Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
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Keep your cat inside during spring (3 Viewers)
- Thread starter Andy Adcock
- Start date
Loud Green Man
Well-known member
Or at least put a bell around its neck.
I'm glad to see this is now being taken seriously. Further reduction of the grey squirell population will help too.
LGM
I'm glad to see this is now being taken seriously. Further reduction of the grey squirell population will help too.
LGM
CalvinFold
Well-known member
Keep your cats indoors all the time...
Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
Agree but baby steps, getting cat owners to keep them inside during spring with so many vulnerable young birds on the ground would be a huge leap forward.
A
jurek
Well-known member
Very good!
I hope RSPB encourages it.
Naturally, there will be always some insensitive owners who think that suffering of young birds is not important, but every cat owner who agrees will save young birds and mammals.
BTW, is it possible to make a cheap portable cat paddock from net on poles? I have an idea of a cross of this small fence to keep the sheep in, covered with the net used to protect grapes from starlings. Such a thing would be also useful for cat owners who go on holiday with their cats, in which circumstances cats very easily get lost.
I hope RSPB encourages it.
Naturally, there will be always some insensitive owners who think that suffering of young birds is not important, but every cat owner who agrees will save young birds and mammals.
BTW, is it possible to make a cheap portable cat paddock from net on poles? I have an idea of a cross of this small fence to keep the sheep in, covered with the net used to protect grapes from starlings. Such a thing would be also useful for cat owners who go on holiday with their cats, in which circumstances cats very easily get lost.
Roshni Patel
Member
Agreed. Nice post shared.
makovtun
Well-known member
Agree completely!
I do have several cats and they can enjoy the birds outside only through the window. Safe for everyone, including the cats themselves.
The bad thing is that most of the people in my country think that it is "natural" to leave your cat(s) to roam outdoors and catch prey for fun. Not sure how it is in UK or other parts of the world, but I guess the same attitude still prevails.
Farnboro John
Well-known member
You're all wrong. Solution is get a dog, or a rabbit! 
John
John
Larry Lade
Moderator
Simon Wates
Well-known member
Sigh....If life was so simple, my dear next door neighbour has 4 cats and there is no way on this heavenly earth she would lock-em inside, the lady loves her birds as well and is a long term member of a multitude of conservation associations etc; BTO, RSPB, Birdlife, OBC, Gib bird club, Kent nature and many more - she also passes on all the (dry ) Bird Study issues on to me!:t:
So - I resort to flushing the cats when they are hunting migrants and others, most mornings early. They are very well fed but one of them is addicted to hunting Chiffchaffs and such, little b+++er.
I don't have any cats by the way!
) Bird Study issues on to me!:t:So - I resort to flushing the cats when they are hunting migrants and others, most mornings early. They are very well fed but one of them is addicted to hunting Chiffchaffs and such, little b+++er.
I don't have any cats by the way!
curiousbird001
Bird Admirer
wow, what a carnage ! I guess cats stay true to their nature.
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CalvinFold
Well-known member
Okay so I thought you were being snarky at first but...I looked up that CatBib and I have to admit, that's pretty cool.
Though there are alot of other reasons to keep a cat indoors, but for the purposes of the OP, this does seem like a realistic option.
Though I will note that it does not help reptiles, lizards, etc. by admission of the company that makes them and the studies. So while we at BirdForum can feel good about it (because, birds), I can tell you a story about how just a couple housecats can all but completely wipe-out an entire herpatalogical ecosystem for miles around a rural home. :eek!:
Dead serious.
Cat outside without a bell collar, feral cat. Cat outside without a cat bib, feral cat. Cat outside more than 100 metres from any habitation, feral cat. Takeaway not chicken - feral cat.
Feral cats are well provided for under UK legislation.
Following on from the Invasive Alien Species (Enforcement and Permitting) Order 2019, which will come into force in the UK on 1 December 2019, there may well be a much needed change in the law regarding free-ranging domestic cats and wildlife conservation.
To protect our native songbirds and the rare small mammals such as shrews and voles and all the other myriad of species that are preyed upon by free-ranging domestic cats, UK cat owners may be required to have their cats wear either bell-collar or cat bib when outside. Common sense dictates that this should be already enshrined in law.
Time now for responsible cat owners to get ahead of the curve.
Chosun Juan
Given to Fly
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-21236690
The content of this thread is too controversial and belongs in RUFFLED FEATHERS.
Chosun :gh:
The content of this thread is too controversial and belongs in RUFFLED FEATHERS.
Chosun :gh:
CJ,
Here are some resources for you:
https://www.publish.csiro.au/book/7784
Australian Government’s Threatened Species Strategy identifies tackling feral cats as its top priority for action:
https://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/factsheet-tackling-feral-cats
The Mammal Action Plan 2012 and a report published in 2014 by the US National Academy of Sciences (Woinarski et al) ranked feral cats as the highest threat to Australia's mammals. Their threat factor was more than double that of red foxes, the next highest threat, and triple that of habitat loss and fragmentation.
Feral cats have contributed to the extinction of at least 28 mammal species since they first arrived in Australia, and they continue to wreak havoc. They imperil around a third of threatened mammals, reptiles, frogs and birds.
18th Australasian Vertebrate Pest Conference Melbourne 2020: https://avpc.net.au
The choice is very simple: cats or wildlife, no whining or thumb-sucking.
Here are some resources for you:
https://www.publish.csiro.au/book/7784
Australian Government’s Threatened Species Strategy identifies tackling feral cats as its top priority for action:
https://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/factsheet-tackling-feral-cats
The Mammal Action Plan 2012 and a report published in 2014 by the US National Academy of Sciences (Woinarski et al) ranked feral cats as the highest threat to Australia's mammals. Their threat factor was more than double that of red foxes, the next highest threat, and triple that of habitat loss and fragmentation.
Feral cats have contributed to the extinction of at least 28 mammal species since they first arrived in Australia, and they continue to wreak havoc. They imperil around a third of threatened mammals, reptiles, frogs and birds.
18th Australasian Vertebrate Pest Conference Melbourne 2020: https://avpc.net.au
The choice is very simple: cats or wildlife, no whining or thumb-sucking.
BluePlanet
Sun Sea and Trees. Registered User
Controversial, yes, but I think necessary.
Many will get upset but.... I really think that humans keeping cats (or dogs etc) for human pleasure while neutering them (the animals) is cruel. D'you want that done to you?
So are actions like putting birds in cages or putting bells on cats and shutting them in indoors or putting dogs on leashes etc etc. Fewer pets kept, fewer pet breedings for the market. IMO.
Many will get upset but.... I really think that humans keeping cats (or dogs etc) for human pleasure while neutering them (the animals) is cruel. D'you want that done to you?
So are actions like putting birds in cages or putting bells on cats and shutting them in indoors or putting dogs on leashes etc etc. Fewer pets kept, fewer pet breedings for the market. IMO.
Chosun Juan
Given to Fly
Samandag, yes I have seen that. I have to say that I am not a fan of poisoning for at least 2 very good reasons:CJ,
Here are some resources for you:
https://www.publish.csiro.au/book/7784
Australian Government’s Threatened Species Strategy identifies tackling feral cats as its top priority for action:
https://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/factsheet-tackling-feral-cats
The Mammal Action Plan 2012 and a report published in 2014 by the US National Academy of Sciences (Woinarski et al) ranked feral cats as the highest threat to Australia's mammals. Their threat factor was more than double that of red foxes, the next highest threat, and triple that of habitat loss and fragmentation.
Feral cats have contributed to the extinction of at least 28 mammal species since they first arrived in Australia, and they continue to wreak havoc. They imperil around a third of threatened mammals, reptiles, frogs and birds.
18th Australasian Vertebrate Pest Conference Melbourne 2020: https://avpc.net.au
The choice is very simple: cats or wildlife, no whining or thumb-sucking.
1) It is intolerably cruel.
2) There is significant risk of secondary poisoning of things like raptors, and other native carnivores that take any portion of their diet as carrion.
Even feral pests (superbly adapted hunters that belong in other countries) deserve a humane death - put to sleep, bullet to the brain etc.
There is an existing thread here:
https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?p=3875038#post3875038
Chosun :gh:
I don't know whether any method of killing feral cats without massive collateral damage exists. Some sort of cat disease would probably be the only hope, as there are no closely related species native to Australia.
Not sure there even is a good candidate for such a disease currently, although the miracles of genetic engineering may allow one to be created.
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