I remember doing predator-prey models at uni. The issue is that the population will just grow until it’s at some kind of capacity. Cats are easier to capture and spay, but an issue there is that for every cat that lives longer, many thousands of native animals are going to die. But the cat is cuter and visible, so we help it.
For eg pigeons, what limits the population? You can’t capture and neuter every bird, so population restriction is environmental. If you add food, rather than 1000 birds you now have 1100 birds, etc. Ideally we’re being kind to a balanced population of birds that play some part in the local ecosystem, rather than one that we created and out-competes other birds because we give it a hand.
Not an expert. Experts, what’s the best outcome here?
Edit: emigrated to Sydney. Took 3 moggies with us at great expense but they’re now inside cats so we don’t annihilate the local wildlife and irritate all the neighbours (who are rightfully very protective of their native animals). Cats are happy. A friend’s mom looked after about 17 feral kittens. Now 17 grown cats that eat a lot of food made of presumably gentle cows. This is not well-thought out. But kittens are cute and have utterly hacked humans.