Shorter Steve Dale: Hey, birders, agree with me that feral cats should be left in the wild where they will kill birds. Oh, and could you volunteer to help maintain feral cat colonies? See, we can get along!
Trap-Neuter-Release is a failure and leads to misery for cats and death for birds and other wild creatures.
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.
I second that “um, no”.
I don’t even know what to say. He admits what we have been saying, that cats don’t belong outside, that they are a threat to themselves, to wildlife and so on. But then it’s like he just makes the rest of it up as he goes along.
*having a fit and falling out of my chair*
I actually started reading this site because I was excited about starting birding and love all of the photos and writing.
But it does disappoint me that there is this rift between two animal communities. Trap and kill for cats has never worked and there are examples of TNR that DO work, some of which I’ve actually seen. If there was actually a solution that is not TNR that really works, I would love to hear it. Because so far no one has actually come forward with anything but a) kill all the cats (which has proved nearly impossible even on islands using inhumane tactics that would never be introduced in areas where domestic cats live), b) round up all the cats and put them in sanctuaries (multiple reasons why this makes no sense from space and funding) and c) keep all cats inside (which ignores the cats who are not “indoor” candidates because they’re not socialized to humans and the lack of resources for that).
Pollution and land use are huge issues that affect birds (and other animals). Can we all agree to try to change that?
I’m sure I’ll be attacked for this outlook since birding sites these days tend to just have ONE outlook or the commenter gets attacked but I did want to say it, even if it is the only comment I’ll likely ever make on this blog again.
@jesse: T-N-R programs that work still leave populations of feral cats in the outdoors that kill wildlife. So a T-N-R program that “works” is still something that the vast majority of birders oppose.
And, yes, pollution and land use do effect birds and I don’t think anyone that opposes T-N-R programs are in favor of more pollution or more environmental degradation.
This is what could end up happening:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwXmpTuGZ2o
I’ve never seen a pro-TNR article provide an actual case study of it “working”. They all claim it does, the writer may even claim they have seen it themselves, but they don’t seem too keen on going into detail.
I mean I could look it up myself, but I shouldn’t have to do all the work. TNR supporters want to convince people they should make the evidence easier to find. I don’t want to just take their word for it (I’m pretty unconvinced) but I don’t want to trawl through journals either.
@Jesse, Trap and kill DOES work. That you and others opposed to removal of feral cats keep repeating this, DOES NOT not make it true. It just illustrates that feeble minded individuals believe anything that they hear repeatedly due to a lack of critical thinking ability.
The argument that ‘other cats’ will move in to replace the displaced ones, is also a fallacy, because the source of those are people criminally releasing animals into the wild; violating several local state and federal laws. Louis Pasteur proved that maggots, bacteria, and other life forms do not spontaneously appear; this applies to cats as well. Omne vivum ex vivo
It is egregious that politicians are so afraid to uphold the laws that are already on the books in fear of a vocal and misguided minority.
Other pest species have successfully been controlled by ‘bounties’. Judging by the amount of folks who troll the streets looking for the 5 cent deposit on bottles and cans, a $1 bounty would clear up feral cat colonies in a matter of weeks.
If you love cats, give them a good home: indoors.
@Greg: I love that video.
@crowbones: Agreed.
@Arie: “Feeble-minded” is a bit mean but I agree with the sentiment of your comment.
I’m a bird person and a cat person. I live in Australia. I see the suffering caused by cats on native animals. I believe mandatory desexing and confinement of cats should be law. I have 8 cats all enclosed happily. They have never and will never kill a bird.
I also agree with the person above who stated that habitat destruction is a bigger problem – the biggest (he didn’t say that exactly but it’s hard to argue it). Would I love to impose mandatory desexing and abolishment of land clearing on humans… yep. Apparently not allowed though (one day maybe.. I live in hope).
So let’s work at solving the cat problem. I’m not sure what powerful lobby groups are at work to stand in the way of mandatory desexing and no free roaming of cats. I think that should be a base to halt the increase of this problem. Then work at rounding up the wild ones – I’m no fan of killing anything. But I also don’t have answers for what could be done with the 10 million, 20 million or whatever estimated number of ‘feral’ cats there are in Australia alone.
@Galah – the solution to cats in Australia is dingos! Apparently dinos suppress cats and foxes and are good for endemic wildlife.
Arie has it right in his response to Jesse. If your goal is to remove feral cats from the environment and therefore improve the lot of native wildlife, trap and kill is amazingly effective.
The cats are removed from the ecosystem and they never come back. QED.
Jim Stevenson was right.
@Nate: Wow. You went there. Awesome sauce.