Cats - is all the murder acceptable?

[hegley]

We've also had a live pigeon brought into our bedroom at 3am and, most memorably, there was a time I could hear the cat flap like something was trying to get in but couldn't. Opened the door and there were our two cats (one of whom has now died) and a large, headless pigeon which they had been attempting to get through the flap.

Ours managed to get a rabbit through the cat flap and up to the first floor last week. Managed to rescue it and it seemed ok - hopped off across the field when I took it outside. Can't remember the last time they got a bird - mice aplenty though.

 

[WouldBe]

I'd hope that those poor breeds like pugs would be the first to die out - I always feel sorry for them when I see them. I doubt they'd be able to survive for long in the wild anyway.

They'd get picked off by feral cats.

 

[D'wards]

 

[Chz]

We had a wood pigeon in the house at the weekend.
Nothing to do with the cat, though. The bird feeders were empty and the greedy fucker decided to come inside to get at the big bag of seeds!!
It did shit itself (literally) and leave when the cat came in to see what the ruckus was about.

 

[D'wards]

This is a good podcast on topic

Cats: Invasive Species? - Stuff You Should Know

Josh and Chuck wade into dangerous waters with the debate over just how destructive cats are for local ecosystems (turns out it’s pretty bad) and some ideas on what to do about that (you may not want to know). Tune in and tense up! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

pca.st

 

[TopCat]

My cat is 18/19 now. He can’t be fucked to chase anything.

 

[D'wards]

Lyall's Wren lived on Stephen's Island near NZ.
It had no predators and was flightless.
A pregnant cat turned up with some immigrants to the island.
Lyall's Wren soon became extinct

 

[campanula]

It really would be entirely possible to breed out the prey drive from the domestic cat. Lysenko tamed foxes in 5 generations. I would definitely consider having a non-hunting cat...and I think quite a lot of other people would too. Instead, we get stupid fucking munchkins.
Collars and bells are an utter waste oif time - all it does it let the nesting birds know that their doom is nigh. I have seen a male blackbird sacrifice himself to try to save the nest...heartbreaking.

Team bird here, also.

 

[Elpenor]

Good evening to the journalist who has been reading the thread

Murderous moggies: should we be locking up our cats at night?

Millions of birds and thousands of bats die at the paws of Britain’s predatory pets each year. So will locking the catflap restore balance to local wildlife habitats?

www.theguardian.com

 

[gentlegreen]

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