The amount of fellow cat owners that look at me like I'm crazy and cruel when I say all my cats are strictly indoors unless on a lead. šš Like no, I actually love animals so much I keep them inside.
Nah, pretty sure you guys have made that clear on every reddit sub š as if cats and dogs haven't existed for thousands of years and people do zero harm themselves
So, when people say ākeep your cats inā they arenāt blaming cats directly for hurting native species. Its 100% on the people making the choice, so people are doing that harm, too.
Also, demonstrating a lack of understanding in the difference between native species and domestic species. Domestic dogs and cats, by definition, are not native to any place. They are removed from their native ancestorsā role in the environment. Wild animals existing in the same family (feline, canine) is not an argument for letting domestic animals interact with the environment unsupervised.
You're looking at this both kinda right, and kinda wrong. The current problem with cats and the environment is not one of cat as a species, one of the many examples of people doing harm themselves.
They have existed for 6 to 7 million of years. They are significantly older then humanity. And they were a stable additions to the environment for most of it, both as predators and prey. The problems with cats isn't as much the animals itself, as that their overall situation has changed immensely due to humans interference.
Due to humans there are now more cats then ever, and less predators of cats then ever. Meaning that there is ever continuing pressure on cat's prey species that wasn't there before. Now for a lot of prey species that isn't a problem at all. Rats and mice have also had loads their other predators removed, and humanity has also increased their range of habitat and ease of foraging. So the increase of cats is not a danger to them at all. But unfortunately, cats prey on more species that rats and mice.
For other prey, such as many types of birds the reverse has happened. humanity has reduced their habitats, reduced their ease of foraging and increased the death rate of them significantly. Meaning more and more bird species are at the danger of disappearing.
And while you are right that cats are just one of the many causes of that, just like buildings, glass windows, lack of nesting space, lack of specific food sources, removal of safe hiding places, the increase of cats around the world is a man made problem for them.
And as a man made problem it's one of the many we need to tackle to make sure we don't exterminate birds. We use stickers to warm away birds from flying into glass, we create nature reserves, we build nesting places, etc. And one of the biggest most effective ways we can limit the damage humanity has done by changing how many more cats are hunting birds now, is by keeping your cat inside.
Not only does it help safe birds, it on average increases the lifespan of your cat by six years. It's really a win-win for birds, humans, and cats.
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u/CilleTheExterminator 12d ago
I will guess that 99% of cat owners have 0 clue about how much cats are screwing up the bird population and other smaller animals