Cats, they eat native birds but they also make really good pets so please vote for which option is what your opinion is, cats, no cats, or cats that live permanently inside. poll

[image] bouteloua: moved it to the Nature Talk category. Thanks, guess I was asleep on the job :sleeping:

Some people have a catio. An enclosed space where cats have a view and the breeze.

Just reminding everyone again, (thanks @jdmore !) that this conversation has covered many of the points being brought up here: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/should-cats-be-culled-to-stop-extinctions/1628 thoughts from the community on combining topics with an adjustment to the topic titles?

Some conversations lend themselves to archiving as FAQs. Other conversations, such as this, are of the sort that people want to interact in real time, exchange ideas, hear contemporary opinions, etc. It seems a shame to relegate everyone to an archive search or reference a prior conversation if they…

Not suggesting that there be no more conversation just that two virtually identical topics be merged into one continuing conversation so people aren’t repeating themselves in two places. edit: realizing that perhaps you are unaware that we can re-open conversations as needed.

[image] mira_l_b: thoughts from the community on combining topics with an adjustment to the topic titles? I personally enjoy having a separate thread to read because I don’t have to scroll through everything. However, I’d understand completely if they were combined.

For rats, one study found that cats don’t actually reduce the population as they don’t catch very many, but they do change the rats’ behaviour so that you don’t see as many: https://www.wired.com/story/rats-vs-cats/ I don’t know if anything like that has been studied for mice.

Responsible pet ownership is the answer. Look at this website for a very successful ‘bird protection’ collar for domestic cats https://www.birdsbesafe.com/collections/all plus see the Responsible Pet Ownership brochure developed on Waiheke Island www.forestandbird.org.nz/what-we-do/branches/haurak…

[image] sue: very successful ‘bird protection’ I feel strongly enough about this issue that I am quoting myself from the cat culling topic: None of the proposed collars, bells etc. deal with the larger issues of environmental destruction as they are geared to “prevent kills.” Birds’ behavio…

Cats: good or bad

Nature Talk

Star3 October 19, 2019, 4:10pm 25

For pets, yes, indoors with a catio or harness is best.

What about “working cats” like barn cats, though?

[Addendum: just saw @annainok already brought this up]

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Cats: good or bad

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