by Art Jones
I share my home with five cats. Yes, count 'em, five cats. How they came to live in my house is a story for a different time.
The cats that live in my home spend most of their time indoors. When they do go outside they are kept on a leash. The leashes were originally used to keep the cats safely away from traffic and other animals. Now it turns out the leashes may have been doing the local birds and small
animals a favour.
Cats and humans have co-existed for a long time. First domesticated in Egypt around 4,000 years ago they were introduced to Europe around 2,000 years ago. Cats first arrived in North America with the European immigrants. Large numbers were imported during the late nineteenth century in an attempt to control a growing rodent population associated with
agriculture.
It's estimated there are now around five million domestic cats in Canada and those animals kill about 140 million birds and small mammals every year. A similar situation exists in Britain, New Zealand and Australia. In the United States 66 million pet cats and an estimated 40 million feral or wild cats kill a billion small mammals and hundreds of millions birds every year. Although some of those kills are mice, rats and other species seen as pests, many times a cat takes a bird or animal whose population is already under pressure from other things such as habitat loss.
A study done in Wisconsin showed cats kill more birds and small mammals than all of the foxes, skunks, raccoons and other mid-sized predators.
Rick Espie of Saskatchewan Environment says that's partly due to the fact that there are so many cats and that most cats are efficient predators.
"The populations of natural predators rises and falls with the availability of prey so when the prey population crashes, the predators go hungry and their numbers fall. That, in turn, reduces the pressure on the prey which then allows those populations to rebound," says Espie.
"That isn't the case with cats. Cats are an introduced species so their prey does not have a natural defense. On top of that, most cats are usually well fed or subsidized by food from a bowl. That means their population stays the same while the birds and small mammals they hunt are always under pressure. For domestic cats, hunting is not a matter of life and death; they kill
because they are programmed to hunt."
Many cat owners put bells on their pets thinking that will alert the birds and animals being hunted. But bells don't work because birds and animals often don't connect the sound of a bell to danger and because cats can learn to stalk without ringing the bell.
Farmers that use cats for rodent control should keep only as many animals as needed and spay and neuter all cats. Studies show spayed females stay closer to home. Some people even mount owl boxes near out buildings to attract natural predators. City people can do several things including spaying and neutering all cats, making sure bird feeders are away from places cats can hide, training cats to a leash and keeping pet cats indoors.
"Really what is at stake is the health of many of our migratory small-bird populations,' says Espie. "Cats are not responsible for the toll they take on our wildlife-people are. The only way to stop domestic cats from killing birds and animals is to keep them inside."
Keeping your cat indoors has other benefits as well. A cat that spends a lot of time outside has an average life span of two to six years, while a cat kept indoors can live fifteen or more years.
There are several websites where you can get more information. They include www.abcbirds.org ,
www.wildflorida.org/critters/domestic_cat.asp,
whyfiles.org/086urban_critter/index.html,
www.cdri.org/Discovery/Feral%20Cats.html.
www.umext.maine.edu/onlinepubs/htmpubs/7148.htm,
and
www3.simpatico.ca/samgreen/webcats.html.
For more information contact:
Rick Espie
Biodiversity Specialist
Saskatchewan Environment
(306) 787-2461
respie@serm.gov.sk.ca
Or
Art Jones
Communications Consultant
Saskatchewan Environment
(306) 787-5796
(306) 536-8452 (cell)
ajones@serm.gov.sk.ca
I share my home with five cats. Yes, count 'em, five cats. How they came to live in my house is a story for a different time.
The cats that live in my home spend most of their time indoors. When they do go outside they are kept on a leash. The leashes were originally used to keep the cats safely away from traffic and other animals. Now it turns out the leashes may have been doing the local birds and small
animals a favour.
Cats and humans have co-existed for a long time. First domesticated in Egypt around 4,000 years ago they were introduced to Europe around 2,000 years ago. Cats first arrived in North America with the European immigrants. Large numbers were imported during the late nineteenth century in an attempt to control a growing rodent population associated with
agriculture.
It's estimated there are now around five million domestic cats in Canada and those animals kill about 140 million birds and small mammals every year. A similar situation exists in Britain, New Zealand and Australia. In the United States 66 million pet cats and an estimated 40 million feral or wild cats kill a billion small mammals and hundreds of millions birds every year. Although some of those kills are mice, rats and other species seen as pests, many times a cat takes a bird or animal whose population is already under pressure from other things such as habitat loss.
A study done in Wisconsin showed cats kill more birds and small mammals than all of the foxes, skunks, raccoons and other mid-sized predators.
Rick Espie of Saskatchewan Environment says that's partly due to the fact that there are so many cats and that most cats are efficient predators.
"The populations of natural predators rises and falls with the availability of prey so when the prey population crashes, the predators go hungry and their numbers fall. That, in turn, reduces the pressure on the prey which then allows those populations to rebound," says Espie.
"That isn't the case with cats. Cats are an introduced species so their prey does not have a natural defense. On top of that, most cats are usually well fed or subsidized by food from a bowl. That means their population stays the same while the birds and small mammals they hunt are always under pressure. For domestic cats, hunting is not a matter of life and death; they kill
because they are programmed to hunt."
Many cat owners put bells on their pets thinking that will alert the birds and animals being hunted. But bells don't work because birds and animals often don't connect the sound of a bell to danger and because cats can learn to stalk without ringing the bell.
Farmers that use cats for rodent control should keep only as many animals as needed and spay and neuter all cats. Studies show spayed females stay closer to home. Some people even mount owl boxes near out buildings to attract natural predators. City people can do several things including spaying and neutering all cats, making sure bird feeders are away from places cats can hide, training cats to a leash and keeping pet cats indoors.
"Really what is at stake is the health of many of our migratory small-bird populations,' says Espie. "Cats are not responsible for the toll they take on our wildlife-people are. The only way to stop domestic cats from killing birds and animals is to keep them inside."
Keeping your cat indoors has other benefits as well. A cat that spends a lot of time outside has an average life span of two to six years, while a cat kept indoors can live fifteen or more years.
There are several websites where you can get more information. They include www.abcbirds.org ,
www.wildflorida.org/critters/domestic_cat.asp,
whyfiles.org/086urban_critter/index.html,
www.cdri.org/Discovery/Feral%20Cats.html.
www.umext.maine.edu/onlinepubs/htmpubs/7148.htm,
and
www3.simpatico.ca/samgreen/webcats.html.
For more information contact:
Rick Espie
Biodiversity Specialist
Saskatchewan Environment
(306) 787-2461
respie@serm.gov.sk.ca
Or
Art Jones
Communications Consultant
Saskatchewan Environment
(306) 787-5796
(306) 536-8452 (cell)
ajones@serm.gov.sk.ca
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