Horrified by my cat.

Alfasudcrazy

Woke up this morning and found feathers all over my bedroom - and then a dead swallow under the chair.

My cat obviously caught one and thought it might make a nice breakfast (it was half eaten) :mad:

I knew when leaving her out this morning she was out for mischief as she would not go out at all yesterday over the rain so was all action today.

I have a bell on her collar as well and am simply astounded she caught something as swift as a swallow.

I am just trying to find out if it was one of the swallows nesting in my garage - don't think it is but its difficult to know if the swallow I see flying in and out is in fact two or the same one?

togster

Don't worry too much. It's natural. Just be more careful about when you let her out.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

togster wrote: »

Don't worry too much. It's natural. Just be more careful about when you let her out.

It's unfortunate and I wouldn't beat myself up over it but it is most certainly not natural. Domestic cats are a major factor in bird predation and we often try to excuse it as natural, but as long as we breed and feed cats we can't consider their numbers to be natural. The instinct to kill for food is natural but we have left cats that they will just kill to play with their prey. If they were truely wild their numbers would not be so great and they would only kill to survive.

luckat

Mooney Goes Wild has been warning people to keep pussums in for the next couple of weeks, as the baby birds are placed around the ground to get used to life in the big world at this time of year.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

luckat wrote: »

Mooney Goes Wild has been warning people to keep pussums in for the next couple of weeks, as the baby birds are placed around the ground to get used to life in the big world at this time of year.

A couple of weeks wouldn't do it, as there will be newly fledged birds in most gardens from now until August. Also, cats take in excess of 3million adult birds per year in this country so it's not just fledglings that are taken. However, I suppose every little helps!

AntiVirus

Sincere Rich Wreck wrote: »

Cats take in excess of 3million adult birds per year in this country so it's not just fledglings that are taken. However, I suppose every little helps!

Did you just pluck that figure out of the air. I think you'll find we're much more to blame than cats.

"While it is clear that cats can and do have a large impact in exceptional situations (isolated ecosystems being the primary example), it is much more apparent that in our normal, everyday environments the actions of humans have a much greater effect on vulnerable and threatened species. Urban sprawl, fragmentation of forested ecosystems, the increase in motor vehicles and the related increase in roads, and the use of pesticides, fertilizers and poisons do much more damage to bird and small vertebrate species than do domestic and/or feral cats. However, we can no longer ignore the role that we humans have played in this process. Before we can sentence cats to death for being carnivores, we need to take a hard look at ourselves and what we have done to our ecosystem."

~excerpt from Feral Cat Predation and It’s Effect on Wildlife - Searching for the Truth

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

I'm out in a field at the moment, so I can't quote the report indices to you but they come from IWC (Now Birdwatch Ireland), BTO and RSPB. Most reports are not online but hard copies held in the offices of the organisations involved in Wildlife protection. I work in this area, have compiled some of the statistics myself, and have read all the reports and can assure you that that figure is actually cosidered to be a conservative one as many kills go un-noticed by owners of cats. In Bedfordshire alone a study completed in 2006 showed that Cats accounted for 33% of all House Sparrow deaths each year. Your quoting from a 2003 report compiled in the USA and commissioned by a Ferel Cat rescue group is hardly an unbiased approach. But if you wish to take that appraoch then balance it with this US report from the Forestry and Wildlife Service.

From The Effects of Cat Predation on Wildlife: the USFWS Migratory Bird Mangement Office

Americans keep an estimated 60 million cats as pets. Let's say each cat kills only one bird a year. That would mean that cats kill over 60 million birds (minimum) each year - more wildlife than any oil spill.

Scientific studies actually show that each year, cats kill hundreds of millions of migratory songbirds. In 1990, researchers estimated that "outdoor" house cats and feral cats were responsible for killing nearly 78 million small mammals and birds annually in the United Kingdom.

University of Wisconsin ornithologist, Dr. Santley Temple estimates that 20-150 million songbirds are killed each year by rural cats in Wisconsin alone.

Feline predation is not "natural." Cats were domesticated by the ancient Egyptians and taken throughout the world by the Romans. Cats were brought to North America in the 1800's to control rats. The "tabby" that sits curled up on your couch is not a natural predator and has never been in the natural food chain in the Western Hemisphere.

Cats are a serious threat to fledglings, birds roosting at night and birds on a nest. Research shows that de-clawing cats and bell collars do not prevent them from killing birds and other small animals. For healthy cats and wild birds, cats should not be allowed to roam free.

I never said Cats were the only influence on bird numbers. I was merely referring to that impact which is directly attributable to cat predation. I don't wish to get in to any argument on this subject but I have to say that "facts is facts". The whole subject of declining songbird and garden bird numbers, let alone grassland birds and mirgrants, is very complex with a multitude of reasons, causes, and affects. However, this thread was in relation to predation by Cats and I was simply sticking to the topic and it's particular role in the decline of bird species on this island.

AntiVirus

Sincere Rich Wreck wrote: »

Your quoting from a 2003 report compiled in the USA and commissioned by a Ferel Cat rescue group is hardly an unbiased approach. But if you wish to take that appraoch then balance it with this US report from the Forestry and Wildlife Service.

So what part of my quote is biased? It's hardly rocket science. Where as any number you can post is a guestimate and certainly not scientific!

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

AntiVirus wrote: »

So what part of my quote is biased? It's hardly rocket science. Where as any number you can post is a guestimate and certainly not scientific!

You seem to have missed the point that the survey you quoted was commissioned and published by a Ferel Cat society in the US with vested interests in maintaining the "good name" of ferel cats. Quoting it in isolation is by definition biased.
As for the statistic I quoted; you obviously didn't read my post. It is based on years of field studies by several different organisations (and some government bodies) in Britain and Ireland. Surveys of Cat owners were also included in the data. The surveys were not carried out to defame cats but as a study into the mortality rates in outrbird populations. The cat statistic is just one of many findings of the studies and you are showing a complete blindness to the issue if you maintain such studies are not scientific.:rolleyes:
More importantly you are missing the point that Cat predation of birds is, as I said, just one factor but is after all the one the OP raised.

(BTW: I have both Dogs and Cats.)

An Fear Aniar

So it turns out your cat is actually an animal and not a little furry person?

I don't know why people are surprised by these things.


.

AntiVirus

Sincere Rich Wreck wrote: »

More importantly you are missing the point that Cat predation of birds is, as I said, just one factor but is after all the one the OP raised.

I'll agree with that.

For every Charles Manson (cat) there's a fat lazy Garfield.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

AntiVirus wrote: »

I'll agree with that.

EUREKA! :rolleyes: I've been making the same point since 12:16 this morning and now they agree! :rolleyes:

wyk

This site cites numerous studies from various groups:

http://www.owra.org/cateffect.htm

WYK

Sincere Rich Wreck wrote: »

You seem to have missed the point that the survey you quoted was commissioned and published by a Ferel Cat society in the US with vested interests in maintaining the "good name" of ferel cats. Quoting it in isolation is by definition biased.
As for the statistic I quoted; you obviously didn't read my post. It is based on years of field studies by several different organisations (and some government bodies) in Britain and Ireland. Surveys of Cat owners were also included in the data. The surveys were not carried out to defame cats but as a study into the mortality rates in outrbird populations. The cat statistic is just one of many findings of the studies and you are showing a complete blindness to the issue if you maintain such studies are not scientific.:rolleyes:
More importantly you are missing the point that Cat predation of birds is, as I said, just one factor but is after all the one the OP raised.

(BTW: I have both Dogs and Cats.)

togster

Sincere Rich Wreck wrote: »

but it is most certainly not natural. .

I was referring to the instinct to hunt and kill.

barryfitz

hmmmm the world is working the way its supposed to. :eek: Cat was obviously hungry as you said it ate half of the bird.

bernard0368

Cat = predator
Bird = prey

The natural order of the jungle.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

bernard0368 wrote: »

Cat = predator
Bird = prey

The natural order of the jungle.

:rolleyes:It's amazing how after more than a dozen posts someone can still completely miss the points discussed!

stovelid

Nothing you can really do Alfasud.

If you really don't like them hunting birds: does your garden have bushes, or overgrown bits for the cats to hide in? The way they catch things as fast as birds is to wait and pounce. We moved house recently and had to build a garden from scratch. The whole thing is quite bare at the moment and there has been very little bird kill since we moved.

Also keep them away from a nest if they've found one.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

stovelid wrote: »

Nothing you can really do Alfasud.

If you really don't like them hunting birds: does your garden have bushes, or overgrown bits for the cats to hide in? The way they catch things as fast as birds is to wait and pounce. We moved house recently and had to build a garden from scratch. The whole thing is quite bare at the moment and there has been very little bird kill since we moved.

Also keep them away from a nest if they've found one.

The downside of this is that a scarcity of bushes and overgrown areas also leads to a scarcity of suitable environs for birds.