Ranting about stupid dog ownership

[Irulan]

Why is it ok for cats to roam free? By the way, that last sentence was tongue in cheek so please don't attack.

Why should that be tongue in cheek? Don't want to make the kitty owners mad? I detest the neighborhood cats that run free in my neighborhood. They are unlicensed, untagged, they go after the birds that nest in my yard, they use my garden beds as a toilet...

[PamNY]

I've always had mixed feelings about outside cats. As a cat owner, I let mine run free when I was very young, but got more conservative as I got older. I have often enjoyed visits from neighbor cats

I can see why people think cats need to go outside, but my indoor cats seemed quite happy. One of them ran out during a snowstorm, made a fast U-turn, and never went anywhere near the door after that.

[Cataboo]

Why should that be tongue in cheek? Don't want to make the kitty owners mad? I detest the neighborhood cats that run free in my neighborhood. They are unlicensed, untagged, they go after the birds that nest in my yard, they use my garden beds as a toilet...

I think part of the decline of american birds is the well fed house cats that can afford to hunt for sport, as opposed to just what they need to eat... So pit a human fed cat against birds that have to struggle for their own food (unless someone's feeding them close by as well.)

I'm not entirely sure why with the skyrocketing divorce rates wehre people trade in their spouses on a whim, you guys find it odd that people abandon theirpets. Husband/wives, kids, pets can all be disposable.

I think the lady in the original post who took the dog back to the human society did the right thing - if she wasn't prepared to take care of that dog or fully committed to it, then she should have brought him back as soon as possible. Ideally, she wouldn't have adopted him in the first place - but if you've never had a high energy dog before, you may not realize how much time and work they can be. I'd love to have a dog, but I'm fully aware that I don't have time for a dog and it would be neglected terribly - so I don't get one.

The rest of this thread - I'm not entirely sure why everyone's so touchy here lately, lots of threads seem to devolve down these routes.

[Biciclista]

the major part of the decline of bird species is habitat destruction.
blame humans. cats do not demolish forests and put in apartment complexes nor do they build sky scrapers that are so immense and reflective that birds fly into them by the thousands nor do cats build automobiles which move so fast that they kill millions of birds every year and the drivers don't even notice them.

and this is very seriously off the subject ridiculously so.

[Cataboo]

blame humans.

Humans have cats.

I do blame humans.

[GLC1968]

teigyr - wow, that is one HUGE cat! I'm glad to see that he's just big, too...not a fatso. I love that he knows that sitting on you is punishment enough to wake you up!

I was friends with a guy in college who intentionally over-fed his cat because he liked fat cats. His cat was about 25 lbs too...but super fat. It just pissed me off.

Of course, this same guy shelled out the dough for an Anatolian Shephard (at 165 lbs) and a Ford Expedition. Had to have the biggest of everything. Wonder what he was compensating for?

[Biciclista]

teigyr - wow, that is one HUGE cat! I'm glad to see that he's just big, too...not a fatso. I love that he knows that sitting on you is punishment enough to wake you up!

I was friends with a guy in college who intentionally over-fed his cat because he liked fat cats. His cat was about 25 lbs too...but super fat. It just pissed me off.

Of course, this same guy shelled out the dough for an Anatolian Shephard (at 165 lbs) and a Ford Expedition. Had to have the biggest of everything. Wonder what he was compensating for?

I've known people that overfed their pets for that reason too. Incredible.

You can see Teigyr's cat is huge because his large head looks SMALL on his body!

[Cataboo]

For anyone who wants to be off topic about cats & birds:

http://www.abcbirds.org/abcprograms/.../predation.pdf
http://wildlife-conservation.suite10...s_to_songbirds
http://www.animalliberationfront.com...reNotGreen.htm

Of course, read with however many grains of salt since some of those sites have anti-roaming outdoor cat agendas.

[Veronica]

You know I'm sure cats do eat birds. Cats are carnivores after all and higher up on the food chain then small birds. That doesn't mean I'm going to kill off all the ferals that happen to be in my neighborhood. They didn't ask to be dumped or be born as ferals.

I'd rather neuter them, feed them, give them fresh water and make their short lives just a tad less miserable. They have a safe place in my backyard, away from the coyotes and the occasional stray dogs. I suppose I could take them to the Humane Society when I catch them and they could euthanize them. But I've gotten rather attached them over the years and they seem to have gotten attached to me as most of them will now allow me to pet them. Even when I don't have the food bucket in hand. And just like my two strictly indoors cats, the outdoor cats have distinct personalities that I find interesting.

Veronica

[Tuckervill]

I think part of the decline of american birds is the well fed house cats that can afford to hunt for sport, as opposed to just what they need to eat... So pit a human fed cat against birds that have to struggle for their own food (unless someone's feeding them close by as well.)

This seems illogical to me. Cats like to play, of course, but their reason for hunting is to eat. If they're not hungry, they will hunt way way less, don't you think? And you think the birds are in some kind of weakened state because they are doing what they do, and the cats are super-cats because they are fed by humans?

I have two cats in my yard, and rarely ever see them catch birds or find dead birds in the yard. They do, in fact, sometimes kill birds, but not nearly to the extent that they are decimating the local bird population. I scared away about 30 doves off the edge of my pool the other day--it was amazing. All the stray cats in the neighborhood couldn't have taken care of that bird population. (My dog hunts birds every single day, but she never catches them. )

I agree with Mimi that it's development and loss of habitat that hurts the birds. Cats are just part of the food chain.

Karen

[Irulan]

This seems illogical to me. Cats like to play, of course, but their reason for hunting is to eat. If they're not hungry, they will hunt way way less, don't you think? And you think the birds are in some kind of weakened state because they are doing what they do, and the cats are super-cats because they are fed by humans?

I have two cats in my yard, and rarely ever see them catch birds or find dead birds in the yard. They do, in fact, sometimes kill birds, but not nearly to the extent that they are decimating the local bird population. I scared away about 30 doves off the edge of my pool the other day--it was amazing. All the stray cats in the neighborhood couldn't have taken care of that bird population. (My dog hunts birds every single day, but she never catches them. )

I agree with Mimi that it's development and loss of habitat that hurts the birds. Cats are just part of the food chain.

Karen

I'm not going to take the time to google up links,(you can do that yourself if you want) but the statistics are out there that housecats hunt for the kill, not to eat. When was the last time that you saw a cat actually EAT what it KILLED? They don't, they play with them, then leave them lying around, preferably on the door step.

[MartianDestiny]

I'm not going to take the time to google up links,(you can do that yourself if you want) but the statistics are out there that housecats hunt for the kill, not to eat. When was the last time that you saw a cat actually EAT what it KILLED? They don't, they play with them, then leave them lying around, preferably on the door step.

Honestly, the last time I saw a cat kill something it ate it. But I grew up on a farm and killing was expected of the cats (that was their job, and food from humans was a treat and incentive to stay around, not what they survived on)

I can believe some cats kill for sport. I cannot believe that even if every feral/outdoor cat killed for sport that it would equal the amount of damage to the bird population from other sources (loss of habitat, pesticides, cars, etc). Honestly, it would take quite a bit of scientific evidence to convince me that cats even came close to any one of those numbers.

[Cataboo]

Cats often play - and often that wounds birds and cats don't have clean wounds. I'm not going to argue it, studies have been done which show that cats, not being a native part of the local food chain do decimate bird and small mammal populations - you can look at the links I posted which do link to independent studies of what effect cats have on the native wildlife and cats do contribute to the decline in bird populations. Yes, there are a lot of other factors that contribute to the decline in bird populations... But the term I used was part of the decline. Not are solely responsible for.

And the number of people that claim "oh my cat doesn't eat/kill birds" is just silly.

No raccoons in my Mom's yard (least never been seen in the last 30 odd years) - the cats which hang out underneath the bushes right next to the ponds are a slight indication that they're the ones going after the fish - ocassionally a deer will fall in the pond, but it's usually fairly obvious when that's happened and there's fish death from that.

[Tuckervill]

I'm not going to take the time to google up links,(you can do that yourself if you want) but the statistics are out there that housecats hunt for the kill, not to eat. When was the last time that you saw a cat actually EAT what it KILLED? They don't, they play with them, then leave them lying around, preferably on the door step.

My cats eat the heads of the birds when they kill them. :P

But they don't kill enough to even come CLOSE to decimating the bird population.

There are always way way more birds alive and flittering around than there are dead on the ground or in a cat's stomach.

Karen

[Eden]

I'm not going to take the time to google up links,(you can do that yourself if you want) but the statistics are out there that housecats hunt for the kill, not to eat. When was the last time that you saw a cat actually EAT what it KILLED? They don't, they play with them, then leave them lying around, preferably on the door step.

When I had outdoor cats, like I said they never got anything bigger than tiny field mice and they always ate them. We'd only know they got one if we saw then with it or if we found the little stomachs around. They didn't like that bit, but everything else was eaten.

Cats who bring things to your door think you are stupid and incapable of feeding yourself... they are bringing you prey so that you can eat and/or learn to hunt....