Ranting about stupid dog ownership

[Cataboo]

blame humans.

Humans have cats.

I do blame humans.

[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!

[Veronica]

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 feed several feral cats in my backyard. They all get one trip to the vet for neutering and then they are free to hang out. I've watched them lay about on my deck while birds will come down and eat their cat food. They watch the birds intently, but I've yet to see them catch one.

Veronica

[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.

[Cataboo]

I feed several feral cats in my backyard. They all get one trip to the vet for neutering and then they are free to hang out. I've watched them lay about on my deck while birds will come down and eat their cat food. They watch the birds intently, but I've yet to see them catch one.

Veronica

You have well behaved feral cats.

My Mom's garden has several ponds and lots of bushes/plants - and all the neighborhood cats like to hang out in her yard - she doesn't have a cat, doesn't feed them, but has 4-6 of the neighbor's cats in her yard. They eat the goldfish in her ponds (she's put them in to eat the mosquitos), and there's often dead birds about.

We did have a siberian husky once that had a dog run in the back yard - the the the end of his leash/run was a magnolia tree with a blue jay nest in it... any time the dog got near the blue jay nest, the blue jay dive bombed the dogs head. The happened 5 or 6 times before the dog got sick of it and opened his mouth and the blue jay was no more.

[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

[Eden]

Your moms goldfish are probably eaten by raccoons, not cats...... I had fish in my back yard for a while too - the raccoons made a huge mess of everything and I had to give up.

I have strictly indoor cats (for their safety and welfare) but I too have had indoor outdoor cats in the past and the best they were ever able to do were tiny mice. I never had a cat who was a successful bird hunter. Do I think no cats can do it - of course not, but I certainly don't think house cats can be pinned with the disappearance of birds..... Chemicals - specifically DDT (think Silent Spring) nearly destroyed bird populations and they are just beginning to make a comeback. I've noticed a huge increase in the numbers and species of birds even just in my neighborhood in the past 10 years. We had only pigeons, house wrens, finches and starlings when I moved here. Since that time I've seen eagles, peregrins, flickers, scrub jays, owls, bush tits, oregon juncos (in the winter) and many more.

In any case the OP was complaining about a stupid *human*, not even a dog or a cat...

[Irulan]

In any case the OP was complaining about a stupid *human*, not even a dog or a cat...

all stupid/obnoxious pet behavior can more or less be traced back to a human

[Biciclista]

all stupid/obnoxious pet behavior can more or less be traced back to a human

lol I'm glad THAT's settled

[sarahspins]

Why is it ok for cats to roam free?

I think there are plenty of us cat owners who don't think it is

IMO, people who let their cats roam, don't really care about them, and probably shouldn't own them.... and unfortunately, many don't for long.

Whenever our cats sneak out, we literally freak out trying to find them and get them back in - there are far too many predators out here for us to be comfortable letting them out at any time. Our kitties are indoor only!

[Irulan]

I think there are plenty of us cat owners who don't think it is

IMO, people who let their cats roam, don't really care about them, and probably shouldn't own them.... and unfortunately, many don't for long.

Whenever our cats sneak out, we literally freak out trying to find them and get them back in - there are far too many predators out here for us to be comfortable letting them out at any time. Our kitties are indoor only!

If more kitty owners thought like you, there would be less people using their legal right to check out cat traps from the pound.

[sarahspins]

If more kitty owners thought like you, there would be less people using their legal right to check out cat traps from the pound.

Yes, but it's still very good that those programs exist.. for a while in areas surrounding me, TNR was illegal (it's not now, thank goodness!)

[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.