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

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

You're right, aubreynoramarie. The cat wasn't trying to attack my birds, but merely fell in through a roof panel that needed repair. Nevertheless, her presence scared the crap out of my birds and one was injured in the process. And i can't be sure that she would not have harmed them directly if she was trapped in there for a while. That pen has small flighty birds in it, not much bigger than a jay. And i have seen that cat stalking and killing jays.

i just don't need those cats hanging around, climbing on top of the pens, running directly into my duck herd as they scoot through the yard. It's high stress all the time. Not good for anyone.

 

[RHRanch]

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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

Well, the study above didn't distinguish between feral and outdoor housecats when the data was collected, so it does not tell us which is a greater predator of birds.

It also just referenced one survey in which they monitered the predation of Catbird chicks. Cats (housecat or feral - we do not kow) were responsible for 1/2 of the chicks lost to predation. What I would have liked to have seen was a chart showing me all of the chick deaths, the %'s and numbers. Then I might be able to make something of it, but this article is just someone's "summary" of findings, and it leaves out a lot of information.

 

[aubreynoramarie]

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Well I do agree that by this point the owners should be doing something. If I found out my cats were continuously creating problems, even if unintentional, I would have to give it the permanent lock up

 

[MuckyPuppy]

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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.

Nope in this one it states that owned cats have huge advantages over native predators. There was also the two year study at East Bay Regional Park District, CA with fed cats. Among others.

 

[MuckyPuppy]

Personally, I think there are always going to be people who believe that the only thing their sweet, little cat would ever kill are rodents and other nasties like that. Just like there are people out there who believe that their fuffy puffykins little doggy woggy wouldn't hurt a feather on a chicken's head even if that same puffykins was sitting at their feet chewing on a chicken's head.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

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Animals are animals. Even my sweet little chickens are barbaric on occasion, to each other, and me. One of my chickens pecked a steri-strip off my leg wound the other day, getting some of my skin and blood in the process. Now, she lunges for my leg every time i get near. My sweet 17-year-old domestic cat loves to be petted. But pet one too many times and she bites my arm. i don't think you can trust any animal 100%. Wild instinct trumps domestication at least part of the time.

 

[Pele]

This is a facinating thread! I personally am a bit of a cat-lady, and own 3 kitties. Two were kittens I rescued from shelter 6 years ago, and one is a 'dumb as a bag of particularily dull rocks' purebred.

I can totally see my two older cats bringing down birds, but not my purebred. Regardless, I keep ALL of my cats indoors, because they are all precious to me, and it'd break my heart if I found them run over or poisoned because I didn't want to be hassled by cleaning thier litter box. I just told myself it was part of responsibly owning a cat, and I shouldn't get one (or three) if I wasn't willing to do it. It takes a lot of work because I have a sensitive nose and need to clean every other day to avoid house smells, but that's the responsibility I took on.

As far as the cat falling through, I am sorry that it happened, but it kind of did you a favor. Cats generally are too flighty to take on something close to their size, and wouldn't have attacked your birds. But if a cat could just fall through, you can bet your life's savings that a raccoon would have taken full advantage of the weak pen. If it'd happened to me, I would be deeply grateful to that cat, and count a cracked beak being the only injury as a blessing. You could have woken up to a massacre instead.

And to address the interesting conversation on songbird population impacts... I wonder if my chickens themselves should be added to the list of 'negative impact to small fauna population' animals

. At least every other month I find a stripped-to-the-bone songbird or small animal near my chicken pens after they've freeranged. I can tell you it's more than the average kills that those scientists found that cats do!

 

[RHRanch]

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I know my chickens kill a lot of small animals, including birds - they have just about wiped out the once numerous fence lizards. Maybe its irresponsible to free range?

 

[woodmort]

I have 2 neutered, male cats that spend most of their day outside but are inside at night--actually they spend most of the day going in and out--and, while they are both well fed, they do catch animals. By and large their prey is mammals--mice, voles, chipmunks and baby rabbits--all of which I praise them for bring home to me. I just wish they would capture more as well as grey squirrels considering the damage all of these critters do to crops, buildings and wiring. On occasion they have caught birds, generally in early summer when the fledglings are just learning to fly. Inasmuch as I feed birds and enjoy having them around this does not make me happy BUT the number of birds caught by the cats in the 10 - 12 years we have had them is small compared to the number I have picked up after they have flown against the house. I suppose if I were concerned about native bird losses, I should raze my house and move elsewhere but since I'm not about to do that I just have to hope that loses, either to cats or house, are replaceable.

BTW neither cat bothers the chickens, even chicks, but are, in fact, leery of them.

 

[MuckyPuppy]

I have owned lots of cats and I must have been doing something wrong because unlike some owners I never knew exactly what numbers of birds they killed. I never really had the time to follow them around or wanted to go through the effort of getting a 24/7, 365 days a year cat cam. I would guess that some of them were eaten, some were killed and left and a small sample were brought home for me to step on with barefeet.

I would also think there are a lot less free ranged chickens than domestic owned and feral cats. (less widespread also - cities - apartments - etc)