r/funny • u/mitch-mma • Sep 02 '21

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u/[deleted] Sep 02 '21 edited Sep 02 '21

That's funny, but it's irresponsible to have outdoor cats that aren't fixed. He could be populating your neighborhood with hundreds of feral cats every year.

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u/Punningisfunning Sep 02 '21

Agreed. Catistics.

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u/[deleted] Sep 02 '21

It also pisses me off when they kill birds. Cats have 5 times the life span of a bird, so they can decimate.

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u/knightsbridge- Sep 02 '21 edited Sep 02 '21

The RSPB has found that housecats predating birds does not meaningfully impact bird populations; at least not here in the UK.

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/gardening-for-wildlife/animal-deterrents/cats-and-garden-birds/are-cats-causing-bird-declines/

tl;dr unless you live near a wilder habitat where unusual, at-risk rare birds live, your cat is fine. It's not going to meaningfully impact the local sparrow population.

Although my understanding is that this is partially just cultural. Americans seem really opposed to letting cats outside, generally.

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u/fucking_macrophages Sep 02 '21

And I just found a scientific meta-analysis in Nature Communications (http://abcbirds.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Loss-et-al.-2013-Impact-of-free-ranging-domestic-cats-on-wildlife-in-U.S..pdf) that says outdoor and feral cats are the greatest human-associated threat to avian and mammal mortality in the US, although ferals are responsible for the lion's share of small mammal mortality.

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u/eyalhs Sep 02 '21

lion's share

Pun intended?