Dogs and cats - Why is it ok for cats to kill things for fun?

[EELover]

My flock died last month to a mountain lion but I plan to get more next week. When I do get my new ones, I would be concerned if my cats got to them when they were babies. Once they get about 6 weeks old, I'm pretty sure my cats would get their tails handed to them. Fortunately, my cats are indoor cats because of the larger wildlife we have around here (ie mountain lions, coyotes, ect). People do need to keep ALL their animals under control.

 

[PurpleChicken]

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Tala, wasn't it you that shot a chipmunk for looking at you wrong?

 

[NeeleysAVLChicks]

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I haven't either.

It's not an argument about cats killing chickens. I haven't heard nor suggested cats are a threat to chickens. My chickens would eat a cat.

I don't know, I've read a few posts here about cats killing chicks and chickens. Certainly, not as frequent as dogs, but it definitely still happens. I understand that its not what you were getting at in your OP, sorry for the confusion.

I couldn't agree with you more in regards to the rest of your post. It all comes down to pet owner responsibility, a topic that drives me nuts. So much so that I did lose my temper this morning on like the 20th post I'd seen about pet dogs killing chickens. I could of been more tactful about it, and I'm sorry about that.

Back on subject, I think some of the ambivalence comes from some people's "ewww" factor in regards to a cats' typical prey, mice, rats, voles, etc. While dogs killing livestock, etc causes people to get a lot more riled up.

 

[deerman]

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Yes I have problem with dogs or cats killing wildlife.

Matter of facts, we had birds wipe from the face of the earth ,because man took their cats and dogs to some island, and let them roam. lost some small flightless birds forever.

A person can get in trouble for their dog killing wildlife also.

 

[Akane]

Cats can't be traced back to people here. Farms are everywhere, cats are everywhere, and it's probably been several generations since anyone claimed ownership of more than half of them. Cats are close to being wildlife and they do survive wild on their own for more than long enough to reproduce. A lot of farmers train their dogs to kill them as pests so they won't spread disease and they still have kittens born on their place. You know they aren't feeding them or giving them any care as well as trying to kill them off and yet they continue to hold their numbers. You choose to go get a dog and bring it home but cats appear out of nowhere all the time. It's a weekly event and no one has the resources to deal with all of them. Most of the spay/neuter programs have been run in to the ground from the sheer number of cats and lack of funds. I know we hauled in 20 at once when our vet offered SNAP at $5 for males and $10 for females. That only lasted a year. Most shelters are packed end to end particularly as kitten season comes to a close and can't home any of them because everyone is getting them free off farms as the farmers try to cut their numbers down again. My sister went to get kittens from a shelter to be indoor only for her apartment and I literally mean they are packed end to end. There are cages lining the hallways, cats sleeping loose on top of those cages, and entire rooms of cats wandering around. Very few of those kittens came from cats that anyone claimed, wanted, or had the money to neuter even if they wanted to expend the effort. It would take something monumental to turn the state cat population back in to pets with owners. Which is why cats are not a choice. Very few people choose to take on another cat. It just comes down to whether you can kill them or not since no one is going to come get them for you and even if you catch them no shelter can take them. So most people ignore them. You can't track down an owner to hold responsible, you can't give them away to any organization, and not everyone has the means to kill them. Unless they start doing damage to livestock and property they are left alone. Only a handful of people are feeding cats that they don't neuter because if you feed cats and don't do something about their potential population you'll have 50 by next year. Only people in larger towns go pick out a kitten/cat since most have the problem of trying to get rid of one or 10 instead. I know a few people who were paid by organizations just to go around killing cats. From that you get the relaxed attitude of letting a cat do what it wants since you don't control cats around here.

Most people here are also quite thrilled when their dogs set off killing wildlife.... People will proudly announce what wild critters have wandered on their property and been killed by their dog or talk about a past dog who wiped out a family of raccoons, took the rabbits down a knotch, or ran off the deer from the fields. Truly the only difference I see between the attitude towards cats and the attitude towards dogs is that of which one is dangerous to livestock and humans.

 

[PurpleChicken]

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Thanks for bringing this thread back on topic. I was treading lightly for fear of offending people or getting a fight started. I feel exactly the same. Any life taken for no reason is offensive to me and dogs and cats killing native species have nothing to do with "the circle of life". Just because it's natural for a dog or cat to kill doesn't mean it right or healthy for our environment.


Good point too about the dogs killing wildlife. Twenty years ago my Husky killed a wild duck and it cost me hundreds of dollars in fines. If my cat killed that duck's ducklings nothing would have happened to me.

 

[Blackbird]

I'm not sure about over in CT, but over here there are FAR more serious issues going on - mostly caused by people, that are wrong and unhealthy for our environment.
If you live in a town and a lot of your neighbors have feline friends, I would agree that natural bird species are more at risk, but in the country there are fewer cats in coorelation to birds - and the areas where the birds live.

 

[desertdarlene]

Arkane, I'm surprised you don't have a lot of foxes, hawks or coyotes out there with all those yummy

cats running around. In a lot of the more rural areas around Southern California, you find very few feral cats due to predators. Not saying that there's no feral cats out there, but you don't see them or any evidence of them. Cats are mainly problems in urban and "rural residential" areas around my region.

They did a study that showed that predators such as coyotes, were actually helpful to wildlife (specifically ground nesting birds) because they kept smaller predators (such as cats and most domestic dogs) in check. Of course, coyotes pose yet another problem in regards to livestock.

Where I wildlife watch near my home, dogs are more of a problem mostly due to owners with those long leashes (or no leash) letting them run all over the lakeshore and brush where all the baby ground nesting birds are running around.

 

[PurpleChicken]

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No, here in CT we have very few problems with dogs or cats. I'm in a small rural town and seldomly see an unleashed dog or stray cat. They are more prevalent in the cities here where food is more plentiful.

 

[Blackbird]

I personally believe that we need balance. And that often means that mice and sparrows are going to get killed. There is no shortage of them. Just as there is not a shortage of people on this earth - although very unbalanced in many areas.