Why Can't We Have Ordinances to Control Cats? Please?

[aubreynoramarie]

Quote:
Data please?

Some of the earliest studies on cat predation on native species were conducted in England where PET cats were monitored. I think that your supposition is proven wrong by these studies.

Also my statement was made on a basis that feral cats do more damage than household cats. I totally believe you when you say household cats do harm, but I still think feral cats are way worse

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Quote:
That's interesting. i suppose a feral cat would do more damage to wildlife, like local birds and rodents. But i never had a problem with the feral cats in our yard. Our pens are right off our patio and they were always too scared to come up close, well, except for that one big boy.

It's just unfortunate all the way around. Every cat should have an owner who provides food, shelter, protection, and love.

 

[MuckyPuppy]

Quote:
Must be you don't have cats. Have been owned by some of both species I can tell you that while cats can't really be controlled as well as dogs, dogs do a hellova lot more damage when not supervised. An adult chicken is more likely to die of some internal birth defect than be killed by a cat. On the other hand a whole flock can be destroyed in a manner of minutes by one licensed, well trained, family dog that just happened to get off-leash.

I have owned cats since I was knee high to a grasshopper and yes they were free roaming but since I have read the impact studies on wildlife and been on the receiving end of the neighborhood litterbox if I were to own one again it would be a housecat and only a housecat. I have also owned dogs one of which was a Rott as well as mutts. BTW, I own my pets. My pets do not own me.

 

[aubreynoramarie]

Quote:
That's interesting. i suppose a feral cat would do more damage to wildlife, like local birds and rodents. But i never had a problem with the feral cats in our yard. Our pens are right off our patio and they were always too scared to come up close, well, except for that one big boy.

It's just unfortunate all the way around. Every cat should have an owner who provides food, shelter, protection, and love.

There is absolutely no basis behind what I say. All I know is that the cat in the OPs post sounded like it got in the pen by accident, and was not stalking the chickens. My cats are scared of my chickens. I don't really see many cats being able to take down a full size chicken. But I really think if we are talking about songbirds and rodents and such that feral cats would make a GREATER impact (again, not saying housecats don't make an impact!) based on the fact that they need to eat them to survive

 

[MuckyPuppy]

http://www.abcbirds.org/abcprograms/policy/cats/materials/predation.pdf

This link shows that domestic cats are a huge problem mainly because they are well fed, cared for and healthy.

 

[MuckyPuppy]

This one is a recent one from the National Wildlife Federation.

http://blog.nwf.org/wildlifepromise...-of-outdoor-cats-on-birds-and-other-wildlife/

 

[sommrluv]

People should keep their cats inside, period, unless they live on some huge farm and the cat doesn't leave their property.

I don't understand why their are not ordinances against it. If your cat comes on my property, I will trap it and remove it to a kill shelter.

 

[aubreynoramarie]

Quote:
I think this study lumps feral and indoor/outdoor cats into one. I think it's basically saying ALL CATS that are outside cause this much damage. I'm still not convinced that an indoor/outdoor cat can do more damage than a feral cat. Sorry guys. You're gobo me studies that say cats do damage, and I believe you. But I'm looking for some kind of comparison. I guess I'll look it up when I get home and see what the facts are as far as that goes

 

[aubreynoramarie]

Quote:
This link also lumps feral cats in with indoor outdoor cats. "domestic cat" is a term for any cat, wether it has a home or not. Maybe were just miscommunicating, I do not feel like a cat that lives in with a family does as much harm as a feral wild domestic cat that hunts it own food and spreads disease.

 

[sourland]