being that the density of domestic cats is artificially high because we’re all feeding our pets ;). Pet cats aren’t making a living killing birds - it is more a hobby. And just like hundreds of thousands of extra visitors loving tourist sites like Stonehenge to death, ~11 million recreational hunter pet cats( and their ~1 million more serious-minded feral cousins )in the UK are potentially inflicting an outsize impact on an ecosystem not up to that kind of intense pressure.
And it is not like every species of bird is threatened with extirpation by cats. It is more that certain vulnerable species, already suffering from decline due to habitat fragmentation and similar issues are at risk of a kitty coup de grace to their population.
In the United States there are certain species of birds under threat by another bird. The Brown-headed Cowbird, a brood parasite, has found the impact of humanity congenial and expanded from its native plains habitat into a variety of new areas. This has occasionally negatively impacted species that didn’t co-evolve to deal with its reproductive depredations. The cowbird in almost all cases probably isn’t the primary cause of these species decline - habitat destruction is usually/almost always the main culprit. And the cowbird is a perfectly decent native bird, just doing what it does. But they still need to be removed from some areas because an already weakened population can’t always tolerate the added pressure.
Which goes to the point that this focus on generic “birds” is a bit obfuscating. It is certain birds. Nobody is really worried about the European Starling. A lot of people are worried about the Kirtland’s Warbler
I’m taking a stand and saying that I don’t think fucking cats will bring about the end of the fucking world. If the fucking cats do bring about the end of the fucking world then we were already fucked anyway.
Since we feed them additional nutrients, they don’t achieve equilibrium with their prey species and are insulated from the normal consequences of over-predation. That is bad for all prey species.
Why would that be, when we expressly breed a couple predator species *way *beyond their likely wild numbers?
Do you understand the difference between “sign of” and “cause of”?
There ought to be a General Woundwort Award for animals like that…
Tangential, but I can’t resist: here in the UK, there is quite a degree of worry about the situation of our European Starlings – still frequently met with, but their numbers in Britain have declined by 66% since the mid-1970s. I realise that this species is an alien pest in the US; many citizens of which would like to see every European Starling there, dead and in bird hell. Introduced way back, by well-meaning twits who thought it would be a cool addition to American wildlife. An opposite-way parallel has been the introduction to Britain of the American grey squirrel; which has largely ousted by moving into its ecological niche, our IMO charming, but smaller, more delicate, and less Darwinian-ly adaptable native red squirrel.
I am not by any stretch of the imagination a cat person. I did have quite a few barn cats, well more accurately, wild cats that hang out in or near my barn. I did not acquire them, folks just dump off their cat & kittens on my dead end road. They drink from the troughs & get their own food. I do not feed them. I will scritch them every now & then if it is convenient for me.
I am down to two of them at this point. Most of the others have been hawk, or eagle food. This may be an outlier, but the birds are decimating the cat population in my neighborhood.
At least the cats and these birds all eat mice, so I am OK with this situation. Right now I do not have a mouse problem.
IME, The issue is more that, at this time, & around here, the birds are killing the cats. See my above post. This is the cycle of life out here, so it is what it is.
Someone up thread said that cats killing birds is a hobby for them. Not for the cats in my barn it is not. It is part of their food chain, they are very much wild cats. I do not feed them.
My two cats catch birds from time to time. I have not seen them do it, but I suspect they get them when they are on the ground. But not very often. They seem to do a better job with the mice. Either way, we have to tell them that we do not want their hunting trophies indoors.
Cats roam. We lost one a year ago, dunno what happened, we never found a body or heard an almighty yowl in the distance. Just possibly somebody stole it, as it was very friendly. I know people who keep cats indoors, and maybe they are happy with that if they grew up indoors, but the two I have did not. One grew up on a farm and definitely wants to go out. But they both come in again at night when I call them.
I got a PawTracker GPS collar for the replacement cat, but I can’t get the thing to work. For starters, I can’t set the location. The battery is supposed to be good for a couple of days, which is good, as the cats seem to be able to lose collars very quickly by going under chain link fences. I can envisage having to look for the collar, sans cat.
Siamese are lovely cats and generally very intelligent, but they are LOUD.
Yup, a farm cat would probably be a better mouser. But less of a pet, they are always more wary of humans.
Shelter animals can be a problem. My sister took on two dogs (sequentially) from a shelter), both had been traumatized by bad previous owners, Dunno about cats, but there always seem to be some older cats that had been owned by a little old lady. That said, shelters do a great and rather thankless job.
Birds aside, you folks w/ outdoor cats don’t follow your cats into other people’s yards and pick up their shit, do you? B/c no one follows up on the little piles of shit cats leave in my backyard and garden (tearing up my root vegetables) every few days. Since they’re eating, surely you know your cat is shitting; why are you letting it be my problem?
Well yes, I do feel a little guilty. But at least they normally bury it. I once caught my cat taking a shit in my neighbours plant pot. It was one of the funniest sights I have ever witnessed- even thinking of it now years later makes me chuckle!
We should (imho) be more concerned with declines in bat populations. Unless a bat gets into a house with cats, bats don’t have much to worry about from our feline overlords.
In my case they bury it where I grow (or am trying to grow) food. Otherwise they just shit on the lawn and if I’m lucky I see it before the lawn mower hits it. If you don’t care to clean up an animal’s shit, don’t have an animal.
Due to two of my neighbor’s cats, I have fewer birds in my yard - I witnessed one of their killings, unfortunately too late, plus cleaned a few, and I have cat shit in my flower bed.
Cat shit stinks! If I knew which of the neighbors the cats belong to, I would have gladly taken the bird remnants and cat shit and put them in their gardens.
I don’t think people should keep cats as pets, if they want the cats to live outside. The cats are not a native species.
Same for dogs. Pets, which are animals which are not native to the area, should be isolated from the environment. That means leashes when they are outside, or under voice command, and their owners must clean up their shit!
This morning in the NYT an article about the decline of avian populations and what homeowners can do to help. Mostly advice from the Audubon Society.
There may be a paywall (I’m a subscriber) so I will summarize:
*First and foremost, keep your cats indoors.
*Feeding can help at critical times (early nesting season, just before migration, and in cold snaps).
*Create habitat for birds in your yard.
They are eradicating species. Why is the loss of a species okay?
My cat was an outdoor cat before her irresponsible formers owners (did not spay, let her roam outside and were in a no pets apartment) turned her in to the Humane Society. She’s an indoor cat now and perfectly happy.
Well, that’s a start. Perhaps your neighbors could help you continue to raise your awareness of your irresponsible behavior by bringing their dogs over in the mornings to take a shit on your doorstep. You could ask them to bury the shit under your doormat.
Why isn’t it ok? My cat benefits me personally. Random flying rats of a particular species - what are they doing for me? Even if a specific species of bird goes extinct, there are plenty more.
Now, yes, I haven’t been letting my cat out for a while now - but this is because I’m worried about someone running over my cat with a car. It’s for my cat’s benefit. When he eats a bird I just feel thrilled at the skill of my predator friend.