Keeping Cats Indoors Isn't Just for the Birds

The American Bird Conservancy has launched a citizen education and action campaign to end the massive and unnecessary loss of birds and other wildlife to predation by domestic cats. I decided to get behind this effort and write this editorial after a last-straw episode this past summer.

Early one morning when I stepped out my back door to take my daily walk, I was greeted by the alarm calls of several blue jays high in a tree in our side yard. Soon grackles and black birds had joined in the raucous. I immediately began searching the woods for a Cooper’s hawk, a natural predator of songbirds. I saw nothing and assumed the birds’ alert had encouraged the hawk to hunt elsewhere that morning. I made my way out towards the street and soon discovered the object of the jays’ scorn. A neighbor’s cat, bloody remains of an unidentifiable songbird draped through it’s open mouth, walked across the driveway. This was the huge, long-haired, gray, tiger-striped cat, not the orange one, nor the white one, nor the calico, Siamese, black or fluffy tan one, either. This unnatural predator was one of several housecats that roam our neighborhood killing birds and small mammals.

Yes, hunting is instinctive behavior for a cat but, no, it’s not natural, and certainly not necessary, for a presumably fed-at-home domesticated cat to prey on wild birds and mammals! According to one study, there are an estimated 60 million housecats in the U.S. plus another 60 million feral cats. These cats, including the ones roaming your neighborhood, kill about 3 billion birds each year!

Please don’t get me wrong, I love cats. Just ask Bootsie, the queen of our household. This cat sleeps in the middle of my back each night, insists on drinking water out of the faucet while Ken is shaving and has tasted every brand of cat food ever made and still can’t make up her mind which one, if any, she really likes! The difference between Bootsie and the gray, tiger-striped killer is that Bootsie is an indoor cat. Bootsie will never be hit by a car, get caught in a trap, be attacked by another cat or wild animal and she won’t be exposed to poisons and fatal diseases like rabies,
feline leukemia, distemper and feline immunodeficiency virus. Another plus to keeping cats indoors – Bootsie is 18 years old! The life expectancy of free roaming cats is only 2-5 years.

So please, be responsible and do your much-loved pet, and 3 billion songbirds a favor, keep cats indoors!

NOTE: During the past several months, many customers have asked me to address the issue of free roaming cats. This article ran in the September 1999 issue of BirdChat. Sadly, my dear Bootsie died a few months after this article first appeared; I still miss her! Unfortunately, not much has changed when it comes to roaming cats; it continues to be a serious problem. For more information about wildlife predation by domestic cats visit the American Bird Conservancy at www. abcbirds.org.