n7gifmdnAs if we need another reason to switch to GNU/Linux
Lizardking27Keeping your cats indoors won’t solve anything. Housecats aren’t destroying the bird population, feral cats are. If you want to help, volunteer with your local vet or animal control to capture, spay/neuter, then re-release stray cats.
Not true. Pet cats are about a third of the problem, according to a 2013 nature paper. Feral populations vary a lot by location - some places have almost no ferals but lots of pet cats.
The impact of free-ranging domestic cats on wildlife of the United States - Nature Communications
Free-ranging domestic cats cause wildlife extinctions on islands, but their impact on wildlife in mainland areas is unclear. This study presents an estimate of mortality caused by cats in the United States, suggesting that 1.4–3.7 billion birds and 6.9–20.7 billion mammals are killed annually.
That study’s been going around for years in the media, but mainly because it’s sensational. If you actually read the article, I’d hardly say it’s very convincing, or very accurate. Also, this.
Existing estimates of mortality from cat predation are speculative and not based on scientific data13,14,15,16 or, at best, are based on extrapolation of results from a single study18. In addition, no large-scale mortality estimates exist for mammals, which form a substantial component of cat diets.
I read it, it’s from 2013
“About a third of the problem” So, not the primary cause (or solution.)
“We estimate that free-ranging domestic cats kill 1.3–4.0 billion birds and 6.3–22.3 billion mammals annually. Un-owned cats, as opposed to owned pets, cause the majority of this mortality.”
Read the whole paper though. It has percentages. Just sayin
It does indeed.
“We estimate annual mammal mortality in the contiguous United States at between 6.3 and 22.3 billion (median=12.3 billion) (Fig. 1b) with 89% of this mortality caused by un-owned cats.”
MissJinxIndoor cats are not a problem because they are indoors. Outdoor cats thar come inside sometimes are a problem indeed but most of them were not adopted they just apeared out of nowhere and you now think it’s your cat. So it was feral at some point or at least was born from one.