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"By contrast, researchers estimate that the United States is home at least 15 billion adult land birds. Cats kill about 10 percent of them each year, according

by Dwolb 11y ago

"By contrast, researchers estimate that the United States is home at least 15 billion adult land birds. Cats kill about 10 percent of them each year, according to the analysis." Does that sound right? Cats kill 10% of all adult land birds? It seems high and my skepticism rises as the Washington Post article discusses the extrapolation done by the researchers. Also unmentioned in the Washington Post is the mix between outdoor cats are feral cats. The Vice article exclusively talks about feral cats. Feral cats are a bigger problem due to feral cats being unneutered (their litters can grow up to kill more birds). I dunno I guess I need more research to feel really passionately about this one way or another.

firebones 11y ago
I like doing 50-state math on this. 1.5 billion land birds killed each year. 50 states. That means in a middle of the road state, like Iowa where I grew up, 30,000,000 birds are killed. But I grew up in a middle of the road county in Iowa, which has 99 counties. So in my county, that's around 300,000 birds killed per year. 365 days in a year. I'd have to believe that 821 birds per day were killed in my home county. That's insane. (Adjusting: 900 square miles in my home county. Even distribution of cats, each feral or roaming cat is covering a square mile and eating about a bird per day. But the cat distribution is not even, and there aren't cats roaming corn and soybean squares. So I suspect the estimate is off by a MINIMUM of an order of magnitude, more likely by two orders, at least.) Sincerely, Fermi Problem Lover Edit: math and commas
smt88 11y ago
I'm not concerned with whether a single pet cat kills 10 or 1,000 birds a year. Either way, it's too much of a price to pay. There's no reason for a family pet to hunt potentially endangered animals for fun. It's the same issue with voting and recycling: there's not much impact if a single person does the right thing. You have to do it anyway, especially because it doesn't cost you much. The collective benefit is amplified if many people do the right thing. The costs of recycling or voting are well known. What's the cost of keeping a cat indoors?

by Dwolb 11y ago

firebones 11y ago

I like doing 50-state math on this. 1.5 billion land birds killed each year. 50 states. That means in a middle of the road state, like Iowa where I grew up, 30,000,000 birds are killed. But I grew up in a middle of the road county in Iowa, which has 99 counties. So in my county, that's around 300,000 birds killed per year. 365 days in a year. I'd have to believe that 821 birds per day were killed in my home county. That's insane. (Adjusting: 900 square miles in my home county. Even distribution of cats, each feral or roaming cat is covering a square mile and eating about a bird per day. But the cat distribution is not even, and there aren't cats roaming corn and soybean squares. So I suspect the estimate is off by a MINIMUM of an order of magnitude, more likely by two orders, at least.) Sincerely, Fermi Problem Lover Edit: math and commas

smt88 11y ago

I'm not concerned with whether a single pet cat kills 10 or 1,000 birds a year. Either way, it's too much of a price to pay. There's no reason for a family pet to hunt potentially endangered animals for fun. It's the same issue with voting and recycling: there's not much impact if a single person does the right thing. You have to do it anyway, especially because it doesn't cost you much. The collective benefit is amplified if many people do the right thing. The costs of recycling or voting are well known. What's the cost of keeping a cat indoors?