Archipelago of Killer Cats - One For Pummy

Goldie wrote:

catgate wrote:

"......and kill thousands of wild animals and birds."

I think that is not particularly important.

The most important thing is just that they are cats.

The article is about Tigers though. You Tinkers trying to bring in the domestic variety. 

My reply was in reply to this part of your post.


Just think of kitties as belonging to the cat family which they do, just a smaller version

Stalemate one thinks 

Goldie opened the floodgates by including "One For Pummy" in the thread title. :;smile:

She well knows I have no problem with big cats in the wild.
But I am very conscious of the torture and carnage inflicted on native wildlife by domestic and feral cats worldwide.
MILLIONS of birds, reptiles and small furry creatures are savaged by felines every single night.
And unlike most carnivores, they kill not only for food but for sport - very often leaving their prey to suffer and die in agony over hours or even days.

Some might say "oh, it's only natural" - 
but it's not.
They are an introduced species against which native fauna have no instinctive defence. 

In Australia - and probably elsewhere - they have rendered some native species totally extinct.

It is far too late to ban the things altogether but I would like to see the immediate destruction of any cat found outside an owners property - particularly at night.
A substantial bounty on feral cats and a meaningful fine for the owners of roaming domestic cats.

If I had the techno-skills to post pics, some might be sickened by the sight of beautiful pale-headed rosellas and rainbow lorrikeets ripped to shreds but still suffering - within sight of my home.

Surely no true animal-lover can think this is OK.

I do know you have a huge problem in Australia Pum and believe your government are considering options to euthanaise.

We have the same here with a hunting  dog called  the Podmeca. We are over run with rabbits. The hunters use these dogs during the season  and do not want to feed them for the rest of the year. So release them. Many not neutered.

One out spoken vet has said they should be destroyed as many form packs. They  then have to be rounded up and sent to the animal shelter or left in back yards in baking sun to protect Spanish homes.

I tend to agree in this case a humane euthanasia programme  would work. 

Cat owners definitely need to be more responsible too. I never let my cat out to wander throughout the day whilst at work  and he was always in at night. He never wondered to be honest, like all my other cats I owned. 

As you know Pum I am hot on sterilisation programme as is the Canarian government. . Eventually feral  cats will be no more  and pet cats strictly controlled . It's the tourists who come for 6 months  stays adopt a cat or dog and realease them to fend for themselves once they go back home.

Not fair on anyone.

We need a Fatwa on cats, can someone gee up the Ayatollah?

Purwell wrote:

We need a Fatwa on cats, can someone gee up the Ayatollah?

I think it would be an excellent idea.  It could be called a Catwa and there should be prizes for those doing the most effective " cat cleansing" .

There was a scheme in the early 50s for getting rid of grey squirrels. The government was paying out money to the successful marksmen. I think it was something like a pound for every 5 tails. I had a  BSA ..22 at the time and access to a lot of woods and a nice little earner it turned out to be.

One would think stringed instrument makers would be very willing to support the providers of catgut with monetary  donations.

(I might have to keep a low profile for dyslexic sportsmen who can not differentiate between catgate and catgut.) 

Indeed. Keep your head down.

Take that  :;smile:

Goldie wrote:

As you know Pum I am hot .....

Never had any doubt.  ::

Pumicestone wrote:

Goldie opened the floodgates by including "One For Pummy" in the thread title. :;smile:

She well knows I have no problem with big cats in the wild.
But I am very conscious of the torture and carnage inflicted on native wildlife by domestic and feral cats worldwide.
MILLIONS of birds, reptiles and small furry creatures are savaged by felines every single night.
And unlike most carnivores, they kill not only for food but for sport - very often leaving their prey to suffer and die in agony over hours or even days.

Some might say "oh, it's only natural" - 
but it's not.
They are an introduced species against which native fauna have no instinctive defence. 

In Australia - and probably elsewhere - they have rendered some native species totally extinct.

It is far too late to ban the things altogether but I would like to see the immediate destruction of any cat found outside an owners property - particularly at night.
A substantial bounty on feral cats and a meaningful fine for the owners of roaming domestic cats.

If I had the techno-skills to post pics, some might be sickened by the sight of beautiful pale-headed rosellas and rainbow lorrikeets ripped to shreds but still suffering - within sight of my home.

Surely no true animal-lover can think this is OK.

 My point exactly.  They are entirely unsuitable for keeping in built up areas.  I have no qualms about the spikes on the top of my fence, and they are very effective.  Cats are fine on a farm to keep rats and mice down but not living next door to people who have a nice garden, and want to encourage wildlife.

I feel I must explain that "catgate" has no feline connection.
We bought a farmhouse forty years ago in order to be able to "supervise" my elderly parents. The farm was called Catgate Farm because it was the last farm on the lane running up to the moors and situated at the side of the gate through which the village cattle were driven up onto the moors.
It had been divided into two and had an additional lump added on, a couple of generations ago to provide a "cottage" for the farmers son.
One day several months after my father died (mother had gone before) we suddenly realised we were floundering about in a thirteen roomed dwelling and incurring vast heating bills and a scandalous Council Tax .
We moved from the "dales" to what the met office told  me was the second driest part of the country.  I think they were right.

we all have to live on this planet we should not continue to kill all the wild life? culling is a different matter and can provide a food source [and the chinese find cat and dog a great delicacy] mind you what about culling chinese there are millions of them [oh sorry forgot about the one child program - that was a great culling program heh?] the muslims are anit-culling heh as well as me grannie who had 13 kids or was it 11??

Back to cats a very interesting article by the RSPB


  
Image: Ray Kennedy

Estimates of how many creatures are killed by cats each year vary significantly.
The most recent figures are from the Mammal Society, which estimates that the UK's cats catch up to 275 million prey items a year, of which 55 million are birds. This is the number of prey items that were known to have been caught; we don't know how many more the cats caught, but didn't bring home, or how many escaped but subsequently died.
The most frequently caught birds, according to the Mammal Society, are probably (in order) house sparrows, blue tits, blackbirds and starlings.

No evidence

Despite the large numbers of birds killed, there is no scientific evidence that predation by cats in gardens is having any impact on bird populations UK-wide. This may be surprising, but many millions of birds die naturally every year, mainly through starvation, disease, or other forms of predation. There is evidence that cats tend to take weak or sickly birds.
It is likely that most of the birds killed by cats would have died anyway from other causes before the next breeding season
We also know that of the millions of baby birds hatched each year, most will die before they reach breeding age. This is also quite natural, and each pair needs only to rear two young that survive to breeding age to replace themselves and maintain the population.
It is likely that most of the birds killed by cats would have died anyway from other causes before the next breeding season, so cats are unlikely to have a major impact on populations. If their predation was additional to these other causes of mortality, this might have a serious impact on bird populations.
Those bird species that have undergone the most serious population declines in the UK (such as skylarks, tree sparrows and corn buntings) rarely encounter cats, so cats cannot be causing their declines. Research shows that these declines are usually caused by habitat change or loss, particularly on farmland.

Gardens: important habitat

Populations of species that are most abundant in gardens tend to be increasing, despite the presence of cats. Blue tits, for example, the second most frequently caught birds, have increased by over a quarter across the UK since 1966. Of the birds most frequently caught by cats in gardens, only two (house sparrow and starling) have shown declines in breeding population across a range of habitats during the last six years.
Gardens may provide a breeding habitat for at least 20% of the UK populations of house sparrows, starlings, greenfinches, blackbirds and song thrushes four of which are declining across the UK. For this reason it would be prudent to try to reduce cat predation, as, although it is not causing the declines, some of these species are already under pressure.
Cat predation can be a problem where housing is next to scarce habitats such as heathland, and could potentially be most damaging to species with a restricted range (such as cirl buntings) or species dependent on a fragmented habitat (such as Dartford warblers on heathland).

so what does that tell us FGS?

I think the best way to solve this problem is to just deal with the Tom Cats. Make it law that they should all be castrated at birth (or maybe the day after). Eventually the problem will cease.

davo wrote:

so what does that tell us FGS?

That poor little paddy cat has a halo