If you have a cat you have to stop it scaring and eating birds

I gave up with collars after getting fed up having to constantly buy new when he came home without one. He likes going outside and will keep asking and asking until he gets his way. If meowing doesn't work he moves on to biting and scratching. He'll attack us, the children, furniture and gets more and more upset until the door is opened for him.

Some cats are ok with being indoor cats but most won't be as it's not in their nature. He has plenty of different toys but rarely wants anything to do with them so I've given up buying them too. If I was to never let him out, we'd have to keep all doors and windows closed constantly to stop him. When he was a kitten we used to shut him in a room if we wanted to open a window or door. He'd go nuts if we did that to him now, we did try keeping him in at night but he soon cottoned on and wouldn't come home in the evening as he knew we wouldn't let him out again. Unless it's horrible weather, he wants to be out at night.

You can't change the nature of animals, they are what they are. I would never get a cat that wasn't a rescue, many cat owners are the same so having them as pets is not why the population is so large. Rescues make sure that cats are neutered before they get homed to cut down on all the strays and cats with homes will hunt less than ones without as they are only doing it for fun rather than necessity.

I've just spoken to mine and she has confirmed that she is far too lazy to chase small animals or birds. She prefers it if I just open up a sachet of cat food and she ambles to the cat bowl. Then back to sleep.

Do you have a hedgehog in your garden that you've built a house for? Do you have insect hotels? Do you have birdfeeders which are kept topped up all year? I do, I also don't eat meat. I have cats, they're not called fluffy. They are not allowed out early in the morning and we get them in early at night.

My cats dont hurt wild life as their indoor cat and have an enclosed Catio.

Source?

So are cockroaches but I don’t see you opening up your home to them either.

I don't think cats speak highly of you either!

I asked mine & he said 'have you found that mouse that I exchanged for Dreamies this morning? It ran under the setee.

brought here by the Romans apparently.

Ours speaks Latin and regularly engages in gladiatorial combat with the bastard cat over the back.

He would like to add
aves sunt fututorum et merentur mori

The presence of the cats also keep the magpies at bay and therefore prevent the magpies from raiding the little songbird nests

I get the sentiment and wish cats didn’t - but do you eat organic food? Because pesticides kill far more little birds than cats do.

Im assuming the people saying this including Op are vegans?

My cats are working cats, they eat the animals they kill including bones and fur. Most of them don't kill birds but I do have one that does but goes for pigeons and pheasants- I would stop him if I could but I need the pest control for other areas of the farm as it is much better for the environment than using poison.

Why is it ridiculous. All the people feeding vast numbers of birds from bird feeders in their garden are just contributing to healthy bird populations who then decimate the worms. Its only as ridiculous as asking those who feed cats to ask them to stop eating worms

My vile scourge of a cat (best description yet) is too lazy and and slow to have ever caught a bird. The stupid bastard magpies though love to divebomb him though so occasionally need to rescue him from birds. He’s a bit deaf now so slightly oblivious

The irony of this thread is we (people) do a hellva lot more damage to the environment than a house cat

Nah. One of mine polishes a pigeon off in a couple of hours.

Can you tell the difference?

In any case domesticated cats have been in the UK since before Roman times.

Cats are a vile scourge. I despise them all. Vile creatures. They kill for fun, destroy nests of chicks just for fun.

YANBU. But cat owners don't care. They will bang on about their furbabies only doing what comes naturally, right to roam, and how cute it is that Tiddles brings them "presents".

Ours are semi-working cats, as we live in the countryside their job is to keep the rats and mice down, not to prey on the birds. The answer to this is that they are put out at night, when the rats and mice are about and the birds are asleep, and allowed to sleep in the house by day when the birds are active and the mice are asleep. We get very few 'presents' of half eaten birds.

There are reasons SPCAs in other countries like USA and Australia (and I think NZ) tell people to keep their cats indoors. In fact quite a few councils in Australia mandate it, some just overnight, others all the time. I have 3 cats and they are all indoor only.

(Depending on where you are, outdoors can also be a risk for the cat: traffic and predators)

It is the safest method, and you can keep cats well stimulated indoors.

I have a large garden that I have cat proofed to keep my own cats inside of, mainly to prevent them from getting run over, but they still manage to catch stuff within their own garden unfortunately... birds, mice, rats, a frog and a baby rabbit.

Dogs are just as bad imo for hunting and I’ve seen friend’s dogs get birds and rabbits even whilst walking on a lead. If you can’t handle it, don’t get a predatory animal as a pet.

Don’t be silly.

Birds tend not to nest where there is a cat.