Cat just brought me a dead bird...how best to dispose of it

[Startingagainandagain]

My rescue cat seemed to have graduated from bringing me live insects to a dead bird just now.

She brought it into the kitchen , then dragged it back just outside the door to the garden...

How best to dispose of the bird? should I burry it (although I have foxes that visit all the time so I don't want them to dig it back up...) in the garden? put it in some kind of cardboard box first to avoid the foxes smelling it?

My neighbour also got similar 'presents' from her cat and the foxes have kept digging it up...

I just tie the prey in a little plastic bag (because flies and maggots are a more likely problem than foxes) and throw in the big outside bin.

And congratulate Miss Kitty on a clean kill! Never tell her off - from her point of view, she is catting correctly...

We just put them in the bin.

This could be the first of several a week that she brings in. Say an average of 3 birds (or rodents) a week for 52 weeks a year for a life of 15 years.

Do you really want over 2000 birds buried in your garden? Even if she's not that prolific, it's still likely to be in the hundreds in her lifetime.

Post it to the RSPB.

Yep, bag and bin. That's what you're supposed to do with mice that have been trapped or poisoned (it said on the packet), so just as suitable if not more so for neatly slain birds!

Chuck it in the bin. Does she have a bell on her collar?

@Compash you seem to think cats killing wild birds is a good thing? I love my cat but this is a bit of a weird point of view... I appreciate it's what they do, but surely we should do what we can to avoid it?

I often put them at the end of the garden and the foxes deal with them.

Ours have never done this but I'd probably just chuck it into the back of some bushes.

Thank you everyone for the advice!

The foxes already treat my garden as a bed and breakfast (they sleep on my garden chairs...) so I don't want to encourage them by leaving it out for them to dispose of...

I will bag and put in the bin as suggested as indeed I might end up having to dig up holes all over the place if it is the start of a hunting spree for my cat.

We have a dedicated dustpan and brush for dead gifts. They just get hoicked into the hedgerow nearby usually and left for nature to deal with.

Live gifts are a different issue and much more of a nuisance.

I've put a bell on my cat as per advice from the RSPB. And he has a curfew from early evening until about 8.30am the slaughter has definitely dropped.

If it is ringed, remove the ring and send to the RSPB.
We usually either bury the cats' kills at sea (in the river) or just throw them in the garden undergrowth - they disappear very quickly (crows/foxes etc).

Bag it up and stick it in the black bin.

We take ours to birdie heaven aka nearest bin on our road that is emptied every day

PLEASE PUT BELLS ON YOUR CATS!

Poor wildlife species are being decimated as it is without your errant pets slaughtering them for fun.

There’s rarely anything left here (they are categorically not gifts!) so it’s usually a couple of mouse organs or a pile of feathers by the time I see what they’re up to. On the rare occasion where there is something to dispose of, it gets put in the hedgerow for nature to deal with.

Domestic cats have been bred as hunters of vermin for generations, we can’t expect that instinct to disappear because it is now inconvenient.
If you can’t bear any hunting get a Ragdoll, they are basically cats as most humans would like them, don’t expect vast amounts of personality though.

Bells make little to no difference.

Plus it's not safe to have collars on cats.

I bury them in the composter, that way they'll be recycled into soil and help the environment- mine tend to be mousers though - except one caught a bloody pigeon last summer ... and the dog got blamed til I saw evidence on the CCTV lol 😂

I'm sorry, this really shouldn't have made me laugh, but it did.

Moving swiftly on...

OP, I'd bag the poor bird and put it in the bin. I don't have a cat any more, but that's what I used to do when my rather stupid ginger boy managed to catch one.

Ok well what else would you suggest then?

It's a shame that, in the midst of a worldwide species collapse, some cats' safety needs are so paramount here.

actually if you don't praise them they think you are unhappy with the gift & will try & get you a better/bigger gift

You perfectly illustrate why domestic cats shouldn’t be kept as pets.

OP, what are you going to do to stop your cat from killing our dwindling native wildlife?

Cats have very little effect on wildlife decline. Studies have been done time and again to support this. Humans on the other hand.......

As for bells. Bearing in mind cats can hear a spider crawl by, how do you think a bell sounds right by its ear. Complete torture. Poor cat.

'@Dabralor · Today 11:35
PLEASE PUT BELLS ON YOUR CATS!

Poor wildlife species are being decimated as it is without your errant pets slaughtering them for fun.'

'@NicoleSkidman You perfectly illustrate why domestic cats shouldn’t be kept as pets. OP, what are you going to do to stop your cat from killing our dwindling native wildlife?'

My cat stays out in my garden for a couple of hours during the day, that's it.

So she is not 'errant' and I doubt very much she is going to decimate the bird population in that timeframe...

She is not doing for 'fun', she is following the instinct that nature gave her.

I have foxes living in my garden, seagulls nesting on my roof, many insects making the most of the flowers, vegs and trees I planted so I think I am doing my bit for protecting the environment.

Putting a collar and bell on a cat is not something I will ever do. I would drive me and the cat mad and it is a risk to them if the collar gets caught in something.

I also have no issue with the cat and the foxes keeping the rodent population under control as I have vegetable raised beds and compost bins.

Be honest OP, you just don’t care about wildlife.