Adorable Killers: The Shocking Truth about Cats

[sysop]

The house cat -- that cute, furry feline beloved the world over -- is also one of the world's most destructive predators, killing for kicks and hunting rare species into extinction. Cats thrive because people protect them -- but should they?

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-881978.html

[Erols]

> a study from the United States ...

Here is the reference:

Cats Are Ruthless Killers. Should They Be Killed?
By Hannah Waters
Scientific American, January 29, 2013

[tzdv9000]

Just for the records: roughly only 1/3 of attempts to catch prey are successful. And among the killed species, birds of any variety makes only up to 10 percent - and in the majority of cases, they were indeed the weak and sick.

Conclusion: either the stray cat problem is way bigger than presumed (something like that you can't do a step outside without tripping over a cat), or the bird lovers do have some bats in the belfry.

[joneall]

Originally Posted by sysop

The house cat -- that cute, furry feline beloved the world over -- is also one of the world's most destructive predators, killing for kicks and hunting rare species into extinction. Cats thrive because people protect them -- but should they?

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...-a-881978.html

I am a cat lover. Clearly Mr Morgan is not. Still, I can understand that people can be more responsible about cats. I have one cat at a time and it is always neutered. This is done exactly because I love it. If everyone did similarly, the problem could certainly be lessened. An occasional collection of non-identified (ear tatoo, electronic chip) cats could be done. There is no reason to panic or to take recourse to exaggerated methods.

Btw, how many species have been rendered extinct by the most voracious predator of them all -- man? The answer probably makes cats look kind.

[Marisaaa]

Originally Posted by sysop

Too often, they end up in the jaws of what is probably the most murderous predator on the planet. [/url]

When it comes to being the most murderous predator on the planet, Homo sapiens wins hands down.

[otropogo]

There's a major disconnect between the reality and the issue as described in this story. It's briefly mentioned that feral cats do most of the killing of birds and small mammals, and then seemingly forgotten. In fact, estimates of the feral cat population of the USA run to 160 million.

Capture and sterilization is mentioned as an option, but not the fact that this has already been proven highly impractical both financially and organizationally. And that, even if it were possible to capture, sterilize, and release some 60 or 80 million female feral cats, they might still live long enough to devastate bird populations beyond recovery.

However, if unconditional cat lovers were willing to put their money where their mouth is, there is a solution. Capture and sterilize the feral cats in Europe and send them to Italy's Piedmont region, where a plague of tens of thousands of pigeons is currently devastating agriculture, according to the report linked below:

http://www.courrierinternational.com...ons-piemontais

[TonyEmo]

Cats are the main carrier of 'cat-scratch fever' - toxoplasmosis. This is a parasite which, when passed to humans, ends up in the brain.

A couple of weeks after being scratched by a friend's cat, I ended up with two very large tumours in the sub-mandibular area (below the jaw). At first taken for lymphatic cancer, this required a five-hour operation. Unfortunately, I'm still hosting the parasite.

Here in Australia, cats (feral and domestic) have cut a big swathe through our unique fauna. Cats are pests!