Cats don’t need jobs, they need homes

LETTERS LETTERS@USATODAY.COM

Proponents of re-abandoning cats to “control” rodents don’t like to talk about the deaths of songbirds and other native wildlife, including endangered species, caused by this reckless and irresponsible behavior.

According to a Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute study, free-roaming cats are responsible for the deaths of up to 3.7 billion birds and 20.7 billion rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks and other small mammals every year. This massive death toll makes cats a bigger threat to birds than any other human-linked cause. In fact, cats are considered the most deadly invasive species in the world, responsible or partly responsible for the extinctions of over 60 species.

Cats themselves face many dangers, including deadly infectious diseases, parasites, speeding cars, loose dogs, extreme temperatures and cruel people, to name a few.

Rodents can be deterred by sealing holes, cleaning up trash and refraining from putting out pet food and bird seed, not by abandoning cats to kill and be killed.

Cats need homes, not “jobs.” To protect both cats and wildlife, everyone should be required to have their feline companions spayed and neutered, licensed, microchipped and kept indoors. Teresa Chagrin People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Norfolk, Va.

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Shelters should be concentrating on reducing the number of cats being born into a world that has more of them than there are caring homes for them, not abandoning them to die on the streets. Programs like this one harm animals, and that’s not something that should be applauded. Tess Lynn

I think this is a good thing. Let nature be nature. Steve Wyant