10 ms·

that is utter garbage of course I don't have a dog (or cat) in this fight, but I've always heard that cats do indeed decimate bird populations. Do you have evi

• trhway 9y ago
  The bird population is mostly decimated by urban and agricultural development. What little left is subjected to other dangers - most damage is during the most vulnerable stage of egg - the nests are raided for eggs by rats and people (wild bird eggs is a delicacy for many and one such egg gatherer can collect all eggs from a small city park in one lazy afternoon). Cats come on the stage in 2 roles, both are beneficial for bird population - controlling rat population and eating ill birds. Anecdotally, my grandmother's farm (as well as the farms around) had very bustling population of small birds nesting in/on the house/barns as well as multiple semi-feral farm cats roaming everywhere. And there were periodically piles of bird feathers&bones found in the attic of the main house where the cats had their den. There were never a rat or mouse anywhere on the developed part of the farm while i frequently saw those cats carrying a mouse in their mouth back from the hunt out in the fields.
• YCode 9y ago
  Some cursory Googling seems to reveal this as a controversial talking point. The most balanced source I found was an NPR article that questioned the accuracy these claims, but not necessarily the conclusions. http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2013/02/03/170851048/do-we-really-know-that-cats-kill-by-the-billions-not-so-fast http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2013/02/03/170851048/do-we-... I'm interested to see what sources others might find.