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

[lasagnelle]

Get a bell collar or something. Give the wildlife a chance. Can you train cats to leave birds alone?

@lasagnelle if you can have a successful word with Putin, Hamas and Netanyahu (sp) I'll have a word with the girls.

That's such a shame! I love my garden - it's filled with mature trees and shrubs that I planted when we moved here nearly 30 years ago, both front and back. I'd never cut any of it down.

How do you propose that? I had cats and didn't feed the birds, however I couldn't stop neighbours from feeding them and no way would I have kept my cats indoors, I wanted them to have a good life.

Crows terrify cats. The sit on the fence staring and cawing at them. However we cannot restrict where birds go.

Seriously? Fuck me that would be top of everyone's career aspirations - Dog Shit DNA Tester!!

brought here by the Romans apparently. The Scottish Wildcat is the only surviving indigenous species. https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Cat-History-Of-Britain/#:~:text=Cats%20were%20brought%20to%20the,creatures%20back%20home%20with%20them.

I am torn because a mate of mine landlord won’t do anything about rats anyway he was sat in his garden and a big ginger cat jumps off wall and grabs a rat and kills it in front of him. He was very great full for the cat and it keeps coming back. I also have a friend who has stopped feeding birds because of her cat and a collar with bell doesn’t work doesn’t seem bothered about squirrels though,
I had a cat that grabbed frogs etc when young but then I think he got into Buddhism because all he would bring me back were flower heads that’s all.
so I guess don’t feed birds that might not encourage them to much to your garden

One reason why mine are indoor cats

Another thing that won't stop

Birds tend not to nest where there is a cat.

Don’t be silly.

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.

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.

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.

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".

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

Can you tell the difference?

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

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

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

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

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 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.

Im assuming the people saying this including Op are vegans?

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.

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

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