The real predators that are killing our songbirds

THE oft-quoted claim that domestic cats kill 270 million prey each year is based on the idea that all felines catch birds. I have been involved for many years in cat welfare, so I know only a minority are hunters. I hate seeing a cat with a bird in its mouth and understand the distress if you have a demon prey-catcher next door. Funnily enough, I’ve never heard anyone complaining of a cat catching mice or rats. Numerous badgers and deer, dead by the roadside, have been killed by humans — but there isn’t a call for a ban on cars.

VANESSA CONSTABLE, Southampton.

CATS are hunters, not bird nest-raiders, unlike badgers, rodents, raptors, hedgehogs, grass snakes and corvids such as magpies. As felines are constantly grooming, to force one to wear a muzzle would drive it to distraction. Cats are predators, but not quite as guilty of wiping out songbirds as we are led to believe.

BERNARD COLBRAN, Pevensey, E. Sussex. WHEN I see a kill on a nature show, I may not enjoy it, but I get it: it’s about survival of the fittest. The predator stalks its victim, kills and eats it. The domestic cat is akin to a street thug — it will leave its victims in agony for no purpose. It’s our beautiful songbirds that need protection.

TONY THOMPSON, Banbury, Oxon. IF VISCOUNT Monckton is so concerned about the welfare of small birds and mammals, would he condone the culling of owls and hawks, which kill a lot more than cats? Or does he just hate cats?

MEL POTTER, Sunderland, Tyne & Wear. VISCOUNT Monckton, I salute you for speaking out. I’ve resorted to water pistols to chase off uninvited marauding feline stalkers in my garden. Muzzle them all!

HELENA MANCEY, Dawlish, Devon.