To help birds, we plant trees and dense shrubs and wild hedges full of biodiversity and fruits and insects. We build nestboxes. We build ponds and birdbaths. We stop pruning like obsessed. We put seeds in winter. We know that birds and hedgehogs trive in areas full of cats. If they find any minimum refuge, this is unavoidable.
If there are none of that things around, is not cat's fault. Build it. Children need to be exposed to free animals to turn into healthy people.
I know it makes you feel better to allow your cats outdoors but please recognize that it affects the ecosystem on a larger scale.
Some ecosystems are resilient. Some wipe actively any cat. Some should ban entirely cats while in other places removing cats could in fact harm the birds by the rodent population explosion. It changes also if the bird is migrating or not, if is young or not...
Birds are noisy. At 4:30 in the morning. Anything that wakes me up at 4:30 in the morning is a problem that needs to be dealt with immediately with whatever level of violence is necessary to stop the squawking.
You get all chirpy in my yard, you deal with Mr. Tiddlesworth. Same with the squirrels that get on the roof. Die!
Triple pane is the way to go.
The solution is not to make the world fit cats, the solution is for you to take personal responsibility for the animal you decide to host at your house. If you can't keep that animal at your house, then don't get an animal. It's simple.
Nobody would suggest if I buy a hyena that eats dogs that people should start putting their dogs in hyena proof armor so as to accommodate the preferences of the hyena owner and the inclinations of the hyena.
Consider also that humans confined to an indoor environment have much more environmental enrichment available in books, television, internet, games etc. The only environmental enrichment available to cats indoors are really terrible simulacra of nature (strings, balls, furniture) and many of these are only available when people are available to play.
Edit: I forgot about the outdoor cat I had that I left at home when I went off to college. It got run over by my neighbor because it was sleeping under his wheel and he didn't notice.
I can't speak for anyone else, but I'd never allow my cats outside.
Not for ecological reasons, but because I live in a flat on the fourth (that'd be the third floor in the UK) floor of an apartment building in NYC.
If my cats got out of my apartment, they'd have to go down three flights of stairs and then wait for someone to open two separate doors in order to get out into the street.
Once on the street, there are many hazards for cats, not least of which are automobiles.
Having been to London, I imagine that there's a similar dynamic there as well.
As such, I'd say that it's more about urban/suburban/rural settings than different countries.
My aim wasn't to offend anyone. Well unless you're a cop that commits domestic violence. They should probably be offended.
It was a tactless analogy, but a strong analogy nonetheless.
"what did you expect to happen" blames the victim.
"Police officer is as likely to engage in domestic violence as a cat is to kill a bird outside" is not a strong analogy. I think almost all young cats would kill birds outside. It's a far cry form "a far higher rate".
As a rhetorical device, it falls flat because it argues for something obvious by comparing it to something obscure. It would work better the other way - if you were on a thread talking about domestic violence and comparing it to cats killing birds.
Men commit violence at a far higher rate than women. But it's still lower than the "what did you expect" threshold.
I imagine you’d lose that bet.
Indoor/outdoor cats have been common everywhere I have lived.
My next door neighbor’s cat, Mr. Freckles, almost completely wiped out our chipmunk colony and I still find dead birds he has killed every few weeks.
I live in a small neighborhood of 43 homes and there are 6 cats that I know of that spend the majority of their time outside.
I wish I lived where you live where it was less common.
Istanbul has left the chat.