Subject: Re: rampant raccoons
Date: Apr 18 17:33:03 1995
From: "Roger Peffer" - rpeffer at ctc.ctc.edu


Just had to comment on this cat issue...
I have 4, they are all "fixed" indoor cats and I do not let them catch birds.
Does this take away from their "catness"??? Maybe so but isn't that what
domestication is all about? Inside cats live longer than outside cats and are
typically healthier. I have some irresponsible cat owner neighbors who refuse
to care for their pets. (It appears they do the same with their children.) On
more than one occasion the vermin have nailed birds in my net before I could get
out the door to get to them. My response is to throw the cat in a box and take
them to the humane society. They have no business being on my property. Cruel?
Maybe so... but maybe it will encourage some responsible pet ownership. (Don't
you wish you could do that with some peoples kids?) I apologize if this seems
like a flame but it should be an important issue with bird enthusiasts. How
many birds die each day in North America due to cats?
>
> Now that we live more in the 'burbs, our cats catch a lot more birds. They
> seem to do this mostly in the pre-dawn and post-sunset hours, and catch a
> lot of mice and shrews then, too. Of course they also catch some birds
> during the day. We have no raccoons, a circumstance which surprised me
> until I realized it was the coyotes keeping the raccoons in check!. I just
> hope the coyotes don't decide to keep our cats in check (although I fully
> realize this may happen someday). I also think our cats catch more birds
> here because in Ravenna everything was landscaped and the birds kept more to
> the trees. Here we have tree-oriented birds but we also have a lot more
> wild shrubs and grasses and hence more ground-nesting and ground-feeding
> birds, which makes them more vulnerable to cats.


Roger Peffer- rpeffer at ctc.edu 509-662-1651 X2017
Wenatchee Valley College
Biology/Chemistry Departments
1300 Fifth Street
Wenatchee, WA 98801