Your friend the cat is a national icon!
Today, around 34% of American houses own cats, being cherished for their unique personalities, and rat catching abilities. Not to mention all the internet photos galore!
But there are things internet won’t tell you about cats:
They really like eating birds… well actually, they will tell you that. They just won’t tell you the extent of it. Nor will they tell you about the terrible consequences of what has quickly become an invasive species in our environment! But putting that aside, and the rapid negativity that’s come with it, let’s talk about the problematic global phenomenon that’s become associated with your furriest friends, and more importantly, what we can do to fix it!
An idea: As cat number continue to rise, we can use a number of different methods to quickly and effectively lower the cat populations -either by removing their reproduction or putting the cats “to sleep” themselves-, as well as removing cats from the environment completely via new homes or shelters.
The Problem
To best illustrate the problem with cats, we first need to talk about numbers. Or rather, one very large number.
Cats kill nearly 2.4 billion birds each year, or 76 birds every second! This amounts to nearly 2 and 1/2 times more than all other sources combined and is the leading factor in bird and small mammal deaths in the United States. Additionally, cat’s don’t have to kill to be dangerous. Simply by being in an environment, they can systematically instill unnatural fear in the native wildlife, or in the case of birds, force them into leaving their nests.
Birds are extremely important to the environment, taking part in natural ecosystem services, helping to keep the natural biodiversity of an environment at a stable level.
Scientists and Welfare Specialists like have reacted as such. Today, the majority of cats considered to be dangerous to the environment – or, all of them – have been separated into two groups;
Domestic Cat
The Problems:
- Cats are excellent hunters, and “every birds worst nightmare”
- They’re capable of greatly decelerating the “liveliness” the general wildlife, surrounding up to 2 miles away from their home
- Pet owners are far too lenient with allowing their cats to go outside – even a few is enough
- The overall population of cats, has caused nearly 63 extinct species – most of which were birds.
The Solutions:
- Keep your cat inside
- Build an outdoors pen for your cat to play around in
- Getting an additional indoors cat to keep the original company and replace some of the leniency to peruse outdoors activities.
Pros and Cons:
- Some people may find any “solutions” to be too inhumane for their pets and allow them to remain free range anyways.
- The wildlife is grateful for your sacrifice.
- Your cat’s life span may nearly double by simply staying indoors!
Stray and Feral Cats
Today Stray and Feral Cats are considered to be part of the same problem;
“For every {domestic} lap cat hunkering over his dish of Fancy Feast, there is another one prowling around for his dinner – like an evil twin, or an particle of antimatter.”
– Rachel E. Gross
They are lesser known about, have a massive population – estimated to be around 60-80 million, as numerous as their domestic counterparts, and area capable of killing up to three times as many birds.
The Problems:
- Being outcasts, their far more effective and active in killing smaller Mammels and birds
- They’re as numerous as domestic cats.
- They kill huge portions of birds, and are slowly crowding the streets, causing starvation and fighting among themselvs
The Solutions:
- T.N.R. (Trap -Neuter-Return), a process that follows a simple idea: Cat’s live out their lives, but don’t create more cats “Effective Humane Control.”
- Euthanization, extremely unpopular, but extremely effective and reliable at getting rid of local stray populations… and fast!
- Finding the cats, a home, either by bringing them in, or taking them to a shelter
- Poison. Robots. Lasers. (The Australian Way) – (Lasers to detect the feral cats, robots to distribute the chemicals onto their fur, poison to cull the cat)
Pros and Cons:
- Most people are cat lovers and are unwilling to cull the cat population with such drastic methods. They instead prefer either taking them in, or simply taking part in the T.N.R. program.
- T.N.R. is not 100% effective… if even just a few cats in a smaller group/population are missed, then the entire system falls apart. Needs 70% completion, which is based on often unreliable statistics.
- There aren’t even close to enough animal shelters for stray cats, and full ones tend to be euthanize them instead of caring for them. As such, most people prefer not to bring in stray cats regardless.
The Conclusion
So, cats are a big problem, and try as we might, this problem is slowly becoming unavoidable. Not a-similar to our increasing distance and increasingly horrible relationship with nature. We can try and impose our will, and see what bends, but try as we might:
“As Every Cat Owner Knows, Nobody Owns a Cat“
Ellen Perrey Berkely
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cats_in_Australia
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/moral-cost-of-cats-180960505/
