Lord Blencathra offered his ‘full support’ to the Bill before backing a call from Natural England chairman Tony Juniper for cats to wear bells.
He told peers: ‘All independent studies suggest that cats allowed out to wander at will kill about 260million mammals per annum in the UK and 60million garden birds.
‘Of course there are other predators killing animals and birds… but the contribution from roaming cats is massive and unnecessary.
‘Studies by three UK scientists, and published in the journal of Applied Animal Behaviour Science, show that in the UK cats with bells killed 34% fewer mammals and 41 per cent fewer birds.
‘We need every measure we can to preserve our declining garden birds.
‘So I would make collars and bells compulsory for cats let outside. But I would go further, my Lords, and I’d ban cat flaps completely.’
Moron.
Cats are a part of the eco system. One of mine hunts. She is pretty prolific. Her preferred prey are rats. Pretty big ones at that. I’m not convinced that rats are an endangered species. Yes, there is the occasional bird, but occasional being the operative word. Cats are far less of a problem than habitat loss. But, yeah, lets ban cat flaps. Fuck off and when you’ve done that fuck off again. You have no place being involved in our legislature, but as is usual, the petty bansturbators are the ones who end up bossing us about with their stupid, ill-conceived laws based not on science but on prejudice. Cats are not a threat to wildlife. People are.
He added: ‘There’s no justification whatsoever for cat owners taking a laissez-faire attitude and letting a cat go in and out when it pleases.
‘Don’t call yourself a cat lover if you have no idea where your cat goes at night, where it can be attacked, run over, catch fleas, diseases and kills precious wildlife.’
Anyone who can come out with this claptrap des not understand the nature of a cat. A cat is not a dog. A cat is a free roaming animal that lives where it chooses and roams where it likes. And, yes, there is a risk. Life is a risk. You cannot eliminate it. Imprisoning a cat against its will is inhumane.
To quote Chris Snowdon on these creeps:
When they reflect on their legacy from the opposition benches next year, Tory MPs will be able to boast that although no new nuclear power station has opened since 1995, it is now against the law to use a credit card to buy a lottery ticket. More than six million people will be on NHS waiting lists but at least every child will have to learn maths until they are 18. After decades of deliberation, Heathrow airport will still have no third runway, but it will be illegal to “induce” a cat to follow you down the street. They will console themselves with the knowledge that although they were not always competent in their years in power, at least they were busy.
And that’s the problem. God spare us from busy politicians. At least a dictator would occasionally be sated and leave us alone. These arseholes just don’t know when to stop.
Where I used to live, we had slow worms in the garden. The neighbour’s cat used to hunt them. I think, on balance, I’d rather have slow worms in my garden than a neighbour with a cat.
If cats were not domesticated and your neighbour didn’t keep a cat, they would still be around, just in greater numbers. They will always hang around human habitation because domesticated or not, we are a source of food. Whatever you would rather, cats are here to stay. So you might as well be sanguine about it. But, yes, I share your thoughts on slow worms.
My friends cats bring in leaves and stones and are very pleased with themselves. My old cats, now passed away, use to catch the odd bird, often brought them in alive and I had to rescue them from the curtain rail and release them, had a slow worm under the carpet, still alive. But what they couldn’t do was keep their collars on. The times I had someone post the collars back through the letter box. In the end I gave up. You can bring in a law but doesn’t mean you can enforce it. We are dealing with cats after all.
Interesting that bansturbators that get off on controlling minute details of other people’s lives don’t like cats. If only the population at large could be more like cats and less like sheep the likes of Lord Blencathra would enjoy considerably less influence.
We have had many cats and tried to bell them. The collar with the bell never stayed on for more than a few minutes after cat was let out the door.
Cat collars always have an elastic section to prevent the cat being strangled if the collar catches on a twig.
Better to fit whoopee cushions to their paws.
It takes a particular level of stupid – found mostly in politicians – to create a law that cats are supposed to obey.
They should be more concerned with stopping the birds habitat from being cut down to build on. Even when builders promise they will keep woodland areas suddenly they have to cut back the trees. If every garden had one tree then birds will have safe routes across gardens. Plus it would help with preventing flooding, give us more oxygen in the air, and make the place attractive.
The 1st cat I had went through 3 collars. She arrived home in the 3rd one on 3 legs with her paw caught under the collar where she was trying to remove it. I’ve never put a collar on my cats since then. One of the current pair brought a rat home last week. Funnily enough the council has just written to our road warning about rats in the neighbourhood & how to poison or trap them. So basically she’s doing a public service!
That’s why I and the late Mrs L stopped putting collars on cats. As for the public service, my neighbour certainly thinks so.
There’s a section on the PDSA website re the dangers of cats wearing collars https://www.pdsa.org.uk/pet-help-and-advice/looking-after-your-pet/kittens-cats/cat-collars
There’s nothing that wakes you up in the morning quite like stepping in cold mouse gizzards.
Thanks Chairman Meow!
We have a big cat called Max who hunts a lot. Mainly mice, the occasional rat and much more rarely birds. He once brought a magpie into the house and then let it go. We have plenty of trees in our garden so maybe that’s why Max doesn’t catch too many birds. The other day there was a hawk or kestrel devouring a blackbird in our garden so it isn’t only cats that get them.
“Imprisoning a cat against its will is inhumane.”
Mine were trained from kittenhood to be indoor cats. If there’s enough stimulation indoors, they don’t miss it.
If you’ve managed it without the frantic scrabbling at the door, then well done. It’s not about a lack of stimulation, there’s plenty of cat toys around the house and they have plenty of interaction, it’s just a part of their nature. Every kitten I’ve had has made straight for the cat flap at the earliest opportunity. The great outdoors is too much of a draw.
We occasionally have a Sparrow Hawk hunting in our village. The victims feather spread tell the tale.
Cat fanatics pretty much are the busybodies themselves, demanding others accept whatever they want,much like some horseriders on the road.
They have been partly responsible for bad legislation, for example the airgun licensing and attacks on fireworks in scotland and for trying to push for the same in england.
Most peoples living conditions would be considered inhumane if applied relatively to cats.
This comment makes no sense whatsoever. I’ve read it several times and am still none the wiser. No one is demanding anything. Well, I am, I’m demanding that fucking politicians wind it in and leave us alone.
The point is that there are many cat,and other animal owners for that matter, that expect authorities to impose their will on the public but don’t like it when the situation is reversed which sullies the argument that these measures are authoritarian.
Maybe there are some. It doesn’t invalidate my argument, because your claim doesn’t apply to me. Ergo, it is authoritarian. Indeed all these measure are authoritarian.