04-05-2009, 10:33 AM
This was pretty convincing to me.
http://biology.usgs.gov/pierc/Fact_Sheet...l_cats.pdf
Note that in some instances the cats relied quite heavily on birds, as much as on mice and far more than on rats. Also note that the study was based not on speculation but on analysis of actual stomach contents (Leg bands? A whole beak? Dang!)
For the record, I don't think that we currently practice catch and kill. I think that we practice catch some and kill even less because cats are only removed when someone makes a particular stink about them. For those who ask whether what we are doing now is working, the answer is of course not. There is hardly a token effort to address the problem. Compared to that letting people feed the cats as long as they are constrained to do so in a way that doesn't make things worse, if that can be said of TNR programs, is not so bad.
http://biology.usgs.gov/pierc/Fact_Sheet...l_cats.pdf
Note that in some instances the cats relied quite heavily on birds, as much as on mice and far more than on rats. Also note that the study was based not on speculation but on analysis of actual stomach contents (Leg bands? A whole beak? Dang!)
For the record, I don't think that we currently practice catch and kill. I think that we practice catch some and kill even less because cats are only removed when someone makes a particular stink about them. For those who ask whether what we are doing now is working, the answer is of course not. There is hardly a token effort to address the problem. Compared to that letting people feed the cats as long as they are constrained to do so in a way that doesn't make things worse, if that can be said of TNR programs, is not so bad.