Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Cats - plea for responsible ownership of predators

As an ecologist let me first say that cats killing birds is about as natural as taking thousands of predators from another country, breeding them to look nice, and then dumping them into an ecosystem at a massive scale. Feeding them food transported many miles and releasing them into a habitat 'unevolved' for their presence at such scale (55 million birds per year in UK). That is not nature. That's putting a predator into an ecosystem which cannot support it. Hardly 'natural'.

http://www.mammal.org.uk/sites/default/files/Domestic%20Cat%20Preda...

As someone who enjoys nature, in particularly the rare biodiversity we have here in London, it saddens me to see armies of felines, mercilessly slaughtering young/parent birds at this crucial time of year.

I get the companionship and cuteness argument. And inside the house there is a mouse argument I guess. Hardly a blot on rat populations (but make me feel comfortable) - the presence is merely enough. But the statistics don't lie, these creatures are destroying biodiversity.

It's not the cat's fault, it's the owner.

Don't even get me started on the poo!

If you truly are an 'animal lover', then make it all animals please. Not just the cute furry salient ones.

Help those which have taken enough of a beating at our hands. If you must release cats into the wild. Please put a bell on your cat. A little effort goes a long way.

Just think of those little birdies.

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Permalink Reply by Lauren on April 29, 2016 at 16:42

My sister and I were far healthier than the kids who were mollycoddled and sanitised, and we never had a day off school. We had loads of contact with various animals and muck. Mind you we also had to walk over a mile to school and back in all weathers (in the far north) and we had no central heating in our house so that probably helped.