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.
The vast majority of birds killed by cats, feral or house pets, are at the lowest end of the endangered scale, Abundant? Overpopulated? Something like that.
Feral cats will eat any bird they catch or they'll starve.
Cats also kill bazillions of rodents too.
My city & many others has a "trap, fix & release" program in place for many years now. They put a chip in them for easy identification as previously caught. 😺
Turbines kill off VERY rare or endangered birds regularly. Lots of bats too. They actually pay a tiny fee to get a permit to kill hawks and eagles! You try getting a permit to shoot bald eagles, lolz!
Killing animals at the bottom of the food chain is normal. That's how nature works. Killing off the top predators is very bad for the ecosystem! It can lead to dramatic "boom & bust" cycles that are far from good for any creatures involved, including the plant life.
I'm also not convinced that the "feline bird genocide" thing is nearly as real as it's made out to be. In all other feline species, only a very small percentage of hunts are successful, and domesticated cats are clumsy, slow, and stupid in comparison. Meanwhile people will kill half the trees and bushes in their neighborhood, pave over half the yards and every unused lot, poison any fringe that managed to escape, then turn around and ask what happened to all the birds and squirrels.
It could only have been Mister Smugglebum, the lazy cat with virtually no survival instincts. That's why siccing my dog on cats isn't subhuman hood shit, it's actually righteous.
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Yes because all those stray vermin cats are part of the ecosystem...
They are now!
Cities, farms, roads & bushland are also part of the ecosystem... now! There used to be a lot of prairie out there, 99% is gone. When humans stopped the routine prairie grassfires? The trees quickly invaded.
So yes, cats are part of the new ecosystem now. Plenty of invasive species have been in North America long enough to be 'native' now.
Good point. That is kinda the point with the house sparrows. These birds suck at flying so they usually nest in low bushes. Whenever I see a dead, mutilated bird, its a sparrow 90% of the time. But the reason I tend to disagree with the notion that cats help endangered birds is the mere fact that cats can and would attack them as well.
Apex predators are really important in any ecosystem. They found this out 'the hard way' in Yellowstone, eh? Otherwise the 'bottom feeders' will eat & eat, their numbers explode until there is no more food! Then they die off in gigantic numbers. That's normal in most difficult ecosystems, but not too high or too low. The predators follow the herd animal numbers, delayed by a couple of years, usually.
So without housecats eating all those birds and rodents? Either they'll enter an unsustainable boom & bust cycle or something else will emerge to eat them. Something we'll like a lot less!
I found a cat (not sure if it was feral or some house pet) in my backyard 4 months ago, and I shot it in the head with my .22.