Countryfile BBC last sunday.

norseman · #1 25-09-2013, 07:14 AM

One article stated that, last year, domestic cats killed 14 million sparrows and uncounted field mice and voles - As Playthings, rarely to eat !
At the risk of alienating many people, I say a drastic cull of cats is in order.

Lucid68 · #2 28-09-2013, 11:14 PM

Nah, just make sure they all have collars with bells on :)

#3 29-09-2013, 11:58 AM

Collars with bells are a good idea. We shouldn't kill cats. Human's are responsible for many more animal deaths than cats are. We should cull humans.

#4 29-09-2013, 12:49 PM

Maybe we shouldn't bother to cull anything. It is Sunday and I am lazy on Sundays, besides culling things is really tedious to me.

LPC · #5 06-10-2013, 11:30 AM

Humans often kill for fun. They are way too many of them on the earth. Do you want to cull them? Why not? Just because you are one them, norseman?!

Or if you do want to cull humans, why not start a petition?!

No, culling is not the way. Population control (especially humans) seems a better course.

knightofalbion · #6 06-10-2013, 12:44 PM

We need to re-wire cats! Bring to the fore their loving, domesticated side over the wild aspect of their nature.

How I hear you ask? The same way any evolutionary progress is made teaching, example - and patience....

linen53 · #7 06-10-2013, 12:57 PM

Here kitty, kitty, kitty

No, really my cats do bring in playthings from the field. It's so sad and totally gross. I do use collars with bells on them and it works quite well.

My livestock guardian dogs are another matter. They will kill anything on the land or in the air that attempt to hurt their ducks (their family) or me or my husband.

Tobi · #8 06-10-2013, 05:43 PM

Aw! Come on norseman!
You can't do that! Yes cats do a lot of killing. I guess it's to keep their hunting skills. They kill birds, and mice, voles, shrews and rats. Some of them kill rabbits too. Yes they do kill them and leave them, many times. It seems unfair and mean, especially when kitty gets a good dinner at home...

But buzzards kill song birds.....I think crows do too, but definitely hawks do -and in large numbers. Yes they kill them to eat them, not to just leave them for the wild foxes to eat later (as cats do)
Foxes also kill them for food.

When we start to think about culling, we are in danger of judging one life or species and its ways, as greater or more important than another. And imagining that any human interference will be of benefit. Granted, predators like cats, may not be in such large numbers if it weren't for some level of human interference in the balance of nature in the first place. But let's even imagine there is no human interference....and there are no domestic cats, for a moment. Then the song birds would have other predators. Without humans, gardens, cats....there would probably be more hawks and foxes, or even wild cats...

Tobi · #9 06-10-2013, 06:13 PM

I just had an extra think about this.
One thing that I thought of was bird-feeders.
Many people who love nature like to put bird feeders in their gardens, and particularly like to encourage those birds like song birds.
Just an idea....the bird feeders have to be very carefully-placed. Cats can leap in very athletic ways, from walls, trees, rocks etc. Even from a standstill position on the ground. They can also balance along tree branches we might not think would bear their weight. And birds are 'sitting ducks' when they are busy feeding.
I have seen many bird feeders badly-positioned.

norseman · #10 15-10-2013, 10:36 AM

Glad you all "agree" with me. You are right of course, the worst pest is Man. Nature will take care of that cull, I think.

WE, us, the superior being, yada, yada have perverted cats and dogs away from their natural state, allowed them to become playthings and breed un-iterrupted. Dog population in UK 8.3 million, cats - 8.6 million. USA - dogs 75 million, Cats 80 million plus 50 million feral.