'..additional pressure on birds...'

14 years ago

American Bird Conservancy has produced a new, short video "Trap, Neuter, and Release: Bad for Cats, Disaster for Birds." Each year, feral and free-roaming cats kill hundreds of millions of our nation's birds, putting additional pressure on the populations of many species that are in decline.

Trap, Neuter, and Release (TNR) programs catch feral cats, neuter them, and then release them back to their colonies, which are subsequently maintained by volunteers. In theory, cat colonies managed under TNR will diminish over time through attrition, and eventually disappear. In practice this is not the case.

I know this will ignite debate. I hope all will watch the video (supported by state and federal wildlife agencies) before they explain how their cats don't have an effect on the environment, or how cats have been killing birds for hundreds of years. There are fewer and fewer birds to kill.

Me, I am not going to follow-up a discussion, as my point is made in the video. I hope it can change some minds.

Thanks!

Here is a link that might be useful: Bad for cats, disaster for birds

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Comments (8)

rachel_frome_ky
14 years ago
Well, you know how some react on this forum every time someone mentions the cat problem; sometimes people don't realize the damage our feral or free-roaming pets can cause
mulchmamma
14 years ago
Millions of healthy, social cats and kittens die in shelters all over the country and well meaning cat lovers use valuable resources to trap, vet and relocate wild ones? As a nature lover, this just does not make any sense to me.

Truly wild feral cats should be destroyed to improve the chances of millions of shelter cats to be adopted. Most shelters require spay/neuter. This seems like a much more logical approach to me.

Linda
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jsimran
14 years ago
And here is another perspective:

Here is a link that might be useful: killing cats won't save the birds
laylaa
14 years ago
I have been very active in TNR programs. Personally I believe in both sides of the issue enough to be pro-active and actually get out there and do something - trust me, its hard work and everything about it sucks. You have choices - kill the cats, stop the breeding or ignore it.

Killing the cats is a great theory, but I don't believe in killing unless I am the one that can actually, physically administer the shot. I can do this if an animal is sick but not an innocent life that was the result of some idiot human.

Also - where would the funds come from to euthanize thousands of cats? WHO is going to do this? Volunteers? These programs are purely volunteer. Anyone says kill gets to step up and be first to do so. Finding funds to neuter them is hard enough since it's purely donation based, but funds for killing would not be a practical answer. Plus I doubt you'll find many vets willing to mass slaughter anything.

When you go into a colony there can be easily a hundred cats and you do your best to stop it. They in turn become prey to coyotes, owls, hawks. They live short lives. Colonies can die out and do if some jerk does not come along and dump yet another un-spayed cat into the mix.

I am a dog person, not particularly fond of cats actually, but understand the issue is not clear cut. I believe in protecting wildlife and believe in protecting our domestic animals. The problem root lies at the people who left these cats behind. Most apartment complexes will develop a colony just because people move and dump pets.

As someone who has been there, done that, I can say it's all bad. I hate everything about it, but the issue needs help badly. Volunteer.
jenn_nj
14 years ago
mulchmamma, do you think that it takes no resources to "destroy" feral cats? Of course it does! They have to be trapped, euthanized and their dead bodies disposed of.

And, as far as this information being supported by government wildlife agencies,let's not forget how they are, like all gov't agencies, in bed with big business. If the state agencies really wanted help bird populations, they would stop the developers, and agribusiness, and consumerist-driven business that harms the environment in general. Much better to blame the cats!
chris8796
14 years ago
I would agree that TNR programs are not a big problem for wildlife. The cats would still be there and in higher numbers without the TNR programs. I would personally prefer to see them destroyed. I think one way to help address the problem would be to give feral cats (and dogs, pigs, etc) unprotected status as invasive species, so you could destroy the animals and not worry about legal issues. I also think they should have no refusal shelters available, even if they had to euthanize fairly quickly (subsidized by the pet industry fees or taxes). Bird lovers should also be willing to destroy English House Sparrows and Starlings to protect our nations birds.

I think the problem is improving, I rarely see feral cats in natural areas now (thanks to the resurgence of large predators). Most of the feral cat problems I see are the apartment colonies or other human associated areas, like urban sprawl type areas.
laylaa
14 years ago
I would not be comfortable with giving the public permission to "destroy" any animal. We can't even stop people from driving drunk and killing innocent humans, which is an alarmingly common occurrence, let alone permission to determine what is feral or invasive and what is not and what they are allowed to kill. The law does not protect animals much already.

How would you suggest "destroy" be done? Poison? Where domestic animals, wildlife and kids can get at it? Or can people just shoot things? As you say, these are populated areas. Is a humane death an issue or is killing them harshly - such as death by dehydration as in poison - okay?

People would kill the neighbors cat they hate and claim "whups, thought it was feral". People also determine which laws are important and which laws are not - think HOV lane. Most people decide HOV law does not apply to them, it's an unimportant law so they don't need to abide by it. So that gray squirrel bothers them, there are too many, they think it's invasive can kill it. Specific species is an unimportant law.

Shelters are not that simple and I have spent QT in them. People dump pets en mass, to euthanize is not cheap - vets don't pay for vet school to work in a shelter, nor do they select being a vet out of a desire to kill animals. Student vets often do spay neuter clinics, and it's harsh. There is no way you could ask new vets to spend days on end killing animals. Most shelter vets are volunteer as well and spend their free time doing what they do for work for free out of a love for domestic animals and a desire to help them. You'd really have to just set up pure kill facilities.

Why should the pet industry pay for the public's inability to spay and neuter their pets? ALL feral cats are the result of this. That is not the responsibility of the pet industry.

Animals are not worth a lot to the majority of people, domestic or wild. Laws don't protect them much. We destroy our environment and habitats enough without telling people they can kill animals, and if they screw up and kill the wrong thing, intentionally or by accident, well no big whup until someone kills a kid with poison or some such meant for a cat.
jsimran
14 years ago
I agree with you laylaa. Killing animals is not the way to save animals. Once we set a precendent that the lives of domestic animals (or non-native fill in the blank animals)are that worthless, than the question follows on why the lives of wild animals have worth. The whole idea behind saving our wildlife is that we believe that non-human lives have value! And besides that, TNR is not the reason why bird populations are declining. Does anyone honestly think if we killed the feral cats that the problem of declining bird populations will go away? The effect would probably be so minuscule it would be unnoticable. So please, can we stop advocating killing animals and think about how to convince the public and our government that animal's lives DO have immense value so that we can stop the human-generated mass destruction of our environment and the life contained within it?

'..additional pressure on birds...'

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