commentaries

Cats are some of the biggest jerks planet Earth has to offer.

I like cats. I admire the animal. But if cat owners (or partners, however you want to put it) really loved their cats they would never ever ever let them outside. It is reprehensibly irresponsible to allow house cats to roam free. That alone would help the songbird population. Dog owners comply to leash laws, dog tags, permits and shots. Why not cat owners? As far as feral cats, culling is a mercy to their difficult existence.

Neighbor's cat would often trot across our yard with our bright orange carefully nurtured orioles in its mouth. The cat wouldn't even eat them, just drop them on the neighbor's doorstep as a gift. Neighbor would unceremoniously dump them in the trash without a second thought. Couldn't say a word to the neighbor who, like most pet owners, was completely irrational when it came to her pets.

Without feral cats, the rodent population would probably increase pretty fast.

..."Couldn't say a word to the neighbor who ... was completely irrational when it came to her pets."... They say owners are like their pets, and pets are like their owners.... From the story, one would conclude that her pleasure in having her cat kill was more important than your pleasure in watching the birds in your back yard... And some people wonder why others arm themselves.

I would have to imagine that coyote and fox predation on cats is likely.

OMG, leave cats alone - they are hunters, get over it! I love cats and they love us - this vendetta people have lately is sickening.

Good article. My bias, based on workability: Keep your pet cats indoors or safely contained, if they must have time outdoors. (I have 2 cats currently, and keep mine indoors). I am highly frustrated with neighbors who don't, and said cats come over our fence to stalk the backyard wildlife.

I had a neighbor who had a number of cats and she let them out for ‘excursions’. This normally ended up them using my garden as a litter box. When I asked her to keep her cats out of my yard by either building a fence or leashing them she lectured me that her cats were wild animals at heart and she would not cage them. So I pulled out my live traps and trapped these suckers and dropped them off at the local animal shelter as abandoned. Eventually she ended up keeping her cats inside when I informed her that I had obtained a permit to hunt nuisance animals with an air rife on my property (I live city). I would suggest that people who are annoyed by these cats contact your local law enforcement and see what your options are.

My cats are indoors, they live with us and two dogs and two pet birds. A young stray that we took in has finally, after six months of reinforcement, figured out that the conure and the cockatoo are not to be hunted and that the food is up in the kitchen, not sitting on my shoulder. Unfortunately we do have neighbors who do exactly as some of you posted; allow their cats to roam into my yard where our bird feeder sits. It's annoying and frustrating for those of us who love our cats and our songbirds enough to keep the cats indoors. My cats are not missing out on life by sitting in the windows and looking at the outdoors. As for feral cats, there is a marvelous program here called MnSNAP. I have had experience with MnSNAP and Mpls Animal Care and Control in trapping feral cats, spaying or neutering the critters and releasing them again. It is humans who were entrusted with this planet and it's creatures and given the gift of analytical thought. So, do the right thing and humanely reduce the cat population through spay/neuter. And if you are simply your cat's staff, pull rank and keep them indoors.