Cats are now “serial killers” according to the latest made up figures and sensationalist reporting in the Independent.
A new study published by the journal Nature Communications has found that domestic cats slaughter billions of birds and small mammals in the US every year.
Has it really? Well, no, actually, it is full of “estimates” and “suggests” and “thought to be”. An experiment that followed the activities of 60 cats is then projected onto millions of others. It is statistically insignificant. In other words, another so called study that is nothing more than junk science and sensational anthropomorphised cockwaffle masquerading as journalism.
Back here in the UK, the RSPB – a vested interest if ever there was one – came to the conclusion that there is no evidence to support such nonsense.
Despite the large numbers of birds killed, there is no scientific evidence that predation by cats in gardens is having any impact on bird populations UK-wide. This may be surprising, but many millions of birds die naturally every year, mainly through starvation, disease, or other forms of predation. There is evidence that cats tend to take weak or sickly birds.
If we really want to look at the devastating effects on wildlife, we should first be looking at the effect we have on it, not a natural predator and certainly we should not be following the desires of raving nutcases who want to catch and euthanase cats because they don’t like them. And they are not serial killers, that is a human activity. Cats are predators and scavengers and they behave as their instincts drive them.
In our garden, sparrowhawks kill more birds than cats. Do we need bigger cats to see off the sparrowhawk menace?
Interestingly the other day, not far from here, I saw a red kite sitting in a tree. I wasn’t aware that we had birds of prey in this neighbourhood, but obviously we do and they need to eat.
Kites are mostly scavengers (though pretty modern ones!), but they will take small prey if the opportunity presents itself.
Given that the bugger was giving us the evil eye, I think it had ideas above small mammals 😈
We have six cats, if we didn’t feed them they’d starve. They’re lucky if they catch three or four birds a year between them!
Why the cat hatred all of sudden? Next thing the DM will be running, “Tiddles ate my budgie, something must be done, compensate me”, stories.
Do you think we are working towards registration of all pet owners or am I being paranoid?
It’s not new – it’s bansturbator payback. The kitteh cuddlers such as Anne Widdicombe were very happy to lend their sentimental weight to things such as the anti-hunting campaigns and support for the RSPCA and Animal Welfare Act.
Now they find that their own furry overlords are the next target species because, you know, one songbird is too many. They were warned, but they didn’t believe it.
Bucko, I think the ‘Mail’ is just running out of fox stories…
And right on cue, the ‘Guardian’ runs not one but TWO ‘killer cat’ stories! Good grief!
Slow news day?
Experts have revealed breakthrough new research that suggests – when a breakthrough new report includes the phrase “Experts have revealed new research” – there is a statistically significant risk that any accompanying statistics will be “Junk Science.”
They should be looking at the thousands of bird’n’bat mincers they’re erecting all over the place. Or perhaps the cat thing is a red herring to take the spotlight off the windmills’ ornithophobic tendencies.
My cat is to bloody scared to chase something as big as a pidgeon. Even the blue tits (Pamela Andersson in winter??) gang up on him!
Does not want to KNOW!
Much easier to chase me around the kitchen until I open a tin of whiskers.