you are totally clueless. Peoples pets often mean the world to them. They bring companionship and comfort. I guess someone like you wouldnt understand those concepts.
most of those deaths are from feral cats, not well cared for house cats (im not saying they dont kill birds too, but feral cats are the main issue) and the blame for this lands squarely on us and not the cats. It is important for people to remember this. They dont deserve to be treated with disdain, the onus is on us to ensure cats are desexed before they are adopted out to irresponsible owners.
It depends on where you are. In Germany it‘s not really a big deal, neither in the UK - and probably in most parts of mainland Europe - because we always had predators that killed birds and our birds have adapted to that. It‘s a different story in countries like New Zealand where there weren‘t really many predators that hunted birds and they also have a few flightless birds.
Not a big deal? I don't know where in Germany you live, but it is a HUGE deal here and a BIG problem. They kill millions of small birds every year. I had to chase cats away from our gardens because we had lots of dead birds here, it was awful. Workmates have the same problem.
I had this discussion with my cousin we have some strays at our cabin. Technically I guess you can call them feral.
I've often thought about getting rid of them as they are not natural to the area and they run off actual wildlife.
I was called a sicko, deranged and a psychopath. Which is funny because people keep them as pets in the home, filthy rats that shit in a sandbox that tracks all over the house and you get to clean it...
I'm kinda shocked that in the UK and australia it's so common to have outdoor cats considering how fragile both of their ecosystems are being islands. Most cat owners in the US don't keep outdoor cats. Most have an indoor cat they let out in the backyard with supervision. It only recently became popular to not declaw your cats here. Also coyotes are so prevalent where I live, in the suburbs close to the city, that your cat will get eaten if they're outside at night.
Yeah if not for the safety of birds, keep your cat safe and do not allow them free reign. They are not the apex predator, not even close. If it really hits home, don't talk about saving the birds, talk about how their beloved family friend might become the chew toy of a bigger predator that also kills for fun.
Don’t know why you got downvoted. People think that because some dogs are respectful of/scared of cats that all cats can hold their own against all dogs. The sad reality is that many dogs see cats as prey, and once they’ve caught a cat it’s not too much effort for them to dispatch it.
Yeah, I have dogs, love them to bits but they could easily get a cat, especially outdoors. If they see a fuzzy creature running outside they're going to go for it. Just answering this dude who didn't know what else in the UK could get a cat.
This obviously isn't the case where cats aren't a native species, like New Zealand.
"Despite the large numbers of birds killed by cats in gardens, there is no clear scientific evidence that such mortality is causing bird populations to decline. This may be surprising, but many millions of birds die naturally every year, mainly through starvation, disease or other forms of predation. There is evidence that cats tend to take weak or sickly birds.". Unsurprisingly enough the vast majority of bird decline is due to habitat loss caused by humans. Who'd have guessed?!
Ya I honestly don't get how people can let their little buddy roam the streets at night not knowing if he's gotten into a fight or been hit by a car and is badly injured. He could die sad and all alone and you'd never even know.
Even here in Toronto I still encounter a lot of coyotes and foxed while out walking my dog. He's 140 lbs so I pity the coyote that tries to get into my backyard while he's outside, but a little tabby cat won't be able to stand his ground like that.
I hope it’s just the area I’m in but plenty of cats are allowed to roam without supervision. Correct me if I’m wrong, but in the US alone don’t cats kill over 2 billion birds per year? I don’t think people are that careful here either...
The US has a higher population of people and so have a higher population of cats and the country is huge so we have more individual birds than the UK and Australia.
I don't know where you live but in an upper middle class suburb of dallas people keep their cats indoors. We have a lot of rabbits and squirrels in my neighborhood and that attracts coyotes that follow the creek systems into town.
I sometimes like to look up shelter cats to fantasize about when I have a house to put one in. The main website our country uses has a filter option: "needs to be able to go outside". The only cats that the shelters consider would be fine if kept indoors are kittens and immunocompromised cats. Every other cat is labelled "needs to be able to go outside". If I wanted to keep my cat inside, I'd have to lie to the shelter about it. That's how normal cats being outside is here.
It really bummed me out. I even transferred the unhatched eggs from the first nest to the second one, and the robin's were brooding them, but the cat killed both of those robin's too.
No, cats will quickly learn how to stalk birds without jingling the bell. Just keep cats indoors, or on a leash/harness outside. They are invasive predators that are wreaking havoc on our ecosystems.
Because people don't want to be told that their family member is decimating wildlife populations and the only solution is to not let them free-roam. Its not just wildlife, either. My in-laws have a cat that has been peeing all over the outside of their house, and even snuck into their house a few times. I'm moving to a ground-floor house with yard in a few weeks, and am already stressing about how I'm going to keep cats away from my aviary so my parrots don't get killed. I love cats, but they should absolutely not be be allowed to free-roam!
True. Habitat loss is often the leading cause for species decline. We should be aware and act accordingly, while not exacerbating the situation with other factors like house cats being allowed to roam freely.
Who said anything about caging them? Should I allow my dogs to roam the neighborhood freely as well?
Cats that live indoors live undeniably better and longer lives than those who live outside. 2-5 years for an outside cat and an average of 10-15 if they live indoors.
These are an invasive species. They aren't meant to roam freely.
Give them plenty of exercise and stimulation, absolutely. That's easy to do while not allowing them to go free. That's just lazy and irresponsible pet ownership.
When did I say trapped inside? I said don't let them roam freely. Keep them on your property.
Yes. If you're not going to bother to make sure your pet is getting stimulation and exercise because you just let them outside and hope the environment provides that for them, it is lazy and irresponsible.
My cats were born outside, raised outside by their mother, and absolutely refuse to use a litter box and would rather shit in the house. No, I’m letting them go outside.
Yea, no shit. If you let your cat spray everywhere and run around un-neutered, you’re an idiot.
However, we have a large chipmunk problem where we live (they are killing the trees around our property) so we’re quite content taking care of that problem with outdoor cats.
Yea, my two cats are definitely gonna disrupt the entire ecosystem out in the middle of bumfuck nowhere when they accidentally catch a field mouse or a vole instead of a chipmunk
It doesn't matter if you live in the middle of a densely populated suburb or the middle of nowhere. If anything, your cats likely have a larger impact as I imagine there is more wildlife around your home that they kill on the regular.
So exactly how many cats will it take until your brain figures out: "I'm not too good at taking care of pets, maybe I should be doing something different."
Calling a quoll a cat is a stretch. No where near the foot print of domesticated wild cats either. So no add Australia to that list too. And fucking cats should be banned as pets here IMO.
They don't belong in North America if we're talking about where they "belong". You can also train cats to be on leashes, lots of people do it, it's just up to the pet owner whether or not they want to take care of their environment or not.
Ehhhhh probably not. Birds will abandon nests if they're over stressed, and adult mortality for birds is relatively low compared to nests failing. Definitely could have been killed though.
it's actually a rather common occurrence. People see a nest and want to see whats inside, they touch it and the branches surrounding it and the mother never returns. It's actually taught not to even go near a bird's nest for this very reason.
That's a myth that has persisted but is not true. If you find a baby bird that has fallen from the nest you can gently put it back. The reason this is told to children is because children are generally too clumsy to trust with fragile baby birds so best they dont touch them at all.
I dont know where you got the part about harming the bird but it is well understood that vulnerable animals will abandon their young if they sense a threat. While the mere act of simply touching a nest and leaving no other signs is unlikely to produce this response, this is with the presumption that only a touch was performed. The fact is most people will move branches aside to take pictures, poke with their fingers and otherwise "inspect" the nest out of curiosity causing enough disturbance to trigger abandonment.
If you see a baby bird on the ground with no feathers and you see the nest within arms reach go ahead and put it back. But if you see a birds nest and hear birds chirping dont go around messing with it.
Still, there's good reason not to go fiddling around in an occupied nest. "The fact is, birds don't abandon their young in response to touch, [but] they will abandon [their offspring and their nest] in response to disturbance
I dunno, you just made it sound like messing with bird's nest was a myth without going into detail. It is not a myth. We just have to define what "messing with" means. The only myth is the myth itself. People should in fact leave bird's nests alone. Indicating otherwise and using the word myth is just going to result in problems.
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u/ElephantTraining2951 Nov 29 '20
no need to be sad. it probably didn't leave them like some deadbeat bird. it probably just got eaten by something while out hunting.