Save our birds! Keep cats inside ...or on a leash
Academic’s plea to protect wildlife at risk
WHEN your cat goes out for the night, it’s simply acting on millions of years of inherited hunting instinct.
But a leading academic wants owners to keep their pets inside – or even on a lead – to protect the wildlife.
Dr Peter Marra warned that moggies are responsible for killing hundreds of millions of birds, small mammals and reptiles every year.
He suggested felines should only have access to special caged off outdoor areas called ‘catios’ so they cannot hunt other animals or pick up diseases. And he said that all strays should be eradicated unless they can be found a home.
Research has estimated that cats are responsible for the extinction of 63 species, up from previous estimates of 33.
Dr Marra, of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Centre in the US, told Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘From a conservation
‘Roaming needs to stop’
ecology perspective, the most desirable solution seems clear – remove all freeranging cats from the landscape by any means necessary.’
He added: ‘Cats are allowed to roam outside, that needs to stop.
‘Put them on a leash if you want them outside. We also need to get all stray cats off the landscape. If they can’t be adopted, they will need to be euthanised... or put them in these things called catios.’
Dr Marra said he had nothing against cats who are ‘wonderful animals’ and exhibit ‘spectacular behaviours’. And he said the pets are predators ‘doing what comes naturally to them’.
But he added: ‘It’s inhumane for them to roam outside where they can get hit by cars or mauled by dogs, or pick up diseases.’ The academic, who has written a book called Cat Wars: The Devastating Consequences of a Cuddly Killer, added: ‘We have a big problem on our hands. Cats can have devastating consequences on biodiversity. The impacts on human health have become more and more clear over the last 20 years.’
Diseases spread by cats to humans include the parasitic infection toxoplasmosis, and in some countries, rabies. A paper published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggested cats were responsible for the extinction of 63 species.
Dr Marra added: ‘They kill 2.4 billion birds every year. Here in the UK alone, there are 8.1 million which kill 275million animals a year.’
But Dr John Bradshaw, professor of Anthrozoology at the University of Bristol, said cats tend to kill the weakest birds, who would be unlikely to survive anyway. He added: ‘Every year 80 per cent of birds have to die, otherwise we’d be knee deep in them, it’s just the way they are.
‘What we do know from UK research is most of the birds they kill are seriously ill and unlikely to survive much longer anyway.’ An RSPB spokesman said: ‘We know that cats can be a conservation problem and we recognise where this happens – on offshore islands.
‘Responsibly owned cats are not a conservation issue in the UK. As last week’s State of Nature report confirmed, climate change, habitat loss and changes in land use are having the greatest impact on our nation’s wildlife.’