Quote:
Originally Posted by Herb Hunter
The problem is that domesticated cats, despite being well fed, are over-killing birds and rodents for no reason other than to satisfy an innate urge.
Another problem is people that make negative, sweeping assumptions about everyone else.
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Yep and Not just in the US
"Cats kill 275 million other animals a year
Domestic cats are lethal hunters, killing at least 275 million other animals a year in Britain, a report showed today.
The apparently cuddly pets prey on a number of declining and endangered species, including water voles and dormice, said the Mammal Society.
The survey, called Look What the Cat Brought in, found that the average household cat caught or killed between 30 and 40 creatures a year.
With an estimated nine million pet cats in this country, the haul amounted to 200 million mammals, 55 million birds and 10 million reptiles and amphibians.
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz4ypGWtXCT
In the US
Cats kill more than one billion birds each year
New estimate suggests hunting felines take bigger bite than expected out of wildlife
BY SUSAN MILIUS 5:35PM, JANUARY 29, 2013
Domestic cats kill many more wild birds in the United States than scientists thought, according to a new analysis. Cats may rank as the biggest immediate danger that living around people brings to wildlife, researchers say.
SMALL HUNTERS, BIG PROBLEM Cats may be killing far more birds each year than previously thought, as well as substantial numbers of mammals, says a new analysis based on hunting studies from around the world
America’s cats, including housecats that adventure outdoors and feral cats, kill between 1.3 billion and 4.0 billion birds in a year, says Peter Marra of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Washington, D.C., who led the team that performed the analysis. Previous estimates of bird kills have varied, he says, but “500 million is a number that has been thrown around a lot.”