Are cats the biggest culprits?

[Mags]

The outcome of this exercise should be interesting as it seems almost unbelievable that cats could be killing an estimated 92 million animals a year

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/b...re/7892466.stm

[calismum]

Good grief - and here was me thinking that perhaps, foxes, loss of habitat, global changes, humans, birds of prey etc may have also contributed.

Best keep all cats indoors then

[angieh]

What an interesting study. I think a similar conclusion was drawn in Australia (not sure whether any research was involved) and cats are subject to curfew there. Not a bad idea, both for the wildlife and for the safety of the cats.

[dandysmom]

Amazing estimate! Will be interesting to see the results. I too thought the reasons CM cited above would be the primary causes. Mine being indoors/harness managed a total of 6 birds, all English sparrows, in their lifetimes: Sultan 5 and Misty one.

[random]

Now indoor cats mine are of course, ever innocent! Well, reborn innocence really as they all haven't always been indoorsy, but are now reformed!

[Leesy]

Originally Posted by calismum

Good grief - and here was me thinking that perhaps, foxes, loss of habitat, global changes, humans, birds of prey etc may have also contributed.

Best keep all cats indoors then

I certainly agree with CM on this quote, humans are very good at passing the blame onto other species, you only have to look at half the animals that are near extinction because of what humans are doing to the enviroment around them, it makes me so mad .

[dinahsmum]

Darn I meant to look at the link before posting. However I did read an article yesterday and the atrition rate per capita seemed relatively low. Was it about 14 small things pa, or maybe 18?
If you stop to think that compares well with, for instance, blue tits which might hatch 3 broods and maybe three dozen babies in one year, mice which breed at a fantastic rate, etc. It's all Darwin in action again, and nature red in tooth and claw.
I'm also happy with the theory that uber tidy gardens and loss of insect habitat and insects has been the greatest factor in loss of garden birds.

But I still don't like my hunter bringing home trophies. Yet another paradox of cat ownership

[yola]

I had lots of sparrows in my garden 12 years ago when we first moved in. Since then I have removed trees, some wild habitat behind my house has been built on and we now have no sparrows
In the 12 years Balie has only ever caught one bird.

I know mine are not typical but I have a friend who used to list the pressies brought back by her cat on a board in her kitchen (by type) and it ran into 100s of small furry and feathered things.

But people have always kept cats - surely they can't be solely responsible for the demise of the humble house sparrow?

[janey83]

I heard people talking about this one Radio 2 yesterday (I don't listen to that station i just happened to hear them say cats) Any hoo.

There was a man on there saying its better for people to have indoor cats rather than out door cats coz the birds are disappearing... I had a good mind to ring in and say yeah but your not allowed to have indoors cats from the CP branch that I went too a few weeks ago!

Pffft. Cats dont know that its not nice to kill, its natural for them.

What about birds that get hit by cars... you see them all the time on the road!!!

[angieh]

I believe that the problem is a historical one, caused by man - think of all the pesticides used in the past. Species have been decimated by habitat loss, irresponsible use of pesticides and now the poor cat gets blamed for killing off the few that are actually left.

IMO it is nearly always a man made problem if you can't blame volcanoes or meteors.