Puddy Cat owners - take note. We all love our purring furry lovelies, and we love to encourage them do the 'natural thing' and let them roam outside. With almost 10 Million cats in Canada, a third as many as human citizens, there are a lot of pet predators out on the loose. House cats are only outnumbered by feral cats.
And there has yet to be a cat, which does not go into orbit when something bite sized and feathered hops around just asking to be pounced upon. Unfortunately Canadian cats, just like Canadians, are politically correct and 'all inclusive' and don't discriminate by minority status, breed, colour, gender, sexual orientation or religious inclination of their intended prey, hence they hunt and kill endangered birds just as happily as your pesky city pigeons.
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| Svetlana Petrova's Fat Cat Art after Shishkin: Morning in a Pine Forest Feral cats? Definitely not starving here... |
And there has yet to be a cat, which does not go into orbit when something bite sized and feathered hops around just asking to be pounced upon. Unfortunately Canadian cats, just like Canadians, are politically correct and 'all inclusive' and don't discriminate by minority status, breed, colour, gender, sexual orientation or religious inclination of their intended prey, hence they hunt and kill endangered birds just as happily as your pesky city pigeons.
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| Gotcha!!! |
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| Who is going to win this stand off? |
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| After the bird feed into the bird feeder... |
Toronto Star, Valerie Hauch, reporter...
Death by cat — that’s the fate of about 200 million native birds in Canada every year, part of an overall annual avian death toll of 269 million, according to a just-released report from a conservation group.
Death by cat — that’s the fate of about 200 million native birds in Canada every year, part of an overall annual avian death toll of 269 million, according to a just-released report from a conservation group.
Feral cats and domestic cats allowed outdoors killed more birds than any human-related activity, says the report titled The State of Canada’s Birds 2012, described as “ the first-ever comprehensive picture of the current health of Canada’s birds.’’
About 116 million annual bird deaths in Canada are attributed to feral cats, 80 million to domestic cats, 26 million to power line altercations, 25 million to collisions with buildings, 14 million to vehicle collisions, and the rest to pesticides, agricultural mowing, commercial forestry, and oil and gas industry-related activities.
The report, which draws on decades of data, is a collaborative effort by the North American Bird Conservation Initiative Canada (NABCI Canada), whose members include Environment Canada, provincial and territorial governments, conservation and private-sector organizations. The NABC was launched in 1999 to co-ordinate bird conservation efforts throughout the continent.
What can cat owners do to mitigate the impact of death by cat??
The British newspaper Guardian suggests these steps:
Fit a bell to your cat's collar – This simple addition could cut predation by at least a third. For those cats who don't suit bells (apparently some will refuse to go out wearing them) there are other gadgets out there; from audio-visual alarm collars which sense the inertia of your cat's pounce, to cat bibs, a device from the US which gets in the way just as the cat strikes out for the bird.
• Make sure your cat is well fed – Sounds logical, yet unlikely to work as a stand-alone measure. Few animals can be wholly trusted to turn down snacks on the basis of having already eaten.
• Impose a cat curfew - In an unlucky coincidence, it seems those times your cat is most desperate to escape the house – around sunset, sunrise and after bad weather – coincide with the most vulnerable point in the birds' timetable, for instance at feeding time. During these high-risk hours you may also find unaccompanied fledglings on the ground and should take your cat indoors until baby and parent bird are reunited and have fled the scene.
• Avoid feeding birds on the floor – Choose higher ground or install a bird feeder to keep the birds out of reach. If your cat's a climber, this won't do, and the advice is to make it very unpleasant for any cat attempting to pursue their prey. Planting some spiny plants underneath the feeder should do it, the charity recommends
Cat and Bird Lovers - Unite!!
The report, which draws on decades of data, is a collaborative effort by the North American Bird Conservation Initiative Canada (NABCI Canada), whose members include Environment Canada, provincial and territorial governments, conservation and private-sector organizations. The NABC was launched in 1999 to co-ordinate bird conservation efforts throughout the continent.
What can cat owners do to mitigate the impact of death by cat??
The British newspaper Guardian suggests these steps:
Fit a bell to your cat's collar – This simple addition could cut predation by at least a third. For those cats who don't suit bells (apparently some will refuse to go out wearing them) there are other gadgets out there; from audio-visual alarm collars which sense the inertia of your cat's pounce, to cat bibs, a device from the US which gets in the way just as the cat strikes out for the bird.
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| Carrachi and Domenichino Perseus and Fat Cat Digitally improved by Svetlana Petrova One does not have to go quite that far with fitting a collar to a cat... |
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| Vermeer, The Kitchen Maid digitally improved by Svetlana Petrova Feed them at home.... |
• Impose a cat curfew - In an unlucky coincidence, it seems those times your cat is most desperate to escape the house – around sunset, sunrise and after bad weather – coincide with the most vulnerable point in the birds' timetable, for instance at feeding time. During these high-risk hours you may also find unaccompanied fledglings on the ground and should take your cat indoors until baby and parent bird are reunited and have fled the scene.
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| Manet, Bar at the Folie Bergere digitally improved by Svetlana Petrova, Fat Cat Art At happy hour - give them a stiff drink instead of letting them out |
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| Adriaen van Utrecht, Still Life Digitally improved by Svetlana Petrova With all the tasty food around, a bird is still more tempting than any of it.... |
