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.
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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/hauraki-islands
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’ behavior changes when predators are in the area. They may be less successful nesting because instead of finding food they’re guarding nests or watching out endlessly for cats (and dogs have the same effect!) and may not even nest in areas that have been successful in the past. Even without death they are impacted and their behaviors change. These items are to me just a way for humans to feel better about the destruction they could personally prevent. I’m horrified when the people doing this are scientists but maybe I need to stop assuming they would somehow have higher standards for their own personal behaviors.
If you need your cat to go outside to feel better somehow, build an outdoor exclosure with chicken wire and netting that prevents bird entry. The cats can play without wanton unnecessary destruction and disease spreading.
Other thoughts: Having cats outdoors is often terrible for the cat’s health as far as diseases that couldn’t otherwise be contracted if they had been kept indoors. Also, they may be attacked and suffer greatly at the paws/claws of other cats, dogs, and all manner of wildlife. Picture a society where pet and feral dogs are free to roam around without rabies vaccinations, defecating in your garden, near your well source, terrifying animals and humans and causing traumatic road hit situations with cars, while killing and heavily impacting the behavior of native (and sometimes seriously threatened) wildlife. Would you be okay with this taking place in your yard?
This is me treading lightly and trying to keep my emotions in check. I have very strong feelings about this issue. As someone with plenty of health issues the thought that a neighbor’s choices could sicken me or destroy my property makes me just as irate as if they were intentionally dumping toxins in my water and I believe it should be dealt with similarly.
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Thanks, it was not a text link, so there I go again, ignoring symbols and looking for text. Thank you. https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=733456435
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Sometime in the future there will be large areas of the planet cleared of cats and declared cat free zones. The sooner the better! It has started already on small wildlife sanctuary islands and the areas will get bigger as technology allows.
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What about places like Egypt, where feral cats have existed for hundreds or even thousands of years?
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Speaking as someone who lives a block away from a subway statrion in a 90 year old apartment building. Cats are the best rodent control solution to an urban rodent problem in your home. My cat never even seems to want to go out into the hall and after a half dozen mice caught in the first month or so, and an occasional one after a cold snap we live nearly mouse free. This is in contrast to all of my cat-less neighbors who use mousetraps and poison to deal with their rodent problems much less effectively. Again she is a strictly indoor cat, but I feel that where I live in the Bronx is so heavily impacted by human activity, she would effect the wildlife in the area little if at all.
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Didn’t we just have a discussion like this Lol…
About cats
Welcome to the forum @duckdodgers!
I understand your points but there are still plenty of wild bird species in urban environments that need protection from outdoor cats. Plus, other birds, if protected and supported, could be assisting in the control of the rodent population. For me, mice come with the natural territory while domestic felines do not. There is also the toxoplasmosis issue to contend with in the soil even if reservoir/aqueduct systems are used instead of wells.
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Yes, it is linked in the 2nd post in this thread.
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Sometimes, it could just be the rats are seen less often (e.g. those in open areas are captured and killed by cats, while those with a more cryptic behaviour are still around). See https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2018.00146/full for more details. (Of course, the effectiveness is context dependent)
This post made me think of this article I saw recently in Wired Magazine. I would have voted for Inside Cats if I noticed this sooner - but I think inside cats is not a solution when you have huge feral populations.
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Thanks for the link to that article, I found it very interesting, once I finally got around to reading it.
Although mice are the rodents I was referring to in the op, it’s interesting to consider how predators influence animals that aren’t typically prey.
I say that there is nothing wrong with cats, as long as they are inside. They sometimes eat and chase smaller wild animals like chipmunks and birds. Also, they could be eaten by coyotes or other outdoor predators, so keep your pets safe by keeping them inside.
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I’m not a cat hater, and nothing is wrong with cats as long as they’re neutered (so they did not increase the cat population) and kept inside. Unfortunately, they could be really destructive, and sometimes they’re just left without supervision and that’s called “free roam”. Such owners don’t even think about getting bells for them or neutering their pets because “that’s unnatural”. And that’s a bit tricky to distinguish a “working pet” (or a barn cat, as Star3 mentioned) from a house pet that kill more birds than rats and other pests actually.
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