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.
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.