I am so fed up of some people blaming the decline of songbirds on cats ! In particular some people in the USA are always saying 'Keep your cat in at all times,they are killing all the birds'
What rubbish ! It's just an excuse to justify their distaste of people, especially us in the UK, who let our cats have their freedom.
What about all the pesticides used now on fields, what about all the natural habitat, hedges and trees, taken from birds to make more space for the ever breeding human ? What about weed killer on gardens and less people who bother to feed wild birds any more ? What about all the fumes from more and more vehicles on the roads and the stink of barbeques rising up into the air ?
Cats have been around and free a long long time now but it's only in recent years the number of birds have declined , so how come cats are suddenly blamed ?
Has no one heard of live and let live any more !
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I am so glad you posted this. I love the way people single out to blame just one reason why birds are in decline, and neglect to consider the bigger picture, such as all the environmental toxins.
ReplyDeleteI mean, bees are not the favorite "meal" or prey object, but in the USA bees have been in decline for a couple of years now. We used to have all kinds of honey bees visiting our flowers and now, scarsely any.
So the environment is a major factor in the decline of birds, but cats get the "rap" and it is very unfair. Thanks so much for steering folks to reality.
Jo
To my mind the biggest threat to songbirds is the ever expanding housing estates, mini villages, retail parks and such like. As green fields, trees and rivers disappear so does the corresponding amount of natural food & shelter not only for birds but all manner of wildlife. Humans are bad news for this world of ours, we are never satisfied but have to have more and greater things and the ones who pay for our greed are the little creatures we should be protecting. So, well said Katt I couldn't agree with you more.
ReplyDeleteCats are always an easy target. This is such a good post. Acres of glass on tall buildings, telecoms wires, aircraft, power lines, little bastards with air rifles - all kill more birds than ever cats do. Not to mention the birds that die from the left-to-go-rancid birdfood left in unwashed feeders (the fungus that grows on that stuff can kill really fast)- also the fact that feeding birds all year around stops them learning how to forage when young.
ReplyDeleteKattadora speaks wise words.
Your right Ruth. People use this one to get rid of cats. It comes from people who dislike cats. They have no evidence to support what they say.
ReplyDeleteHi Ruth, there is no scientific evidence that the domestic and/or feral cat is causing a decline in birds in the UK and the situation is almost certainly the case in other western countries such as the USA.
ReplyDeleteI talk about this a lot more on this page:
Domestic Cats Do Not Decimate Bird Populations
There are far to many people making rash statements presented as fact when they are not. Also see:
How Feral Cats Affect Wildlife
Hi I have just noticed that your blog doesn't accept manually created links so these are the links referred to above:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.pictures-of-cats.org/domestic-cats-do-not-decimate-bird-populations.html
http://www.pictures-of-cats.org/how-feral-cats-affect-wildlife.html