Outdoor cats kill between 1.4 billion and 3.7 billion birds a year, study says

[Jotaux]

Rofl, we have a responsibility to keep that in check. Sorry but no.

Yes, they're meant to die, it's part of the food chain and the cycle of life. Predators hunt prey, and prey avoids being hunted or it dies, simple.

The problem with that is usually when prey is over hunted the predators will die off and the prey will repopulate. In this case the cats are being supported by humans so they won't die off and restore equilibrium.

[Army Dreamer]

Outdoor cats kill between 1.4 billion and 3.7 billion birds a year, study says

I wonder how many insects are killed by outdoor birds.

[BrerBear]

Nature finds equilibrium. Humans are artificially inflating the population of cats, this leads to an imbalance in their effect on the environment, which leads to other stuff they probably go over in their research that has negative effects that should be prevented.

Aren't the qualities of cats that cause us to care for and protect them part of nature, too?

[SL1200]

So what would be eating the birds if the cats were not? Snakes? Coyote? Wolves? Mountian Lions, Cougars and Bears? I'll take the Cats, thank you.

[Deleted]

I pretty much hate cat owners who think cats are outdoor pets. If you want to own a pet, then be responsible for it.

Cats are outdoor pets it's just unlike Europe America hasn't adapted to cats. Cats probably should have never entered America period

[Khadgar]

We need to release some more Cougar's into the wild to deal with the deer overpopulation problem, they 'cause 200 death's and a million accidents every year.

[cymraeg13]

The bird populations are made faster and stronger as a result

[Dequanacus]

I think I'll live without the extra billion birds around.

[Themius]

I pretty much hate cat owners who think cats are outdoor pets. If you want to own a pet, then be responsible for it.

I feel the same way, it pisses me off.

Also these numbers are startling. The last study I saw said 4.5 billion animals a year in the US with 500m being birds and the rest being small mammals.

[Deleted]

The irresponsible owners are us (the British) for letting you continue fucking up America's ecosystem

[Deleted]

From a quick google search, i found out that there is between 200 and 400 billions birds on the planet. So we re talking at roughly 1% a year being killed by cats. Doesn't seem to be that bad.

https://www.quora.com/How-many-birds-are-in-the-world

And then i had to check how many ants are on the planet of course ROFL, i found out an estimate of 320 thousand billions lol. I wonder how many billions are killed each year by those naughty anteaters

http://www.antweb.org/antblog/2013/0...ntana-usa.html

[SL1200]

Bears aren't just going to wander into your front yard because you kept your cat inside.

Are you sure?

[Themius]

Cats are outdoor pets it's just unlike Europe America hasn't adapted to cats. Cats probably should have never entered America period

Cats aren't outdoor pets... they're outdoor pests.

Cats destroy whatever area they are free to populate.

[GodEmperor]

Man lands on moon

[Themius]

From a quick google search, i found out that there is between 200 and 400 billions birds on the planet. So we re talking at roughly 1% a year being killed by cats. Doesn't seem to be that bad.

https://www.quora.com/How-many-birds-are-in-the-world

And then i had to check how many ants are on the planet of course ROFL, i found out an estimate of 320 thousand billions lol. I wonder how many billions are killed each year by those naughty anteaters

http://www.antweb.org/antblog/2013/0...ntana-usa.html

1% of all birds being killed a year with the figures growing (as the cat population continues to grow) is a huge fucking concern. 33 birds are straight up extinct because of cats.

[Khadgar]

The sad part is reestablishment of native predators is actually beneficial for that exact sort of thing, but the moment they kill anything other than a deer people lose their shit.

Yeah you're right, even though Fatal cougar attacks are extremely rare and occur much less frequently than, fatal snake bites, fatal lightning strikes, or fatal bee stings.

Human encounters with mountain lions are rare and the risk of an attack is infinitely small. You are more likely to drown in your bathtub, be killed by a pet dog, or hit by lightning. If lions had any natural urge to hunt people, there would be attacks every single day. Instead, they avoid us.

[Dug]

I wish my outdoor cat would keep the annoying mocking birds away from my bedroom window. Fuckers wake me up all the time

[Deleted]

Cats aren't outdoor pets... they're outdoor pests.

Cats destroy whatever area they are free to populate.

Europe adapted to cats
America hasn't yet

[Auxora]

Kind of feeling like this is a trolly OP post since it's just 1 word (and 1 word that sounds like the OP is attempting to be funny at that) and a link/paste to an article.

Plus the article is just describing the effect of cats on bird population overall. Spaying/neutering is something that needs to be done more, not so much for the bird population as much as avoiding millions of dogs and cats needing to be killed in animal shelters every year. Also considering a couple of the most recent major disease outbreaks were carried and spread by birds, I'm fine with a few less of them. So keep up the good work cats.

[Themius]

Europe adapted to cats
America hasn't yet

How has "europe" adapted to cats

In the UK they kill nearly 300m you also have 1/10th the number of cats we do. Factor in the size of the UK and cats are also a problem there concerning wild life.