4 ms·

What I've learned from debating this with people, online or offline, is that we apparently do not talk about the damage cats do to wildlife. The only people I'v

What I've learned from debating this with people, online or offline, is that we apparently do not talk about the damage cats do to wildlife. The only people I've seen agreeing with me that cat ownership should be heavily restricted and limited to indoor cats is the hunters. Everyone else seem to be fine with cats killing birds, lizards and small mammals by the billions. For the wind turbines, maybe paint or restrict them in areas with endangered birds, but just accept that every now and then they are going to cut a seagull in half.

Tade0 3y ago
> What I've learned from debating this with people, online or offline, is that we apparently do not talk about the damage cats do to wildlife. There's a whole food chain going on on the outskirts of cities, where you might occasionally find foxes. There's a fox living in my neighbourhood and from the yapping and hissing at night it seems to be actively at war with the local cats.
- kjkjadksj 3y ago
  Fox can easily kill a cat. The entire head will fit in their jaws. They are probably yapping at eachother.
kjkjadksj 3y ago
We live in a world where apex predators such as the wolf no longer exist where it evolved in many cases. Without the pressure from smaller more numerous predators such as coyotes or cats, I expect disease spreading pest populations such as the rat would explode. Theres a lot of handwringing about not disturbing the environment, but just about all around the world its already very disturbed and scarred with human activity anyhow, to the point we don’t even realize how badly we screwed up the dynamics of the environment, e.g. by culling the wolf for example.
yowzadave 3y ago
> we apparently do not talk about the damage cats do to wildlife. To the contrary--I love the damage that cats do to rat/mouse/pigeon wildlife in my city (New York)! When I was visiting Athens on vacation, I noticed that there were thousands of wild cats that roamed the ruins; I wonder if, rather than seeing wild cats as an animal control problem, we should see them as a pest control measure?

Tade0 3y ago

> What I've learned from debating this with people, online or offline, is that we apparently do not talk about the damage cats do to wildlife. There's a whole food chain going on on the outskirts of cities, where you might occasionally find foxes. There's a fox living in my neighbourhood and from the yapping and hissing at night it seems to be actively at war with the local cats.

kjkjadksj 3y ago
Fox can easily kill a cat. The entire head will fit in their jaws. They are probably yapping at eachother.

kjkjadksj 3y ago

We live in a world where apex predators such as the wolf no longer exist where it evolved in many cases. Without the pressure from smaller more numerous predators such as coyotes or cats, I expect disease spreading pest populations such as the rat would explode. Theres a lot of handwringing about not disturbing the environment, but just about all around the world its already very disturbed and scarred with human activity anyhow, to the point we don’t even realize how badly we screwed up the dynamics of the environment, e.g. by culling the wolf for example.

yowzadave 3y ago

> we apparently do not talk about the damage cats do to wildlife. To the contrary--I love the damage that cats do to rat/mouse/pigeon wildlife in my city (New York)! When I was visiting Athens on vacation, I noticed that there were thousands of wild cats that roamed the ruins; I wonder if, rather than seeing wild cats as an animal control problem, we should see them as a pest control measure?