Cats killing all the baby birds

[paperdollar]

There are so many cats in the neighbourhood the baby birds don’t stand a chance. I don’t understand how people can’t take responsibility for their cats and keep them inside during nesting season (at the very least) to stop them butchering all the local wildlife. All that time and energy spent by birds tending to their nest and providing food for them to be killed without even having a chance. One cat in particular has been stalking mine and my 2 neighbours gardens and taken most of the baby birds that have come this year, this is the least we have ever seen. Despite shooing it, chasing it, using water pistols/jugs of water, dogs chasing it, lions poo, high up feeders, removing feeders etc. I have been to the owners door to ask her to keep it inside for a bit to give the birds a chance but she said it is an outdoor cat and it is “nature” and nothing she can do about it. It is nature for birds and other wildlife to prey on baby birds as a means of survival, not your overbred, overfed domesticated cats. One cat owner has 9 cats with a nest in her gutter, next door to that has 3 with a nest also. One of them has a feeding pole in her garden low to the ground, so my stopping feeding the birds means they will be going there to take their chances. I can’t believe foxes are put down for killing cats for survival but nothing can be done about this. It is making me ill to witness, these irresponsible owners are not animal lovers. I post at the end of my rope having just chased one with a screaming baby in it’s mouth and dropping it only once it stopped. I’m wondering if anyone else has ever suffered the same and found something to do about it.

When I say 'used to', I mean 'we still do'.

How can cats catch swallows? I would assume that’s very, very tricky indeed as they spend their life on the wing and almost never land on the ground. Unless you have flying cats? 😂

My cat will take fledglings (and eat them) for that reason he has a bell and I keep him in when I know there are fledglings about. However, I agree that we could all do a lot more to protect our wild birds and that cats really are not the issue. I live centrally in a bug city and we have lots of birds in our area. However that's at least in part to lots of green space, mature trees and lots of people planting hedges / wild flower in their gardens...

[quote Poorlykitten]@Kakiweewee my 17 outdoor cat had a very enriching life. I got a rescue kitten last year, who I kept in for the first 8 months of his life. He ate some cotton, which balled up inside his intestines. Three operations later and £2000 in vets fees, he died from complications. I thought I was doing the right thing protecting him by keeping him in. Turns out that’s not safe either.[/quote]
I ended up adopting a cat that can't go outdoors on purpose. I know accidents can still happen, and I'm sorry to hear about your kitten, but I'll probably only have indoor cats in future. At least FIV positive cats will always have a home in me...

Yes, we found the swallow catching really fascinating. The swallows nest in cart sheds and probably return to the same nest every year (I don't think the cats know this though). They swoop low as they enter the shed and then rise to their nests. It is on the low swoop that the cats pounce. It is only an occasional kill, but yes, they can do it. :)

I was pretty peeved last year because the birds nesting in mine are on red conservation alert.

I did figure out now that brambles, repellent from wilko and closing one hooe nect to the gate is the best combo of getting rid of that cats. They can take their territory wars to their own fucking gardens.

Also.
Cats in here don't hunt rats (hence rat infestations). They are literally just useless poop machines killing endangered spieces. As much as I like them (or used to) I don't want them here. If I wanted to deal with cat poop I got my own.

My cats are excellent ratters, they keep the population right down as our chickens are massive ‘rat-attractors.’

Nature is cruel

Domesticated cats are not natural though, particularly at the levels they are in some places today.

How do you know it's cats only? We have plenty of jays and magpies hunting for fledglings at the moment around. Seagulls too. They're definitely not coming to our garden for the nice view.
Considering one of our cats is too lazy and the other one is a Grandpa with a strong arthritis, the birds are safe from them. Not from the bigger birds though.

If I keep my cat in for 5 weeks who else is going to shit in the neighbours flower beds?

And you get all the cat owners on local facebook as well shouting because someone else has fed their cat and their cat has allergies- when it's usually the case that someone else's cat has helped itself to food that was out for another reason / animal.

Yet, it's not the cat owners responsibility to look after their damn allergic cat by keeping it in their property, but is everyone else's responsibility to change their habits in their own non-cat properties.

I think the laws on right to roam for cats will actually change soon.

Haven't rtft, but I agree, I fucking hate cats, I know they're loved on here but I hate them, they are bastards and I don't care who thinks I'm harsh.

My ndn has 8, when any die she replaces them immediately. They are NEVER inside, I see them wandering the street at 2,3,4 am.

They destroyed dds special needs bed by pissing all over it, they ate food off my table many times, they scratched doors in my house, they killed dss rabbit, they have done so much damage that I can't open my windows or doors. They are always bringing headless mice to my door, they also kill the baby birds, they got 2 birds one day in my back garden and dh ended up having to finish off the birds because they were wiggling in agony, I told her, she also said it's nature, so she now has a huge bird table in her garden so the birds go into her garden and her cats have easy access. The fucking screaming from the birds is heart breaking. I hate them so much.

I have two cats and one of them catches mice and he has caught birds but think he's getting a bit too old now.
It's not the best part of having a cat it's nature and it's also natural to let cats out (unless they are indoor cats).
Our male cat goes wild if he's kept in. We had to keep him in for 3 weeks when we moved and he wasn't happy. He used to sit on the banister and get his claw out and pull my daughter's hair when she walked past.

I wonder how many people would just shrug and "nature, innit" if it was animals killing their cats...

(i do not wish for the cats to die, just fyi)

My cat is an indoor cat, this year I've watched magpies literally massacre the baby birds in our border bushes. On average 2/3 birds a day. It's not just cats, it's nature.

Cats are trash animals. Worse than a skunk that has its glands poised ready to spray.

I agree with Sandi Toksvig. Why did you buy a cat but keep it in my garden?

Catios and cat proof fencing would prevent all the so-called hatred.

Keep them on your property.

Royal society for protection of birds has actually now come out to say domestic cats have very little impact on wild bird populations & actually contribute to them reducing other bird predators.

The rspb has a lot of cat loving supporters it doesnt want to upset. It is also true that cats are not responsible for the declines in many species - changes in farming practice and land use are to blame there. But it us disingenuous to say that they have no effect on urban wildlife.

Cats are too well fed and slow to catch birds unless they are ill or injured. It's other birds killing birds. And humans destroying their habitats of course.

@Kamma89

Royal society for protection of birds has actually now come out to say domestic cats have very little impact on wild bird populations & actually contribute to them reducing other bird predators.

Did they? Or are they still using data from the 1997 research. Because the cat population has risen since then. They are also not evenly spread out. So while some are is great, has 1 cat per street, some have 7.

@BeastforLease

And you get all the cat owners on local facebook as well shouting because someone else has fed their cat and their cat has allergies- when it's usually the case that someone else's cat has helped itself to food that was out for another reason / animal.

Yet, it's not the cat owners responsibility to look after their damn allergic cat by keeping it in their property, but is everyone else's responsibility to change their habits in their own non-cat properties.

I think the laws on right to roam for cats will actually change soon.

Wishful thinking. You obviously just came onto this thread to moan about cats.

My cat was re-homed by me from the RSPCA. She was re-homed because her old owners were relocating to a new house and didn't want a cat that didn't blend with the new furniture. She was an aggressive, wary fiend. She had never been let out. It took months to settle her. Now she goes out whenever she wants to, and has never killed anything. She stares nastily at the ducklings but is frightened of their parents. She's a random stray moggy.
My pedigree Burmese cat went on purposeful dawn raids. He brought back gloves, underwear, slices of cooked meat and the occasional mouse, as I would find a liver on the floor. The day I had scheduled for him to be pts (failing liver) he had dragged in an alive avocet. Quite awkward to get through a barge's aft portlight. That was the first and last bird he brought in, and it certainly wasn't dead! So not all cats who go outside are bird catchers!

Crows and magpies have always predated on small birds, and nature has always kept them in balance. If a predator takes too much from the food source, its own numbers decline and the food source climbs back.

Domestic cats are an unnatural introduction by humans, that breaks the natural balance. It's no good cat owners blaming the larger birds - you are responsible for killing small birds whether you accept it or not.

People need yo also realise that the fact that you don't see it, doesn't mean the cat is not hunting...