Cats add an unnatural, lethal dimension to the outdoors

A provocative treatise from Worcester (Mass.) Telegram & Gazette outdoors writer Mark Blazis about the staggering toll that roaming, outdoors cats have on songbirds. Minimally, Blazis notes, feral and domestic cats annually kill 100 million to 300 million birds in the US, with some estimates closer to 1 billion. We especially appreciate Clay Thompson's analogy, that house cats are an invasive species, like kudzu, except that kudzu doesn't murder millions of songbirds.

Comments

[Firstname Lastname]

The problem IS NOT JUST BIRDS. Cats have the largest prey-base of any predator and breed 2-3X's faster than any naturally-occurring species of cat on earth. They destroy THOUSANDS of species by destroying those NATIVE SPECIES food sources as well as those species they directly destroy. This is precisely what happened on my own land.

I wondered why I hadn't seen any raccoons, fox, owls, hawks, turkey, grouse, pheasant, etc. for years. All I kept seeing were cats. Cats had annihilated all the wildlife on my land. From smallest of prey to the top predators that starved to death -- from cats destroying all their food sources for cats' play-toys.

Asked the sheriff what to do. Told me I had EVERY right to destroy any animal not on any endangered nor threatened species list that was threatening the safety, health, and well-being of my own animals or family. I now find this is true everywhere in the USA, even in densely populated cities.

Shot and buried hundreds of cats over 2 years ago. Contrary to cat-lovers oft-spewed "vacuum effect" LIE, not ONE cat has replaced them since. Simple reason: cats attract cats. Get rid of every last one and there's none there to attract more. Spot even ONE again? Shoot on-sight A.S.A.P. or you'll be up to your a** in destructive cats again in no time.

During that time I tried to feed one of the shot-dead cats to the last few remaining wildlife (an opossum family I was feeding to keep them from also starving to death), but those opossum promptly died from some disease in that cat-meat. Cats truly are complete wastes of flesh, you can't even use them to safely feed wildlife. Even more alarming, opossum can't catch nor spread many common diseases due to their cooler body temperatures. Not even rabies. Yet something in that cat was able to kill them. Cats need to be buried deeply or incinerated after they are dead. Leaving ANY cat out in nature, alive OR dead, is no better than intentionally poisoning all your native wildlife to death.

[Firstname Lastname]

TNR REALITY

FACT: Trap & Kill failed because cats cannot be trapped faster than they exponentially breed out of control.

FACT: Trap & Sterilize (TNR) is an even bigger abject failure because they cannot be trapped faster than they exponentially breed out of control, and they also continue the cruelly annihilate all native wildlife (from the smallest of prey up to the top predators that are starved to death), and the cats continue to spread many deadly diseases that they carry today -- FOR WHICH THERE ARE NO VACCINES AGAINST THEM. Many of which are even listed as bioterrorism agents. (Such as Tularemia and The Plague -- Yes, people have already died from cat-transmitted plague in the USA. No fleas nor rats even required. The cats themselves carry and transmit the plague all on their own.)

FACT: Hunted To Extinction (or in this case, extirpation of all outdoor cats) is the ONLY method that is faster than a species like cats can exponentially out-breed and out-adapt to. Especially a man-made invasive-species like these cats that can breed 2-3X's faster than any naturally occurring cat-species.

FACT: Alley Cat ALL-LIES of NYC have only managed to reduce the number of feral cats in their own city by 0.08% to 0.024% (and as the months go on that percentage becomes even more insignificant), thereby allowing more than 99.92% to 99.976% to continually and exponentially breed out of control. Alley Cat ALL-LIES can't even reduce the number of feral cats in their own city, yet they promote it as a worldwide solution, then even bigger fools fall for it and promote it.

FACT: When researching all the most "successful" TNR programs around the globe, JUST ONE OF THEM has managed to trap more than 0.4% of cats in their area. Oregon's amazing 50,000 TNR'ed cats (the highest rate I found) is only 4.9% of all feral-cats in their state. Yet, by applying advanced population growth calculus on the unsterilized 95.1% of cats they will have trapped only 0.35% of all feral-cats in their state sometime this year. <0.4% is a far cry from the required 80%-90% to be the least bit effective.

FACT: Their mythical "vacuum effect" is a 100% LIE. A study done by the Texas A&M University proved that any perceived "vacuum" is just the simple case that CATS ATTRACT CATS. Get rid of them all and there's no cats there to attract more. I proved this myself by shooting and burying hundreds of them on my own land. ZERO cats replaced them FOR OVER 2 YEARS NOW. If you want more cats, keep even one of them around, more will find you. That university study also found that sterilized cats very poorly defend any territory. Non-sterilized cats, being more aggressive, take over the sterilized cats' resources (shelter & food if any). If there is any kind of "vacuum effect" at all, it is that sterilizing cats cause non-sterilized cats to restore the reproductive void.

FACT: During all this investigation I have discovered something that is unfaltering without fail. Something that you can bet your very life on and win every last time. That being -- IF A CAT-LOVER-HOARDER IS TALKING THEN THEY ARE LYING. 100% guaranteed!