Deborajen, I'm so sorry you lost Leia. It's always hard to lose a family member.

I don't think this thread is so terrible. In my bulldog group the co-moderator calls them "spirited discussions" (even when she's shutting them down) and I think that's a good description.

Whether negative or positive, relationships with animals arouse strong feelings, and that's just reality. I enjoyed reading the discussion about outdoor cats, and I like reading dog breed-specific discussions because I want to know what people think, even if I don't agree with them. As I mentioned upthread, I do think keeping discussions constructive is better because it's more educational, but it's not realistic to expect that all the time.

I have been thinking a lot lately about what humans do to birds. I've been watching a red-tailed hawk nest which started with three babies. The nest is in a park bisected by a busy highway, and the juvenile hawks don't yet fly high enough to be 100% safe crossing the highway. Some of my fellow hawk watchers have been frantically trying to get "slow" signs put up on the highway, and more enforcement of the speed limit. Heartbroken as I am over the loss of the two beautiful youngsters, I think those responses are just an emotional desire to "fix" something that can't be fixed. If red-tails nest in New York City, they are going to face risks, just as they would in the woods.