As if releasing an invasive nonnative predator to an environment is “natural”
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I am not saying that they are right. Only that there is a noticeable difference in attitudes and those who who expect everyone to evolve into an American once they are shown the error in their ways may be in for a disappointment.
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While I agree that indoor cats are generally healthier and live longer than outdoor or indoor/outdoor cats, the impact on wildlife or birds is not especially huge. I read recently that feral (“unowned”) cats are responsible for most (2/3) of birds killed by cats. I’ll try to dig up that source.
Regardless, keep kitteh inside and everyone will be happier.
ETA: The source is actually cited by the Wikipedia article @Brainspore linked:
We estimate that cats in the contiguous United States annually kill between 1.3 and 4.0 billion birds (median=2.4 billion) (Fig. 1a), with ∼69% of this mortality caused by un-owned cats. The predation estimate for un-owned cats was higher primarily due to predation rates by this group averaging three times greater than rates for owned cats.
Still, a large number.
Where do people get the idea the domesticated cats only started killing rare birds recently?
From Wikipedia’s page on the subject:
In Australia, hunting by cats helped to drive at least 20 native mammals to extinction,[3] and continues to threaten at least 124 more.[3] Their introduction has caused the extinction of at least 33 endemic species on islands throughout the world.[2] A 2013 systematic review in Nature Communications of data from 17 studies found that feral and domestic cats kill billions of birds in the United States every year.[4]
In the unlikely event that free-range cats aren’t threatening biodiversity in Germany today then it’s probably only because they killed off a lot of the area bird species many generations ago.
(ETA: I understand this was your Facebook group’s position and not your own)
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We’ve had cats for decades almost all of them lived into their late teens. Our current batch of 4 range from 4 to 16. Three are in their teens. I would argue their quality of life surpasses living outdoors fending for themselves in the cold, rain and snow, always on guard from predators including people.
Oops, that was supposed to be a reply to @KarlS
I think there’s a /s missing in the original post you’re responding to.
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I thought my Facebook, and brandon comment, implied sarcasm.
Sorry, I should have used the tag.
Yes I caught that and updated my post reflect so just before you responded.
Our culture’s attitude toward pet cats is so weird. If I kept any other non-native species as a pet—a dog, a monkey, a falcon, a honey badger, whatever—and just allowed it to roam the neighborhood unsupervised pooping wherever it wanted and killing native animals then I’d be facing fines or arrest before long.
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By the way, according to that same source, cats kill far greater numbers of mammals than birds. I know there are lots of bird (and cat) partisans here, but think of all the bunnies, chipmunks, mice, and other small animals as well.
Again, mammal mayhem by feral cats accounts for 89% of all cat-killed mammals in the US. Not to let cat owners off the hook, but the bulk of the problem of cat predation is due to feral cats.
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Sure, but never underestimate people’s capacity to romanticize both animals’ lives in nature and common practices for keeping animals that they grew up with.
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Several years ago a stray cat showed up in our yard, we started feeding it because we hate to see any animal hungry.
This went on for months, turns out it was a neighbor’s pet. I really wanted to give them a bill for the food.
I don’t get it either. I can’t imagine just letting our cats roam around outside always worrying if they were safe.
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Those feral cats didn’t pop into existence out of nowhere. It all comes back to “someone wasn’t a responsible pet owner.”
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Well, we have had domesticated outdoor cats since Roman times (and the not entirely dissimilar European wildcat forever). That ship sailed long ago.
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The Romans had dogs too but that doesn’t mean it’s cool to let your dog roam the city unsupervised.
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And this is why whenever a cat shows up in our neighborhood we TNR (trap neuter or spay and release).
If it’s someone’s pet, tough, they should definitely not allow cats to roam that haven’t been spayed or neutered.
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Nor will they pop out of existence even if all cat owners start keeping their pets indoors at all times. And the killing would continue nearly unabated.
I think we agree that keeping pet cats indoors is better for everyone and that irresponsible pet owners contribute to the feral cat problem.
There are communities that have adopted a TNR strategy (as @tcg550 mentions above) that have gone from an out-of-control feral cat situation to a very manageable one. There’s no reason for it to be a fait accompli.
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I’m not surprised surprised; but insisting on the right of cats to go forth and kill (and, statistically speaking, die rather a lot) seems like an odd position for an animal protection group.
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weren’t the early lock downs successful? i imagine they saved a lot of lives. if more people in the us had been willing to mask up afterwards and get vaccinated, things would’ve been a lot better
my take on cats is: even though i’m a big proponent of letting my cats roam, id happily bring them in for some particular hatching season
mine mostly sleep on the deck or run around the back yard. they come in for food and as it gets dark. ive seen them stalk plenty of birds and squirrels without trying to actually catch them and the only bodies ive ever found are mice. even that’s super rare. ( mice don’t need to be in my yard anyway )
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Not in my state. We have a governor who is a Democrat and a legislature that is majority Republican. In early 2020, the GOP attacked the stay at home orders enacted by the governor, businesses opened in defiance of the law, the legislature voted to strip the governor of emergency powers, put it on the ballot in 2021 for a constitutional amendment, and got enough votes for it to pass. Now there’s only an emergency unless there’s a majority vote to deny an emergency exists.
Many people weren’t willing to stay inside, stop going to bars, stop getting haircuts, and avoid other really optional activities. However, they started protesting as though we were under martial law - when the police were barely enforcing the lockdown attempt, and most business owners were only fined if they violated the order. That’s why people describe folks like this as fighting for their freedumb. There is no situation in which they believe rules apply to them or that anyone should be able to tell them what to do. 
ETA: I guess it’s fitting that we refer to attempts to control the uncontrollable as “herding cats.”
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