03-29-2009, 09:55 AM
I live out in the country (JFITZ knows my house), and there are LOTS of ferals and a decent amount of pet cats, and plenty mongoose too. The bird population is astounding. Very healthy. While I respect Jay's observation of his own stomping grounds, I just don't see this massive demise of birdlife due to cats that seems to be gospel in this topic.
I would think all the land ripping and clearing in Puna might have an effect. I live in an established area with no real building going on and lots of tall trees, and birds are thriving.
What I do know is that if all the cats in my area were gone, the rats would be epidemic. My cats keep the rats and mice down even though my cats are well fed, and I'm sure the ferals are hunting them. Rodents are so much easier for cats to get than birds. I wish there weren't all these ferals, but I hate rats a lot more.
I feel bad for the ferals because they're hungry, and some are sick.
All this talk of cat slaughter and cat hate is making me feel ill.
Tom cats are nuisances, but spaying takes care of that.
btw, if someone slaughtered my cat that I love and take great care of and is part of our family, just because it walked on your precious property, and I found out, the fallout would be ugly.
Cat owners LOVE their cats. Truly love them. To kill someone's loved pet is EVIL in my book. My neighbor doesn't have cats, and my cat does go up and prowls his roof, looking for roof rats. He told me he used to have a terrible problem with roof rats so it is not a bad thing to have the rat patrol in force, even though the cat is "trespassing."
I would think all the land ripping and clearing in Puna might have an effect. I live in an established area with no real building going on and lots of tall trees, and birds are thriving.
What I do know is that if all the cats in my area were gone, the rats would be epidemic. My cats keep the rats and mice down even though my cats are well fed, and I'm sure the ferals are hunting them. Rodents are so much easier for cats to get than birds. I wish there weren't all these ferals, but I hate rats a lot more.
I feel bad for the ferals because they're hungry, and some are sick.
All this talk of cat slaughter and cat hate is making me feel ill.
Tom cats are nuisances, but spaying takes care of that.
btw, if someone slaughtered my cat that I love and take great care of and is part of our family, just because it walked on your precious property, and I found out, the fallout would be ugly.
Cat owners LOVE their cats. Truly love them. To kill someone's loved pet is EVIL in my book. My neighbor doesn't have cats, and my cat does go up and prowls his roof, looking for roof rats. He told me he used to have a terrible problem with roof rats so it is not a bad thing to have the rat patrol in force, even though the cat is "trespassing."