If you’re a seller of cat collars with bells, whistles and electronic bleepers then you may see an uptick in sales over the next few days. Springwatch presenter Chris Packham has warned of the danger pets can have on the environment. He’s calling for curfews with owners keeping their cats in at night and insisting that every cat should have a double bell on its collar. Apparently this will reduce cat kills of birds and wildlife by anything up to 45%.
I have a few problems with his reasoning though. His main point is that cats are affecting the natural eco-systems with bird and small mammal kills and could have an “apocalyptic impact” when they go “feral”. Well if that’s the case how will a few bells and a curfew help? Feral cats are hardly going to be curled up on the end of their non-existent owners’ beds and ownerless cats have no one to buy them a collar. All that will be achieved is a few pet owners buying new collars and the real feline predators will continue to roam looking for their next easy meal.
Cats were once traditionally kept specifically to keep wild life at bay – ask any farmer and they’ll have had a few cats running around the barns, preferable with one that’s “a good ratter”. If our towns and cities weren’t full of feline friends we’d soon discover the rats and mice were living a little closer to us then they currently do, which is why the Victorians were so fond of cats.
So will you by buying a double bell ? Will you be keeping your cat in at night (which incidentally is against their natural behaviour and will simply cause them stress).
Whatever your views it’s good news for sellers of pet supplies, the profile cats are being given should cause an uptick in the sales of collars with bells.
19 Responses
Cats have the right to kill 24/7. I think putting a [double] bell on them is a form of discrimination 😉
My 2 cats are responsible for keeping the local rabbit population in check. They appreciate that I allow them this privilege by bringing me various presents to the doorstep.
Unless Chris Packham can point to an exponential increase in the number of cats over the recent years, he is talking complete and utter tosh.
Cats have not suddenly started to kill birds and rabbits – that’s a natural reaction and they’ve always done it.
So Mr Packham, why were cats not a major threat to the bird population 30 years ago when the majority were not neutered and therefore there were probably MORE of them around?
Cats are essential as
a) they don’t poo in their own garden and
b) they’ll stop other cats pooing in your garden too 🙂
The Ancient Egyptians had a very simple Law in regard to Cats. If you killed one you die. They had the Death Penalty for Killing a Cat ..Why? Because Cats kept the Rat and Mouse population under control.
Today every year or so we get some clown calling for restrictions on Cats. I have a Cat that in its younger days(She’s 13 years old) killed everything that moved(or should I say everything that came close enough to allow her to kill). What happened was that the Birds and indeed Mammals always kept a very good eye out for her and if she was about then they made themselves scarce.
Yet I always had a Garden Full of Birds and a fair few Mammals.
If you go back to the Black Death in the 14th Century the Church blamed the Plague on Cats and ordered the destruction of the Cat Population. I have always wondered if they had left the Cat population to do its job and kill the Rats if the Black Death might have either been controlled or reduced in its impact. LEAVE THE CATS ALONE.
The only thing that I ever buy for any stray cat, feral or not, collared or not, are the most reliable and most inexpensive .22s. ALL problems that cats and their owners cause, permanently solved.
Oh, and Chris? Recheck your bastardized and biased history lessons. Only a FEW cats were kept for pets. All the rest were collected from nearby regions then immediately killed, disemboweled, and mummified. They were used for sacrifices. This is how they were all “worshiped”. Most of them were all young cats too. This is why 300,000 mummified cats were found buried in Ancient Egypt. If you want to worship cats today like the Egyptians did, I suggest you get busy killing and mummifying them.
You need to also learn a little something about The Plague. It is now being spread today in the USA by cats. People have already died from cat-transmitted plague in the USA. (Don’t believe me? Learn to use a search engine.) No rats nor fleas even required. CATS spread the plague ALL ON THEIR OWN. Completely dispelling that oft-spewed myth and lie that you just told. If more cats were around in Europe, the problem would have been exponentially worse, not better.
Here’s a few links to get you started:
Cat-Transmitted Fatal Pneumonic Plague …
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8059908
Plague confirmed in feral cat in Pagosa
http://www.pagosasun.com/archives/2011/07July/072811/webplague.html
Tularemia & Plague in West-Yellowstone Cats – Both are Bio-terrorism Agents
http://www.westyellowstonenews.com/news/article_02fceec6-f695-11e0-b752-001cc4c002e0.html
Oregon man suffering from the plague is in critical condition
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/oregon-man-suffering-plague-critical-condition-article-1.1094782
Health department said Taos cat has the plague
http://www.daily-times.com/ci_20849462/health-department-said-taos-cat-has-plague
During all my investigation of how this deadly disease-spreading, native wildlife destroying, man-made cat invasive-species ecological disaster has now happened on every continent on earth I have discovered something that is unfaltering without fail. Something that you can bet your very life on and win every last time. That being — IF A TNR CAT-HOARDER IS TALKING THEN THEY ARE LYING. 100% guaranteed!
A dog person then? All wild animals have the potential to spread disease, just as humans do.
My two cats live indoors and are quite happy. However indoor cats require you to be the mouse (aka run round the house with a piece of string) or they take out their frustration with destruction on things you hold dear. The more you love it, the more they will target it.
Feral dog-packs are a rarity in most rural areas. They are SHOT before things get that bad. It is mandatory BY LAW to shoot any dog that is seen harassing wildlife whether it is on your own property or not. Unfortunately, people moving to the country aren’t aware of this so they refuse to do their civic and moral duty by destroying that dog or cat that is harming other animals. I keep a paintball-gun loaded with red-pellets for any stray dogs. Stings enough to teach a teachable dog, and leaves a nice signal on their coat. The first time they get the paintball gun. If that doesn’t teach the dog’s owner and alert them to what could have really happened to their dog, then out comes the rifle next time. Cats aren’t so easily forgiven, because from past experience I know that warning cat-owners (for 15 YEARS) does no good. So out comes the rifle on the first sighting of ANY cat now instead of the paintball-gun. People in rural areas who actually care about their animals keep them PROPERLY SUPERVISED AND CONTAINED, or they lose them — permanently. You can tell who actually loves their animals, their animals are still alive. It’s the law of the land.
As for your concerns about indoor cats destroying your own things, why on earth would “cat lovers” want to release that destruction on their neighbors and all of nature? If YOU don’t want the behaviors of your chosen pet, then choose a pet with behaviors that you can tolerate. Don’t go making YOUR problem, borne of stupidity, everyone else’s problem. You might not like how they solve YOUR problem.
I just “solved” 5 more of these problems this week, because some lame-brained cat-lover thought she could release more cats that someone dumped on her, and she in turn dumped them onto my land (she has no respect for property boundaries). Fertilizer is all that these cats are good for. And that’s exactly what they are doing now. Are non-sterilized pure-bred Siamese cats expensive? I sure hope so. If so, those plants are now getting the best plant-food ever! And the ex-owner is now taking a nice financial hit.
Problem solved for another 2 years, unless the moron cat-lover accepts more cats from people who don’t want them. Then they too get shot within a day of her getting them. Some people never learn. If she’s taking them from local shelters or something, you think they’d ask her by now, “What did you do with the last 500 we gave you? Use them for stews?” But they don’t care what happens to cats either. They don’t want them either — no matter what happens to them after they are out of their sight, just like every other last “cat lover” on earth.
The law in the USA is that it is perfectly legal to destroy any animal, someone’s pet or not, that is threatening the health, well-being, and safety of yourself, your family, your animals, or even your property. Also true even in most densely populated cities, firearms laws permitting, if not then 700-1200fps air-rifles are commonly used. The only animals exempt from you taking immediate action, legally, are those listed on endangered or threatened species lists, and any bird species under protection of MBTA (the Migratory Bird Treaty Act). Even then variances can be given should there be sufficient problem but this requires further study by authorities. Since cats are listed in the TOP 40 WORST invasive-species of the world in the “Global Invasive Species Database”, this means they have no protection whatsoever from being shot on sight, they are not on any protected-species list anywhere in the world. Quite the opposite as a matter of fact. And if your area enforces and obeys invasive-species laws — as they should — then it is against the law to NOT destroy any cat on sight, someone’s pet or not. It is your civic and moral responsibility to destroy any invasive-species that is found away from supervised confinement and roaming freely in a non-native habitat.
Shoot to maim is punishable under the laws that define animal-cruelty. But shoot to kill is a perfectly legal way to humanely destroy an animal. The same laws that apply to methods of humanely hunting animals also applies to cats. Unlike your psychotic beliefs, the reality is that a cat is just another animal. It’s NOT your baby, your child, your offspring. Even if you do view your cats that way, letting them roam free is no less criminally irresponsible than telling your child to go play in the freeway and then blaming the cars for their death. If you let your cat roam free, NO MATTER HOW IT DIES, that is YOUR fault and you can be charged with all laws that clearly define animal-neglect, animal-abandonment, and animal-endangerment.
In fact, here’s a publication from a study done by the University of Nebraska on the best ways to HUMANELY deal with a feral-cat problem wherever you live. This documentation INCLUDES the best firearms, ammo, and air-rifles required to HUMANELY destroy cats. https://deenawinter.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/ec1781.pdf
Besides, what difference does it make if the cat gets shot or ran over by a car, attacked by another cat or animal, drowned, or poisoned by plants animals or chemicals (inexpensive 1-adult-strength generic acetaminophen pain-relievers gaining in popularity, for being so species specific). The result is the same. The cause is the same — the fault of the criminally irresponsible pet-owner that let their invasive-species pet roam free. They’ve already proved that their animal is 100% expendable. You can either destroy their cat for them humanely, or let their lack of care cause it to inevitably die inhumanely. They don’t care one bit how their cat might cruelly suffer to death if they let it roam free. Humanely destroy their cat for them before that can happen.
When flying over the USA on a clear day, look down. Then you’ll see that vast coast-to-coast patchwork-quilt of farms and ranches where it’s perfectly legal to destroy every last cat.
You might also like to know …
If you advocate for cats as rodent-control on farms and ranches you’ve already doomed them to being destroyed by drowning or shooting when it becomes a financial liability more than any asset. Ranchers and farmers worldwide are fully aware that cats’ Toxoplasma gondii parasite can cause the very same birth defects (hydrocephaly and microcephaly), still-births, and miscarriages in their livestock and important wildlife as it can in pregnant women. Consequently, this is also how this cats’ brain-parasite gets into your meats and onto your dinner-tables, from herbivores ingesting this cat-parasites’ oocysts in the soils, transferred to the plants and grains that they eat. Not even washing your hands in bleach will destroy this parasites’ oocysts if you have contracted it from your garden or yard that a cat has defecated in.
This is why any cats are ROUTINELY destroyed around gestating livestock and wildlife-management areas in the most efficient, humane, and least-expensive method available. Common rural practice everywhere. The risk of financial loss from dead livestock and important native wildlife from an invasive-species cat is far too great to do otherwise. This cats’ parasite is now even killing off rare marine-mammals along all coastal regions from run-off containing this cat-parasites’ oocysts.
The next time you bite into that whole-grain veggie-muffin or McBurger, you need to just envision biting down on a shot-dead or drowned kitten or cat. For that’s precisely how that food supply got to your mouth — whether you want to face up to it or not. It’s not going to change reality no matter how much you twist your mind away from the truth of your world.
If you want to blame someone for the drowning and shooting of cats, you need to prosecute yourself — every time you eat.
Cat owners are all BARKING lol lol lol