Not Good For Birds
I read with interest a recent article in the Washington Post on free-roaming cats. In the article, Peter P. Marra, a conservation scientist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, offered another consideration in the debate over free-roaming cats. The movement to keep cats indoors has been largely motivated by the negative effect they have on wildlife, primarily birds. Cats kill upward of 500 million songbirds a year in the US alone. The free-roaming domestic cat, whether pet or feral has become the most abundant mammalian predator on Earth. Unlike the native bobcat and lynx, free-roaming cats are as invasive and disruptive to native ecosystems as gypsy or West Nile virus.
But Also No Good For Cats
A free-roaming lifestyle is not good for cats. Outdoor cats have half the life expectancy of indoor cats and causes of cat deaths can be gruesome - hit by cars, being mauled by dogs or becoming a meal for a fox or coyotes. Life outdoors also means greater exposure to diseases such as toxoplasmosis and feline leukemia, which affects not only their health but also that of native wildlife. Cats are now the most common domesticated animal to carry and transport rabies to humans and other wildlife. Allowing cats to roam is not good for cats, for people, or for native wildlife - Mary Zimmerman.
This article was published by the Nashville Chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society - written by Mary Zimmerman