"This evening, I watched a local TV news item about cats roaming. The vet mentioned 'hunting'.....(presumably for birds, wood mice, amphibians, slow worms and basically any creature that moves within their own natural habitat). A garden designer then goes on to claim that domestic cats are 'part of wildlife'.
"NO! Domestic cats are NOT part of our natural wildlife and ecosystem."
someone else:
"Totally agree. I quite like cats, but little kitty is responsible for millions of dead wildlife then goes back to its warm home with all the cat food it needs."
oh, and a third who decided to insult the garden designer:
"Dear garden designer, you need desperately a brain designer"
Why, why, why do people on "wildlife" groups insist on making outright incorrect statements as though they are facts? Anyway, I decided that the comments (not the insulting one) needed a response:
"Without being argumentative (honestly) cats have been part of our ecosystem for a very long time.
"We had the original wild cats (no, not the wild European tabby promoted today but the real one) that humans wiped out and survived through interbreeding with domestic cats brought to Britain before and also during the Roman occupation and this continued for over a thousand years and in the 18th century writers noted that if it were not for feral cats breeding with wild cats the wild cat would have died out "centuries ago".
"Cats were not pets even in the Medieval period as they were working animals used to keep down rats and mice. "pets" only really started in the late 18th-19th centuries and we have feral cats today that keep down rodents -in fact even cities in the United States use feral cats rather than rodenticides now.
"The estimate of cats killing "millions" of wildlife each year is faulty in that someone sits down and decides that there are "X" number of cats in a street and so an exaggerated number of cats is given. Then they assume that because someone saw a cat carrying a bird it killed it. So all of the cats in that street and in the country killed at least one bird.
"I observe domestic cats and studied wild cats and ferals since 1980 and I can tell you that even feral cats do not have the claimed kill rate of a domestic (in fact feral cats are not included in estimates).
"So, yes, we have had cats descended from the North African wild cat (the grand daddy of all cats) in our ecosystem for well over 1000 years and in that time they have not wiped out species. Humans have wiped out cats, foxes and so many other species but that doesn't count of course. So, yes, cats are a part of our ecosystem."
A previous post on this subject can be found here:
People who are moderators or admins on Face Book social media groups should not voice their own opinions based on newspaper reports of studies or even accept those studies without questioning the data.
In Hong Kong similar reports led to cats kept as pets only being allowed out if walked on harness and lead. A good idea. But pet cats in cities and towns are killed regularly by cars. Keeping cats as indoor cats is not cruel it simply requires them having toys and climbing structures -my old cats were all rescue and lived to be 27 and in the early 20s and they were very happy and never bored.
Indoors your cats are safe. But -but- outdoors they are not all slaughtering hundreds of wildlife species each year -some of the species they are supposed to be killing are not even spread across the whole of the UK so their being wiped out is a fiction.
Facts not personal opinions
Apparently one of the original posters "Cannot let this go" and cited one cat that had killed some wildlife a year or so before and wanted my counter figures to the "study" and basically my credentials to comment. my response was as follows:
"over 4 decades of studying cats. I am recognised as an "authority" on the subject and have even been an official consultant. I do not just go by my field work but also talking to other naturalists and people such as Cat Protection League and so on and so forth.
"As I pointed out you CANNOT counter guessology which is what those figures were and I am not the only naturalist to question those figures.
"One cat kills a bird. "We'll say that there are six cats in that street so that is 6 birds killed. We'll say every street in that town has 6 cats and each kills a bird" and that is not science it is guessing.
"Study feral cats who have to hunt and kill to survive and they are not slaughtering everything in sight. Yes you will get cats occasionally that just have the hunt/kill instinct. But it is complete and utter nonsense to say mammals and birds are dying off because cats are killing them.
"By the 1860s humans had killed off the old British fox species, wild cats, red squirrels and in some areas hare and deer and the list of mammals made extinct by humans is huge. Imported animals from Europe were then killed off for 'fun'.
"Last year drivers in Bristol killed (only the ones reported) 264 foxes and cubs. 56 badgers and deer, pet cats, rabbits. Shooters go out every night and kill wildlife (and we know stray pets) for 'fun'. Even the British Trust for Ornithology has called for the fox to be Red Listed. We are killing badgers to such an extent that they are heading for eventual extinction -250,000+ in the cull and 100,000 a year across the UK. Humans have made species extinct by the score and m,ore are on the verge of dying out now -not because of cats but humans.
"A fictional number uses cats to scapegoat them for human activities. If you come up with figures you need to have done the work to gather that data.
"I have seen two cats carry off birds that died smashing into windows. One carried of a jackdaw that was hit by a car. Someone sees those cats and "They killed those birds!" That "study" was by people who were sat in a comfortable office and played about with figures that newspapers and people loved but naturalists scratched their heads over.
"If cats are killing so much wildlife why does that wildlife still exist? Why are there still frogs, newts, blackbirds, sparrows and other species. Some cats just cannot be bothered if a bird lands near them or a mouse runs by -I have seen that on a number of occasions yet those cats would be counted amongst the killers.
"If you are an admin or moderator on a wildlife group you have to show both sides not personal opinion. There are people out there who love these stories because they hate cats and they feel what they do justifies the horrors they commit on pet cats.
"A wildlife group should state "according to a study that has its detractors" and not offer the study as fact.
"I cannot change your personal opinion but it is the responsibility of naturalists to present facts or offer up counter arguments so that members of the public get a fair idea of what is going on.
Update
To clarify for those who did not read this post properly; I am fully aware of Island Impact when a species such as cats or rats are there due to human stupidity but it also has to be noted that humans also visiting those islands had an impact in killing wildlife (the cat did not kill the Dodo for instance nor the Falkland/Malvinas Island Wolf) for fun and food-stock. However, each location has to be treated and studied individually not be subject to a wide-ranging statement.
As I noted in The Red Paper 2022 vol. Felids there are wild cats on Mediterranean islands that have been there centuries -wildlife still exists. There are feral cat colonies in southern Europe that are taken care of by locals but still large numbers and yet, apart from rodents, the wildlife is still there.
Australia is a continent where the humans are just kill crazy and I have posted about this before but if you are over run with rats, mice and rabbits then the predator (foxes, cats and dingoes or feral dogs) will take care of the numbers. But poisoning, snaring, shooting and clubbing as well as electrocuting the predators and then having to use (amongst other things) flame-throwers to kill off mice...that shows a basic lack of any sense. What kills the predators is also killing other species. There is a reason naturalists called it "The Red Continent".
The UK, or Britain as it was known once, has wild cats large and small in its ancient to historic periods (lynx and wild cat lasted the longest before humans did their thing). During the Bronze age period traders brought with them the North African wild cat or its more tame cousin. The Romans then brought their working cats -to keep down rodents- and all of these had individuals that went feral and by the late 1700s it was recognised by naturalists that had there not been feral-wild cat inter-breeding then the British wild cat would have died out at the same time as the lynx.
Summing up 40+ years of study in a social media or blog post is not possible. My books contain all the information and references you will ever need. All I can say is that after a thousand years of feral/domestic cats wildlife is still here and it is a two-legged species causing the extinctions -proven fact
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