h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A625655

This entry is mainly about ways cat owners can help to slow down the decline in wild bird populations. I would welcome any comments or suggestions from my peers. Thank you.

Hi there

I liked this article, but how about adding a little more structure?

Maybe dividing the article up with a few headings, (and I'm not suggesting these should be the titles):
- Introduction, with the statistics,
- The various threats facing the birds
- Things the owner can do to improve the situation.
- Feeding birds in the Garden.
- Conclusion

I think the article is very good, and with a little more playing with, could be excellent


whisky

(ps as with all my comments, please feel free to ignore anything).

I liked it too. It reads very fairly to me but maybe I'm biased. I know that small mammals and birds should be able to cope with predation. I believe the RSPB have statistics to prove for instance that magpies and sparrowhawks don't affect small bird populations. But when it comes to cats the balance doesn't exist because they're pets and fed. The predator/prey relationship where the numbers of each are interdependent doesn't apply. Not to mention the point you make in the last paragraph.

Do you think shiny diamante collars would help? There are bells and bells too. You can get churchbell shaped bells for budgerigars, rather than those closed round ones, that would certainly ring. I suppose they could be annoying in the house mind.

At the moment this entry is very UK based. The problems in Australia with so many flightless birds are even greater. I wondered whether it would be an idea to make the entry specifically UK or to add some examples from elsewhere?

Congratulations on tackling a difficult issue so well.

"As many cat owners will testify, their cat may make 2 or 3 kills per day if they're a very good hunter."

should be:

"...their cats may make 2 or 3 kills per day if they're very good hunters."

or:

"...their cat may make 2 or 3 kills per day if it's a very good hunter."


Otherwise, it looks good though I agree with the above comments on improving the structure.

I like cats but, alas, I can only eat one at a time

It may be that you talk too much of domesticated cats, although they certainly attribute to the total number of killed victims.
There probably are just too many cats in general.
There are a large number of half-wild cats, who are homeless and never fed, so they have to hunt to survive. There is nothing to keep these cats from breeding. Also the cats at home can often breed at will, because their owners tink it is cruel to have them neutered.
The surplus of house-cats then can end up with the half-wild cats in the wild.
Don't get me wrong on cats in general, I love them, and we always have one or two in the house, but always neutered. If nescessary, we get a new one from the asylum.

Let's not forget the effects of the infernal combustion engine on *all* wildlife.

Thank you very much for helpful suggestions my dear peers.

Whisky, I've changed it to Guide ML (I'd forgotten how) and broken it up under some headings. Zat ok? If not, let me know and I'll fiddle some more.

Waz (hi, nice to see you). Good point about the predator/prey balance. I'll put that in shortly. I'm a bit strapped for time at the mo. Shiny collars might help but it's so hard to tell when you don't yourself have a cat to try it out with. I think the problem of the bells failing to jingle much, leads cat owners to think they don't work. It's taken a bit of research by Glasgow Uni to establish the facts more clearly. Cats are very stealthy movers and it's not surprising that the bells don't jingle much but when they pounce the bell jingles a bit. They can't avoid that. That's probably how the birds are warned -- not during the stalking process but at the point of the final pounce. A bigger, clangier bell might not improve things. Also, cat owners are very fussy about what they will and won't fit their cats with. The cat owners are the people who have to be convinced that the cat won't be inconvenienced or made uncomfortable by the device.

Addressing your point about the UK bias of the entry and broadening it to cover the near extinctions of flightless birds in other countries, Marijn's point about too great a concentration on domesticated cats and neglect of the problem of feral cats and Frogbit's reminder about the combustion engine, are covered by the same answer. I really wanted to let cat owners know that they were not powerless and could exercise some degree of control over their cats' predatory nature without unduly harming or upsetting the cats. As you know Waz, it's a very touchy subject. Cat owners really adore their cats and any hint that the cat is an environmental catastrophe and the evil cat owners are to blame for that, just alienates the people and they turn off and refuse to listen. I have several friends who have cats and I've found that it takes gentle persuasion and clarification of the facts to make any headway. The minute you start painting a bleak picture of environmental disaster and extinction, they're apt to change the subject. They just don't want to hear those things. If there isn't already an article on species declines and extinctions resulting from all the different causes that contribute to the problem, then I might, when I get time, have a go at that, if someone else doesn't get to it first. But I really did just want to concentrate on the ways cat owners could help in this particular entry. If that's ok with my peers

il viaggiatore, I've corrected that mistake. Thank you for pointing it out.

Loonytunes, that's you all over

Speaking as a cat owner (we'll, Peter deigns to lives with us, I guess that's the closest it comes with cats), I have no problem accepting the fact that cats are an environmental distaster. When we first got her we were living in a flat with garden, a few floors up in fact, so she never got out. This, being sensitive about protecting small things (wildlife), I could live with. Then we got a house near the woods with a garden, and Peter went environ*mental*. We fitted her with a collar an so-on, but this didn't seem to make any difference to her kill-rate. I explained to her that she was well fed, and didn't have to succumb to this biological urge business, and that she was only running for her dinner, where-as her prey were running for their lives, but she wasn't interested at all. Just licked her paw and broke wind.
Then we hit upon a solution. We went out and bought a collar that was so hidiously patterned and coloured, so odiously out of date and an offence to the eye, that she has been too embarrassed to go out since. The birds now come to the window to laugh and point. This might seem like a harsh solution, but seeing as the birds and small creatures have been regularly disembowelled whilst trying to get on with their lives, it seemed only fair.

Speaking as a cat owner (we'll, Peter deigns to lives with us, I guess that's the closest it comes with cats), I have no problem accepting the fact that cats are an environmental distaster. When we first got her we were living in a flat with garden, a few floors up in fact, so she never got out. This, being sensitive about protecting small things (wildlife), I could live with. Then we got a house near the woods with a garden, and Peter went environ*mental*. We fitted her with a collar an so-on, but this didn't seem to make any difference to her kill-rate. I explained to her that she was well fed, and didn't have to succumb to this biological urge business, and that she was only running for her dinner, where-as her prey were running for their lives, but she wasn't interested at all. Just licked her paw and broke wind.
Then we hit upon a solution. We went out and bought a collar that was so hidiously patterned and coloured, so odiously out of date and an offence to the eye, that she has been too embarrassed to go out since. The birds now come to the window to laugh and point. This might seem like a harsh solution, but seeing as the birds and small creatures had been regularly disembowelled whilst trying to get on with their lives, it seemed only fair.

'Wow, Deja Vu.'
'What did you just say?'
'Nothing. Deja Vu.'
'What did you see?'
'I Thought I saw the same cat twice.'
'Was it the same cat, or did it just look the same?'
'The same, I think. . . .'

What a strange place to find a Matrix reference. (Oddly enough, I've only seen that movie in Italian, yet still recognized the quote in English.)

I've added a paragraph about the predator/prey balance Waz.

Frogbit, you sound like a cat owner (keeper?) who doesn't need any advice about exercising a bit of control. Well done! I'm convinced that bells do work though. Trouble is, the cat owner (the manager of the cat's hotel) is hardly ever there to witness the final pounce. That's the time when the bell can do its thing.

Frogbit that was worth posting twice.

It looks very impressive now, easier to read. Re widening the scope - I take your point and agree its better to focus on what cats' housekeeper-cook-tinopeners can do to help.

Well spotted il Veggiotore.

Just a tiny, niggling point. The line "This balance is completely non-existence in the case of domestic cats and their prey" should read, This balance is completely non-*existent*. . .

Other than that, it is a fine piece. Although I can't help but feel you're pussy-footing around cat ownwers. They know what their animals get up to. Sure, they might think that Tiddles would object to wearing a bell, but were talking Milosovic in a fur coat here. . .

"Cats would probably not cause any great problem to large, healthy bird populations, but with so many other hardships to overcome, the impact of cats can be significant."

You've got a misplaced modifier here. The way this sentence currently reads, you are suggesting that the impact of cats has many hardships to overcome. A rewording is in order.

In New Zealand, a country that is home to many species of flightless birds, the NZ Forest and Bird Society promotes these guidelines for cat owners.

Keeping the cat indoors at night - most birds are caught at dusk and dawn, the birds feeding time. Feeding the cat balanced regular meals. Giving the cat toys to play with. Making adequate arrangements when going on holiday.

The NZ Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), promotes desexing the animals. To quote the Director of the Wellington SPCA, Rosemary Williams.

We're sick of the claptrap surrounding desexing of companion animals - "They should be allowed to have at least one litter", "Oh, but birth is so beautiful", and so on. B*****ks. It's time to stop all this. We do not have a God-given right to own or use an animal for whatever we want. Responsibility for our actions needs to be high on the human agenda, and that means looking after what we create, problems and all.

YES!

I've altered that sentence slightly il viaggiatore. Made a couple of other corrections too, including the one you pointed out Frogbit. Thanks for spotting them y'all.

I didn't think I was pussy-footing around cat owners. I've just presented a few salient facts in an effort to persuade them to take action to curtail their cats' worst excesses. The alternative to putting the case gently is putting it forcefully. I've tried that before with no success whatsoever. The RSPB are also very careful what they say and try not to upset cat owners. The government could introduce legislation to require people to have their cats neutered and control their wandering. But they won't. If there's no legislation to force people to be responsible on an issue, ranting at them will just annoy them and make them switch off.

Some people believe only drastic measures will work. One of my neighbours had a visit from the RSPCA recently about an accusation of shooting cats. He invited the RSPCA officers to sit on his patio and have a cup of tea, then asked them if they could smell anything. They said they could hardly miss the strong, unpleasant odour. He said what they could smell was cats. They like to use his garden as a toilet. He has to remove all the horrible stuff and mist the area with air spray if he wants to invite people round or have a barbeque. He pointed out that within the range of the 10 houses nearest to his there were 10 cats - 2 households with 3 cats each, 1 with 2 and 2 singles. Still, he denied shooting the cat. Over a period of several years, other people in the neighbourhood have been accused of poisoning cats for digging up their gardens, messing in their gardens, killing the kids' guinea pig, wiping out nests of birds. It makes for a lot of bad feeling. Cats go missing. Neighbours don't speak to each other because of it. It's sad. People who love cats and people who loathe them seem unable to understand each other. The cat lovers will say it's in a cat's nature to roam and to hunt - you can't keep them in. The cat loathers will say your brute spoils my enjoyment of my garden, my children put their hands in cat poo when they play in the garden, my children's small pets have to be kept prisoner so your pet can be allowed to roam and why should your cat's right to roam be more important than the survival of entire species of small animal.

I don't disagree with you Looneytunes but the claptrap is going to persist as long as there's no way to force people to be responsible. Beyond that, all that's left is reasoning and persuasion.

I'll add the bit about balanced diet, toys and holidays. Thanks for that.

You're right Shorn. It is a complex and difficult situation. And what's more, even if legislation was brought in the enforcement would be a nightmare. Look at car drivers for instance. Everybody knows it's against the law to over the speed limit, but everybody does *because everybody else does* a distinct lack of personal responsability again. If you're in the UK you might well have noticed that the British government have recently backed down over an arguement about hidden speed cameras. Road lobbyists said that they were unfair. Unbelievably the government have promised to stop hiding them. These lobbyists bang on about personal freedom, but what of the lives that are lost by people driving too fast, illegaly?
If I went around town smoking dope openly, and was continually arrested by *plain clothed policemen*, and I used the fact that *it wasn't fair because I couldn't tell they were policemen* in my defence, it would be laughed out of court.
So if you could introduce legislation to get cats neutered, I'm afraid people would just ignore the legislation and do as they please, using infringement of personal freedom as an excuse to continue making other people's lives hell.