They are cute and everyone loves them but they kill birds and many of those birds are rare or endangered. Cats are invasive species and they disrupt the natural ecosystems they inhabit. There are bird species that will go extinct if something is not done about them.
But we love cats. Many love cats more than birds. So what can be done that isn't cruel? Culling them is out of the question!
So far what we think is the most humane way to handle this problem is to capture ferel cats, spay/neuter them, and then release them if we can't find anyone willing to adopt. Most cats get released with a clipped ear so we know not to catch them again. This solution doesn't solve the problem but itll slow or stop the problem from getting worse.
There is a silver lining. There are these other birds, the common house sparrow, that are invasive and have taken over. They are cute the way they chirp and play together but they don't have any songs and they challenge our native bird species. Despite their small size, they will gang up on and kill other birds. They also destroy nests. But the sparrows suck at flying so they are usually the ones that the cats get. So some people argue that the cats are actually helping the native species of birds by culling the invasive sparrows; but I disagree.
Don't you go thinking that this rant about cats and birds is actually some cheap metaphor for demographical changes in western countries! That'd be very wrong and very bad, you racist. Its literally just a rant about birds and cats.
No we don't. They're a genuine menace in more than just the ways you're describing.
The obvious one, they kill countless other animals. This includes the birds you mention, it also includes native birds by the hundreds/thousands. It also include other animals, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, if a cat can catch it, it can kill it. And it won't even eat what it kills, it just kills because it can. Once saw someone suggest that of the total number of cat attacks on small animals, only a portion result in the death of the prey, and only a portion of those are eaten. Cats attack and maim more than they kill, and significantly more than they eat. They're likely responsible for multiple species extinctions over the course of human history, too, and wouldn't be the only animals humans have taken places that result in this, see the Lord Howe's Stick Insect almost being wiped out because humans brought rats to the original island the stick insect was found on.
On top of this, the greatest cause of death to birds isn't wind turbines, it's cats. Take away wind turbines and cats will still be killing the birds.
Those who love miscegenation will enjoy this next one. Pretty much all species of "domestic cat" can interbreed. They can also interbreed with non domestic cats like Scottish Wildcats, which is going extinct not because it's being hunted and killed, but because there are so few purebreed specimen left because of interbreeding with feral domestic cats people let loose.
Cats are a plague humanity has released on countless areas of the world, which is ironic considering how plague-like humanity often is in turn.
They also make shitty pets. A cat won't hesitate to eat its owner's face the minute she (let's be honest, it's almost always a she) dies. A dog will wait weeks until it's literally starving with no options before considering it. Cats are literal vermin and I'd like to see them go extinct.
Glad to see that someone else has awareness of the cat problem. Consider the below statistic from two or so years ago:
I only really see two solutions to this problem. One is or was recommended by the RSPCA, a 24/7 cat curfew. The other is simply the banning of cat ownership altogether. Personally, I strongly favour the second because the first strikes me as implausible to enforce.
People always go on and on about how many deaths the Nazis caused. Yet the world is full of things that have exacted a far higher death toll, such as cars (killed more people than all the wars of history put together, not to mention the extreme cost to animal life), abortion, and, of course, cats.
If only this morally bankrupt species would get a tenth as het up about abortion as they do about the Nazis.
Most cats have pitbull temperaments just not pitbull strength.