“Free-ranging cats are likely the single largest source of anthropogenic mortality for US birds and mammals…”

https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2380

Our cat has not got a US visa nor funds to fly across the Atlantic.

I don’t have a cat, nor do I have any intention of ever having one, being allergic to them is one reason, however there are at least five neighbourhood cats who seem to consider my garden to be their property, my g/f even found one in our kitchen one day!
Unfortunately she’s vetoed my plans to shoot the little bastards, and my attempts to scare the little shits away tend to be temporary.
At least I’ve managed to stop them stealing the hedgehogs food I put out, if only I could stop them trying to kill all the birds I feed. 🤬

I have three cats. They barely even leave the back garden let alone terrorise the local bird population. Don’t demonise cats as a species. There are lots of bad people in the world, that doesn’t make people bad.

Our cat has not got a US visa nor funds to fly across the Atlantic.

I’m going to hazard a guess that British cats are just as good at killing birds as American ones.

There are lots of bad people in the world, that doesn’t make people bad.

I beg to differ – but you’re right of course. If you can keep your cats on your own property then the impact to biodiversity is going to be smaller. You know, as long as they aren’t murdering lots of birds or you live right next to an SSI or RSPB reserve or something. I do question whether domestic cats should be allowed to wonder from people’s properties in light of the above article.

I’ve met a lot of cats that are lazy and/or just follow their owners everywhere – who do not wonder outside – is this due to their socialisation? Perhaps the answer is to look at how this can be encouraged?

I can sympathise, because I quite like cats and always have been an animal person. I should have placed a question mark in the title of this thread.

The RSPB have a different view on this.

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/gardening-for-wildlife/animal-deterrents/cats-and-garden-birds/are-cats-causing-bird-declines/

There’s no link to the mammalian societies study, so unfortunately we do not know how rigorous those “estimates” are Drac. 2.7 million birds killed seems a remarkably low number compared to the study published in Nature – do the yanks have 1000x more cats than we do?

“We estimate that free-ranging domestic cats kill 1.3–4.0 billion birds and 6.3–22.3 billion mammals annually.”

I guess that “and that un-owned cats cause the majority of this mortality.” – we don’t have such a big problem with strays do we?

if only I could stop them trying to kill all the birds I feed. 🤬

You need a “toby”, he dislikes cats especially when they come onto his territory as he’s then allowed to get them off any way he likes which for him usually involves a mouthful of cat shook vigorously till they get the message.

And this is just one of his mates he’s managed to save from a cat, “jake” the baby crow who after 6 weeks of recovery eventually managed to fly away, he used to hop around the garden and the house following toby everywhere till his wing healed

Ours only goes outside when we do and stays close.

She shows no interest in birds although tries to play with foxes that come up to our glass doors and growls at squirrels who she sees them through the doors.

Quite a few cats where I live and loads of birds in my garden. The cat population are either no good at catching birds or the birds are keeping their numbers up to accommodate (as would be expected being nature and all that)

I could actually do with less sparrows as they make a mess of my thatched roof…

Seem to have half the population of sparrows in my garden. Don’t mind a few less if it reduces the noise at feeding time crack of dawn and early evening. One of the neighbours cats sits in the bush many of them seem to live in and saw it catch one other week. Spent ages playing with its dinner, throwing it in the air, catching it and jumping about. Only remains was a head. Nice looking cat, very curious, friendly.

man with agenda against cats ignores RSPB report saying cats are not to blame to decline in bird numbers.

First port of call for fall in bird numbers is brer farmer, use of pesticides reducing food, ripping out hedges takes away habitat.

I like Toby, what breed is he?

We have cats in my garden, but they’re to fat and stupid to catch birds. The squirrels do get some of their eggs, though.

I also like Toby, is he on Instagram?

“Free-ranging cats are likely the single largest source of anthropogenic mortality for US birds and mammals…”

Ever heard of Passenger Pigeons?

On the Tube they are “fare evading scum pigeons”

To be fair the yanks have form for it

RSPB in “don’t upset the donors” report shocka

As with anything the actual reasons for decline in small birds and mammals will be complex, however denying that domestic and feral former domestic cats have an impact is flat earthing.

They’re not denying it they’re saying it’s not significant are the donors all cat owners?

Are cats part of the eco-system of birds natural predetors in this day-and-age ?

Would stopping cats killing birds result in a butterfly-flaps-his-wings type chaos apocalypse of bird over population.

I’ve seen “The Birds” and I don’t fancy that – I think an overpopulation of cats would be easier to deal with.

Our cat recoils in horror if you open the doors. If she goes out that means 5 minutes sitting on the deck then wandering back to her bed.
Don’t think she’s a threat to the local bird population.
She did bring a dead bat in once. We could only think it flew into her mouth when she was yawning.

They’re not denying it they’re saying it’s not significant are the donors all cat owners?

Lots of people claim to be ‘animal lovers’, while conveniently ignoring the animal deaths they are causing.

🤔

Factors affecting woodland birds
The declines in woodland birds have several known and potential causes, such as a lack of woodland management (including the cessation of traditional practices such as coppicing) and increased deer browsing pressure, both of which result in a reduced diversity of woodland structure and reduced availability of suitable nesting and foraging habitats. Changes in farmland management, such as the removal of hedgerows, adversely impacted many of the species in the indicator which have substantial populations outside of woodland e.g. in farmland. In addition, several declining woodland birds are long- distance migrants, and a decline in the extent or quality of habitats used outside of the UK in the non-breeding season (in stop-over sites or African wintering areas) may be a significant factor affecting these species. Positive factors include the increasing area of woodland cover and milder winters potentially having a positive impact for some species.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/754432/UK_Wild_birds_1970-2017_FINAL__002_.pdf

Hmmm. We’ve got two cats.

One never catches a thing. Once a bird flew down into the garden inadvertently close to her and she looked completely bewildered about what to do.

The other cat is a hunter supremo and it is the main reason I am against having any more.
Mice and other small mammals are regularly caught, as are all manner of birds and probably 5 or 6 squirrels a yr.
He’s a lovely cat, just a monster predator…

If humans weren’t around would these birds have no natural predators ?

rubbish – maybe we need to kill more of them to restore the natural order of things ?

It’s easy to blame cats if you’re not a fan of cats. Ours bring in probably 5-10 birds a year, plus mice, frogs etc. Which I often have to rescue and take to the nearest safe hedge.

The Rspb don’t deny the effect, and say around 27 million birds (not 2.7m as mentioned earlier) a year are killed. They just say the evidence doesn’t support that it’s a significant enough amount to have an effect on declining populations.

I would hazard a guess that it’s humans having the most effect i.e. farm land, industrialisation, house building etc

Easier to blame cats though…

Couple things here, bro..

The cats in America, how many have nra membership? This smells like a liberal elite conspiracy.

Secondly, there has been a big decline in people getting their cats spayed/neutered (vet confirmed whenever I brought my two in a few months ago). We have a few huge, nasty tom cats on our street and they still have their danglers.

I have to agree after having 2 black and white killing machines for the best part of 15 yrs. Garden birds, pigeons, Koi Carp, mice, voles, moles and a neighbours domestic rabbit! Nothing was safe. Sorry but there is no way you can just keep a cat in your garden, that is wishful thinking. We will never have another cat. Some are obviously worse than others. If I had a farm and I wanted to keep vermin down there is nothing better.

5-10 a year amateurs. Plus the 100 + they kill that you don’t see. Ours would bring in several a week in the summer. They liked to strip them in the bathroom, considerate really as it was easy to clean the blood and feathers up. Barstools.

“Free-ranging cats are likely the single largest source of anthropogenic mortality for US birds and mammals…”

I think they need to focus a bit more on the effect “humans” have on the natural world before blaming cats.

4 cats all indoors (outside cat run) – 2 posh ones, one rescue with cat flu, and an old one who can’t see very well.

I don’t think anyone is blaming the cats….just the humans who own them.

Cat and dog owners in general have become a right pita for local wildlife and affect the quality of life of those who don’t have animals but live near those that do.

I’ve lost count of the hundreds of times dogs have jumped up at me or my family, run into a picnic slobbering and sniffing, barked or snarled or lunged at me on my bike etc and this is before we even get to night barking, dog excrement and poo bags everywhere.

Cats are just as bad, crapping on lawns, killing wildlife and costing owners 1000’s in vetbills or insurance.

Pets are a total nightmare but they aren’t going anywhere so owners just need to accept they really are part of a large problem and help in any way they can to mitigate it instead of denying it and assuring everyone that their particular animal is a saint.

At least I’ve managed to stop them stealing the hedgehogs food I put out, if only I could stop them trying to kill all the birds I feed. 🤬

We use cat / fox proof feeders, very simple design…

Here’s a tiny autumn juvenile feeding in one of our feeders..

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2hoaraQ]Baby Hedgehog in feeder[/url] by Ben Freeman, on Flickr

and a fox trying his luck. I’ve since built up the brick pile in front so he can’t get in. The chicken wire pen was for HH orientation for when we get them from the local HH hospital. They spend a week in the pen before being released into the local gardens…

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2ho7QMb]Fox and HH feed station[/url] by Ben Freeman, on Flickr

On the 3 or 4 occasions one of mine has got out of the garden he has basically sat on the other side of the fence meowing to come back, and I have to put a piece of latticework over the fence for him to use as a ladder to get back up the fence.

Another time he managed to thrown himself out of an upstairs window and I found him the next morning cowering under the car with badly strained leg.

The other one jumped out the bathroom window a few weeks ago and then proceeded to just meow for hours until I rescued her from a sloped roof that ends about 8ft above the ground (and 50% grass at that).

The only risk to birds they present is if a bird could die laughing at their incompetance.

Both British Short Hairs – one a blue and one lilac.

Great work footflaps.

Pets are a total nightmare but they aren’t going anywhere so owners just need to accept they really are part of a large problem and help in any way they can to mitigate it instead of denying it and assuring everyone that their particular animal is a saint.

Dog owners don’t have an excuse at all, it is relatively easy to stop a dog **** up wildlife. Walk it in areas where it won’t disturb things like ground nesting birds or keep it on a lead.

As an ex-country bumpkin gun dog owning type, the amount of Londoners in my area who have completely unsuitable dogs, bulldogs, Akita’s, huskies and who wonder why they can’t train them is ridiculous. Quit buying dogs you don’t have the experience or time to train and buy a **** miniature poodle. I taught my parents poodle to play dead and high five in a Few hours when she was 5 months old – and these people can’t teach their dog not to shit inside their house or apartment.

Walk it in areas where it won’t disturb things like ground nesting birds or keep it on a lead

I love practical ideas, me!

My old girl used to kill stuff. I even started an outrrrraaaageous thread once 😳 … But like, even the hunter/killer that she was, she was responsible for 2 birds, 1 fox and a rabbit (that I knew about), I don’t think it changed the ecosystem.

During the warmer months our cat turns semi ferral, comes to the back door for food, but won’t come and if it does it’ll stress till its outside again, and unfortunately it’ll boss any car on the street and is an excellent hunter killer lol, and this is a cat that was a house cat for six years 🙄

More or less did an episode on this. Basically it’s bollocks. Though our idiot cat says otherwise and keeps bring us presents which really pisses me off.

Was gutted to have to watch one of our cats eat the local Robin for breakfast the other day. Very sad occasion.