Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Things I learned today ...

badfriends


* Although domestic cats (many of which are feral) are estimated to kill millions of wild birds each year, more birds meet their untimely demise as a result of building collisions.

* I like to lessen my own culpability in ecosystem damage.

* Bells on collars do not prevent cats from killing wildlife; some studies suggest that the bells may even condition the animals to be more efficient at stalking their prey silently.

* Again with the minimizing of pet-owner responsibility.

* Cats are the Zebra muscle of the domesticated animal world -- an invasive species..

* And that catbird I managed to wrestle from her terrible claws will probably die anyway.

Crap.

Oh, wait. There is an upside:

* A "University tested" and humane way to protect songbirds AND humiliate their would-be killers: The Cat Bib.

1 comment:

Kcoz said...

And the reason your domestic cat will bring their kill home is because their wild instincts to share with the pride has not been completely bred out. Your loyal pet would be delighted if you fried up the offered gift (last knights kill) and shared it with the family at dinnertime.
Many years ago a girlfriend of mine gave me a kitten, that I gave to my baby sister. When the kitten became a cat it began killing things and leaving them on the doorstep. Someone in my family looked into this problem as to how to break this unnecessary habit. They came back with the previous information above, and they were told that they should actually praise the kill and not scold the cat as s/he thinks s/he is contributing to their survival.

Not sure what they did with the information since I was living 1000 miles away at the time but I would think that phrasing the pet would only encourage that behavior…so I have no advice except that scolding the cat for this instinctive act only hurts his/her feelings as they (my family) were told to secretly throw the dead present away after commending your mighty hunter.