Friends cat catching birds

[bagpuss90]

Okay -so I know cats hunt and it’s hard to stop them … However AIBU in thinking my friend should not have a bird feeding station in her garden when her cat is catching and killing a bird practically every day -three in one day a couple of weeks ago . It just sits there in wait . It’s like they’re being lured to their deaths. She won’t put a bell on the cats collar so the birds have half a chance . Don’t get me wrong-I love cats. But she says herself the cat is slowly but surely wiping out the bird population of her garden

If you have a cat you should absolutely not have a bird-feeding station. It's literally just putting out bait, ffs.

Bells on collars don't make any difference really. They're nowhere loud enough to disturb a feeding bird.

I don't dislike cats at all and totally accept that people can't stop them from killing birds, it's just one of those things. But putting a bird feeder up if you have a cat is actively encouraging it to kill them, which is a very different thing.

@PinkSyCo

It takes me longer to get a collar on my cat than it takes for her to remove it!

Haha that made me laugh!

She's a little cowbag, honestly. Fights me when I try and put it on, then one swift paw under the collar and snap, off it comes!

I've given up now!

Typically, she's the hunter too, so we could really do with about 10,000 bells on her to stop her catching all the mice (where do they all come from?!).

Yanbu
I have cats. They kill birds and mice maybe once a month

(We have many lovely birds visit our garden who sensibly stay high up in the trees! )

But I sure as heck am not luring the birds to their death with a reachable bird table for a waiting lip-smacking cat!! That's cruel

I just don’t not understand why cat owners don’t just put a bell collar on them. Anyone?

Because my cats spend every waking moment after having a collar put on in the urgent enterprise of removing said collar. Strategies include almost strangling themselves on branches of our Laurel bush to lever collar off.

When we kept trying collars before, smug cats simply jreturn without them. They are effective sneaky blighters - but I stopped after twice (different cats) hearing this desperate yowling to find idiotic cat dangling trapped itself on low branch looking very angry and sorry. Quite scary if I hadn't heard ...

I had a cat who would lose a collar within 24 hours every time, and others who would come in with their front leg through it or it around their lower jaw.

I've had cats for getting on for 40 years. The number of birds I've known them to catch, combined, works out as less than one a year, and they've all enjoyed bringing their prey home. I estimate that just under half were alive and appeared uninjured, in that they flew away on being released.

I don't regularly feed birds though. It's mainly jackdaws and magpies, and I do put food out occasionally in the winter, but keep the cat in until it's gone. Cat is terrified of corvids anyway, they don't take any shit from cats and they appear to deliberately mock him for their own amusement.

Mine has had the same collar for months. Probably a year. It’s a quick release one.

PinkSyCo
I just don’t not understand why cat owners don’t just put a bell collar on them. Anyone?“

Most cats have them off within hours.