IT’S IN THEIR NATURE

Prolific Bird Killers In Our Midst

In the UK, cats kill around 55 million birds annually; in the US, by the billions

A neighbour’s cat called Willow is allowed by its owners to roam all day and, consequently, free to ambush the garden birds not only in my garden but in other neighbourhood gardens that have bird feeders.

If you are a lover of cuddly kitties, would you still adore them if you know that in the UK, cats kill around 275 million prey annually, among them an estimated 55 million birds?

That number, however, pales in comparison with the estimated billions of birds killed annually in the US by cats, 69% of which are strays or feral.

It must be mentioned that in the US, debates about free-roaming domestic cats are still ongoing all these years. The same in both Australia and New Zealand, cat predation is “hotly debated”.

In an academic paper that explores the policy responses of the US, Australia, New Zealand and the UK, it noted that debates or discussions in the UK about free-roaming cats are “much less”.

Free movement of cats

In the US, around 70% of cats are now being kept indoors.

The opposite is true in the UK where 70% of cats are allowed by their owners to roam free.

This is because cat owners in the UK mostly disagree that cats are a threat to wildlife.