The Feral Cats and Birds Debate
What to do About Feral Cats - A Contentious Issue
When it comes to feral cats and their impact on birds, there are strong arguments for and against both eradication programs and trap-neuter-release (TNR) programs.
Bring up the subject of feral cats and birds and you will get an immediate and often emotionally charged response. At one extreme are those who would wipe the earth clean of cats if they could. At the other extreme are cat lovers who treasure the most feral feline while vilifying and otherwise abusing any fellow human who happens to disagree. In between are those who thoughtfully debate the ethical/moral issues of an animal abandoned to the wild by humans, and try to make sense of the available information about what can be done.
The choices:
In general, people fall into one of three camps: do nothing; implement trap-neuter-release (TNR) where feral cats are captured, neutered, given medical care if necessary, and then released back into the wild; or try to eradicate feral cats. All three groups have valid viewpoints; the question is: what’s the best solution?
Here are some of the common arguments and opinions that merit consideration and perhaps investigation.
Do nothing:
- Regardless of the origins of feral cats, it’s not acceptable for humans to decide that they should be killed. They have as much right to live as any creature.
- The number of feral cats and the number of birds that they kill are both vastly overestimated.
- Feral cats have been made the scapegoat for human activities that kill many more birds (habitat destruction, wind farms, cell phone towers, airplanes, pollution, fishing practices etc.).
- Feral cats provide free rodent control as well as amusement for humans.
Implement trap-neuter-release (TNR):
- All the arguments under “Do nothing.”
- Many TNR programs have quickly reduced feral cat populations and maintained feral cat colonies at stable, low numbers.
- Eradication has only worked on islands because when all cats are eliminated in a specific area, more cats simply move in from outside and quickly breed to restore the former population level.
- Cats in TNR colonies receive necessary veterinary care and sufficient food while annoying mating behavior is ended.
- TNR is much cheaper than eradication.
- Systematically capturing and killing “innocent” cats is unacceptable to a large proportion of the general public.
Try to eradicate feral cats:
- The deliberate release of a domestic animal into the wild, where it must fend for itself and prey on native species is unacceptable.
- Feral cats lead miserable lives with inadequate food and no veterinary care.
- Feral cats carry and spread diseases.
- Trap-neuter-release programs encourage people to feed stray and feral cats, and to release their house cats into the wild.
- Feral cats prey on a variety of native species, some of which are endangered.
At the present time, the TNR camp appears to be winning – many communities in North America and Europe have implemented TNR and many are reporting success.
Related content:
Cats, Birds, and Ascension Island
