That's my neighbor. Nice chap :) He also cares for birds.
Why should seemingly harmless TNR kitties be a problem?
The stark answer is : That they are not harmless.
Outside cats - through a rat to cat transmission - spread the sinister parasite Toxoplasmosis gondii.
That includes TNR cats.
This where this parasite begins.
Outside cats feeding off of mice and rats.
Cats go to the bathroom like all of living critters, but in those cat “packages” are oocysts of Toxoplasmosis.
And, nasty they are.
Any child, walking the grounds, can be infected.
How?
By just being a child.
Picking up a ball where a cat was using the restroom, and simply wiping a mucous membrane.
Toxoplasmosis causes blindness.
No child should ever go through that because they were infected.
No parent can disinfect a child 24/7.
Kids fall, they explore, and they put their fingers in their mouths.
There is no cure for this parasite, and the only vector that affects humans are outside cats.
The Brain.
Once in there ... there is no way out.
The Toxoplasmosis gondii parasite has been linked to mental disorders, including schizophrenia, spectrum disorders, road rage, suicide, and depression.
There are no inoculations for Toxoplasmosis.
Your healthy, happy toddler can be changed forever due to this parasite.
Is this possibility acceptable for any child?
Rabies is becoming a real problem in many states.
Cats have overtaken dogs as the number one source of rabies transmission.
This is because rabies vector raccoons are attracted to colonies.
1
There was not one mention in this article about the harm that feral cats can do to the natural environment - through predation on reptiles, birds, and amphibians - when they are sustained artificially. As it is written, this article presented trap-neuter-release as a feel-good way of avoiding euthanasia with no negative outcomes. People should at least be alerted to the potential consequences of the choices they make, and then proceed either way with a little more knowledge.
2
Here in the South Bronx, outdoor cats are very common. People leave cat food for them. They're great mousers, but they're MEAN. I keep my two pit bulls away from them — for the pits' protection!
1
In our area of the California Sierra we have a FREE spay/neuter program for feral cats. You know they have been spayed/neutered because the tip of one ear is removed. They really are excellent mousers!! And are given safe outdoor housing, food/water vet care.
1
It's interesting to note that the vast majority of outraged comments about the effect of outdoor cats on bird populations are from people who don't live in NYC, most in rural areas or very spread-out, suburban-type cities. I would respectfully note that these people are projecting their observations and research that has no bearing on a city of 8.6 million people crammed into 302 square miles — 12% less land mass than Dallas, which has 15% of NYC's population!
5
I do wonder why there are such strong feelings, for and against, maintaining feral cats and/or their colonies.
But there are Never advocates for the support of feral dogs and/or their packs.
Why shouldn’t dogs “live as nature intended”? Maybe because it’s not a good idea.
1
Obvious answer: a feral dog can kill a child or even a grown man, while a cat is fundamentally innocuous to us.
Your question could also be: “why don’t we let mountain lions live in cities like nature intended”?
3
While we don't know precisely how many birds a year outdoors cats take, an estimate is "free-ranging domestic cats kill 1.3–4.0 billion birds and 6.3–22.3 billion mammals annually, far exceeding any other human-influenced cause of avian death, such as pesticides or collisions with windows."
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/moral-cost-of-cats-180960505/
Additionally:
"Instinctive Predators of Wildlife... Even well-fed cats will hunt and kill. Upon reflection, most cat owners will have observed this behavior. When a cat plays with a feather toy or laser, it is practicing predatory behaviors. When these behaviors continue outdoors, the results are deadly for birds and other wildlife.
Unfortunately, the mere presence of cats outdoors is enough to cause significant impacts to birds. Because cats are recognizable predators, their presence near nesting birds has been shown to reduce the health of chicks and decrease nest success."
https://abcbirds.org/program/cats-indoors/cats-and-birds/
2/2
3
My family has had feral cats as mouse-catchers and as "outdoor pets" for decades. I remember at my grandparents' house when I was a little kid there was this feral cat that basically lived in their backyard - no doubt attracted by my grandmother's cooking skills! He was incredibly friendly with us kids and would let himself be petted and rolled around like any house cat. Proving that feral cats can also be really good pets, once they get to know "their" family. He caught mice, and stalked the backyard like he owned it. I am convinced that in his mind he believed he was a big scary lion controlling his territory.
I am also convinced that in the case of ferals, it's the cats that choose their owners, not vice versa. Last summer while having drinks on our back terrace a large female cat suddenly appeared and joined the party. She immediately befriended all of us with purrs, rolls and accepting everyone petting her. She doesn't want anything from us - just a bit of companionship and petting. In return she keeps the garden tidy and free of rodents. She obviously gets her food from somewhere else, but it also proves that even feral cats aren't always mercenaries. Some of them really do like humans.
7
On our block in Brooklyn, we love our feral cat colony. When construction on Barclays Center unearthed decades of rat colonies, the surrounding neighborhoods were besieged by rats and mice looking for new homes. Even during the day, rats frolicked outside until mysteriously a group of cats moved in and there isn’t a rodent in sight. Neighbors have retrofitted storage bins into “cat houses” in an empty alley space and there’s always food, especially during a storm. Students at the school across the street have adopted one of the colony as the “school’s cat” who lets kids pet him and follows them down the block. Nope, can’t convince me that any exterminator I ever paid does as good a job as this group of urban warriors. And they’re environmentally friendly, to boot.
6
In South Florida we have a plague of iguanas in our neighborhood. Recently an orange feral cat arrived in my yard. I TNR'd him and the iguana population has plunged. I feed him and give fresh water daily and flea treat him periodically, though in this climate shelter from cold is not an issue. I would MUCH prefer one feral cat to dozens of iguanas!
2
Cats kill 11 MILLION song birds a year. For sport!
2
The truth of the matter is that feral cat colonies are not the ideal but in some cases the best option available. In general, when people involved in TNR (trap, neuter, return, involving managed colonies of feral cats) get involved, the first thing they do is try to identify cats that have a chance of being adoptable and get them adopted. That is the ideal everyone is striving for. But some feral cats are too wild and have basically been undomesticated. So what do you do?
The compromise has been to trap the cats, get them neutered so that the cats will not reproduce and create more feral cats, and return them to their environment because they are unadoptable and that is the best possible outcome. Often people will then create outdoor shelters and things to make their existence a little less miserable. When TNR is successful, all adoptable cats are adopted and the rest live out the rest of their lives but do not reproduce and thus eventually there is no more colony. The problem exists and TNR is actually a way to mitigate the concerns about birds, etc.
If you want to protect birds from cats, you should focus on the people not spaying and neutering their cats. Don't attack the people trying to clean up the mess. If the TNR people leave, the cats will continue to reproduce.
And it doesn't make sense to impose your ethics on a cat. Just try to understand that people doing TNR are on the same side as you.
1
This is a flse good idea. There are too many cats in most cities already and they kill a lot of birds.
2
Oh great. Another way to slaughter songbirds.
2
Any cat cat be a mouser. You just have to be prepared to potentially lose a pet to traffic or predators.
We had two fantastic mousers, the first was born feral, but we caught it when it was just a few weeks old. Gorgeous short haired grey tom with white paws, and huge. He not only hunted mice, he even tried to hunt geese. Fearless.
The second was a runt female tabby. She killed anything smaller than her, it was like wild kingdom watching her come walking home with a kill.
The cat we have now, who has no front claws, only goes outside to sit on the porch, but even he manages to catch a mouse or vole once in awhile.
We had a feral female who had several litters before we could trap her and have her spayed. She was totally wild, no question of bringing her inside with our other housecats. She had a nice house built from free plans found online, a kennel heater in it for cold weather, fresh water daily, and was fed twice a day. To prevent insects, other cats and critters we left her food down for 30 min then removed it. That actually made her more comfortable with us and the schedule seemed to work for her, she knew what to expect of us and when.
She interacted with us from a distance. If we sat on the front porch in the evening she would come and play nearby, once she even ran next door and returned with a baby mouse which she played with, gruesome but that was why we never saw mice. We also didn’t have random cats on our yard, she patrolled well and often. She lived 7 yrs like that and was prob. 2 when we TNT’d her, not bad for a feral cat.
After she died we see mice, rats, and lots of kitties in our yard. I miss her, she was sweet and a great little worker. TNR works! Just be sure to communicate with neighbors, some may want to harm your feral friend but can usually be reasoned with if you show them the benefits.
3
Let the raptors and owls do the natural rodent control! They are here in our neighborhoods and cities. They really need the food. You say "working cats... can have a place in residential areas as well" but your story makes no mention of the very real threat posed by non-native, outdoor cats to birds and wildlife.
We have great, uncommon migratory birds pass through or nest where I live because our residential multi-family housing is near a nature preserve and a stream. Preserve supports four NJ State Threatened breeding grassland bird species and at least two NJ Threatened and Endangered wintering species not to mention other valuable wildlife. All but one species NESTS or ROOSTS on the GROUND. Even a rare, declining owl species from the north migrates south to roost in the high grasses.
We also have illegal TNR shelters set up in the brush by cat lovers in denial of the damage their charges inflict on local wildlife. In daytime I see the cats trotting down the the bike path to across the road to hunt the preserve. At night on drive home I catch glimpse o of them scurrying back from the preserve to shelters or clambering over fences to a warm home. Through binoculars .5 miles away from these shelters I inadvertently spy house cats stalking wildlife deep in the heart of the preserve where the rarest birds nest or roost on the the ground. The cats then deposit dead birds and young rabbits on our condo stoop. 1/3
29
Other birds are a substantial part of owl and raptor diet.
7
The difference is our native birds have evolved with our native owls and raptors. Cats are an introduced species and belong indoors, where they can live safe and healthy lives and not harm our wildlife. Want to get rid of mice? Put up an owl box.
10
Movie Studio Cats have always been a reality in Los Angeles. Many studio workers trap the cats. After medical care and sterilization, the felines are returned to prowl the sound stages and back lots. Many of those workers also feed the cats daily, but not so much that they won't hunt. It's usually warm enough in Southern California that indoor shelter isn't required. My sister in law, a Cat Person, once had trouble with some studio drivers who thought it was amusing to release trapped Toms until a major star (who might not want to be outed as a fellow Cat Person) suggested that the drivers might want to assist in re-trapping and transporting cats to the Vet, by commenting that many people say "You'll never work in this town again, but you know I can make it happen if you don't help." That was the end of interference.
4
Nope. Birds.
9
Our feral that we TNR’d was seen hunting and killing birds prior to TNR but after that she would only halfheartedly pursue them. Fresh wet food twice a day made her disinclined to work that hard on birding. Mousing never stopped though thank goodness.
1
They need this program in Israel. There are so many feral cats roaming the towns and cities that they are the pests. A capture, neuter and release program would still keep away rodents, but help cut down on their over population of cats.
4
Well cats will kill mice , but don’t expect them to kill rats
2
This is entirely wrong. My two domesticated ferals all but eliminate rats around my urban building. In the summer, it's not uncommon for them to bring in 1 or 2 a night. And yes, my cats eat the rats, or almost all of them. They don't like the aft portion, which I get to dispose of.
Feral cats become this way from supposedly kind-hearted humans who start feeding stray cats but do not take responsibility to have them spayed or neutered. The queens then endure a lifetime of continuous rape every 6 months, the toms to horrendous injury or death from fighting, and their offspring to more of the same, along with the misery of fleas, ticks, mange and a survivors existence one would not wish on their worst enemy. In light of the many groups that will sterilize ferals for free, this should be a criminal action.
8
How about one of those things you can buy online that zaps the poor little buggers with a 1-sec. jolt of electricity? MUCH more humane than a cat toying with them s-l-o-w-l-y, then leaving the pieces around for you to step on when you wake up. Yuck.
2
Every bird lover in the US let out a scream after seeing this headline. Sweet little kitty kills a lot of birds, though many owners deny it. It's their nature, even when rodents are plentiful.
21
This program is a travesty. Feral Cats are hard wired to kill and kill they do, millions of song birds a year. The Audubon society has many articles on this subject and maintains authoritative records posted by wildlife experts. The NY Times has published this info. So I'm shocked to read this senseless misguided suggestion. I kill all feral cats that come on my property. Why? Because I have many bird feeders and enjoy dozens of wild birds that feed in my backyard. And an additional nuisance...outdoor cats dig and defecate in my flower beds. So have your adorable cat. But keep it indoors. paul in bessemer
16
@Paul Davis, I wonder how much of the seed you put out for the birds is actually consumed by mice, rats, squirrels, and other unwanted, flea-ridden rodents.
5
A little research here would have put this story to be early, along with many urban myths. Articles from "Smithsonian Magazine," 'Cat Are Surprisingly Bad at Killing Rats','" Animal Planet, "[cats] they're not really effective at keeping rat infestations under control since rats breed so rapidly and tend to escape to confined spaces that cats can't access," "Scientific American," 'Cats May Have Duped Us about Being Great Rat Catchers,'" and many more such science-based pieces do away with that feline fantasy immediately. As has been noted in a number of other letters, cats, unfortunately, are much better at decimating local and migrating birds than they are on Rat Patrol.
12
Cats are a cruel solution. They toy with their prey, and often kill them slowly. And when you wake up the next morning, you have to watch where you step. Eeeww.
My solution? Buy one of those Rat-Zappers for 40 bucks. Load 4 D cells (which last for maybe 30-40 jolts), put in a few raisins or bits of Ritz crackers, and it's over in a second. And in the A.M. into the disposal. And just reset the trap. MUCH more humane.
3
Not a mention of birds. House cats kill billions of birds every year, and are a scourge of song birds. Are feral cats the same?
9
Am I the only reader here who felt really sad reading this article? I completely understand that having mice in your home is a terrible problem, which thankfully I never had - in an apartment or house. I would absolutely hate it if mice were roaming in my kitchen. But, my heart breaks thinking about my dearly loved “indoor” cats who were as affectionate and devoted as any of my dogs. What would their lives be like with no vet care, no oversight, no affection?
Some would say that the lives these barn cats lead are closer to nature and more interesting than a chubby house cat’s life of indulgence and cuddling. However, knowing what cats can be like in terms of their interaction with humans makes me feel heartsick thinking of a cat that basically fends for itself - dodging cars, avoiding bigger predators, getting sick and suffering.
Feral cats are a huge problem; I get it. And, these catch, neuter and release programs are addressing the problem of overpopulation. Still, we humans are the ones who have domesticated cats. And, through ignorance and neglect, we have created a problem where there are no “right” solutions. I truly appreciate the people who think about this and try to find creative and humane ways to correct what we humans have wrought.
7
Yes, feral cats--any outside cats--kill birds. But PEOPLE are the killers that we should really be concerned about. Did you view 60 Minutes last night on our plastic pollution? Beaches littered with decomposing bird carcasses, the stomachs clogged with multiple, whole, plastic bottle caps and other plastic debris. Evidence.
23
Feral cats decimate not just native birds. Lizards, frogs, toads,snakes, salamnders,skinks and many other such native critters that have no chance when feral cat colonies are established.
Since cats were banished on our small farm; a thriving blue belly population control cockroaches, a snake or 2 in barn handle rodents, various small migratory birds rest in our trees, kill deer nest in the yard.
If we must have feral cat colonies, at least put them where coyotes are to make fair.
These cats are not native. They are decimating native populations.
I cant believe some in society can be so short sighted, worse, that society allows it... we should protect these creatures from invasive predators.
12
@Lane Lizards, frogs, toads,snakes, salamnders,skunks, etc. are not that prevalent in NYC's concrete jungle. Rats are.
2
One of our reasons for transitioning our cat from outdoor to indoor (opposite of this article) is that they kill so much other than mice - baby rabbits and birds. And leave it all on the doorstep. Yuck.
3
I keep hearing that feral cats kill billions of birds per year. Will someone please direct me to studies that are NOT based on extrapolations, that show which species these cats are killing and that is not based on "island" geography? I love both birds and cats, but have a hard time advocating the wholesale slaughter (euthanasia) of feral cats who are on this planet simply because humans are stupid or lazy. I have bird feeders outside my house and there are cats that hang around, but in all the years I have had feeders I have only seen evidence of 2 bird kills and since there is a Coopers hawk that hangs out, I cannot even attribute this to a neighborhood cat with any certainly. BTW, they were very common doves. There is a lot of emotion on both sides of this issue and I can't help but think that there is some exaggeration that goes with it on both sides also.
14
Feral Cats are not native to our landscapes. Songbird numbers have suffered greatly from cat depredations. Cats belong indoors and neutered. If they can’t be adopted they should be euthanized. There are plenty of alternatives for rodent control. Catch, neuter, adopt inside or kill.
4
Listen, you have a mouse ? Don't even bother trying to kill it. One is the sign of many more. So find the point of entry, you block it, end of story. The point of entry is inaccessible ? You buy one of these new devices working with ultrasounds, you plug it, end of story 2. And the fact that mice will invite themselves in your house on winter only is a myth. They are looking for food before anything else.
Feral Cats kill up to 3.7 BILLION birds a year in the U.S. Articles like this and owners of both Feral Cats and "In Door" Cats (that are allowed to go out and hunt) pretend all they kill are mice and rats. Not by a long shot. It's mostly birds. Not to mention the cats defecating on other people's laws. Cats need to be licensed, neutered and kept indoors. Feral Cats need to be euthanized.
8
3.7 billion a year? Who is doing the counting?
5
I adopted a partly-feral cat, Hector, and he was an ace at killing and eating virtually anything that moved.
I'm still traumatised by the daily menu of mice, shrews and baby rabbits he brought in and then ingested in front of me. Curiously, he would eat them and leave absolutely no mess at all.
But, they were usually still alive and the squeaking, leg-wriggling and bone-crunching as they went down the gullet still haunt me.
Dear old Hector has now gone to that great rodent feast in the sky where I'm sure he is still enjoying the hunt.
6
Just finished reading the article and haven’t yet waded through all of the comments but I’d love to see informed commentary from someone at, say, the Cornell Ornithology Lab regarding the effect of feral cats on bird populations. My recollection is that they are extremely detrimental and that has driven our decision to not have a “barn cat” even though we live on a farm in a rural area of the west coast where rodent populations find “the livin’ easy”. This article makes it sound like the “cat:rodent” equation is a closed system which, sadly, it is not.
6
@JDLawyer
Several years ago the director of the Cornell Lab wrote a piece in their members’ magazine advocating for the killing of all feral cats.
1
Suburban mousers don’t even need to be feral. We’re on our 3rd rescue house cat, each raised from kittens, with a full complement of claws, and strictly indoors in our drafty old house. They’ve all been perfect mousers. The first two passed from old age and during the brief intervals while we were catless, the mice invaded with a vengeance. Each time, shortly after the next kitten came to live with us, the mice vanished. And the songbirds have one less predator to fear.
9
TNR advocates and bird-lovers are not necessarily on opposite sides. We are not taking indoor cats and putting them out on the street; these cats are already out there and this is the most humane way to deal with them. The goal is controlling the free-roaming cat population, with the ultimate goal of ending homeless cats altogether. It's not perfect and won't work overnight. But the other approaches (eg. trap and kill) have been attempted for decades and there are still tons of cats out there.
88
@chrisgee Not saying I agree with that approach, but has there really been a broad program of trap and kill implemented anywhere besides on islands where they are seriously threatening endemic species? It certainly hasn't been tried to the extent of TNR in most places. Is there any evidence TNR is having an effect on reducing the cat population? The problem is that the stated "goal" for some is not the same "goal" for others. If you simply treat the goal as "controlling cats", you're ignoring the effect that neutered ferals will continue to have on the environment (and eachother). For others, the goal is not simply to "control cats" but to protect native wildlife against the many threats they face, including cats. With the "goal" framed that way, TNR makes less sense to them, as it still allows wildlife to be killed, and cats to suffer in the wild.
14
@chrisgee - It hasn't worked in 50 years of doing it in the U.K. And there is not one single municipality anywhere in the world that can state that it has fewer feral cats today than it did when it started doing TNR. Not one.
TNR is nothing more than a euthanization avoidance scheme that maintains feral cats in the environment perpetually, while they continue to kill native wildlife and spread disease. "Working cats" is just a variation of this terribly detrimental scheme.
35
@chrisgee yes lordy bejeebus thank you. I'm a huge birder and cat lover and now I know I'm not alone here in the middle.
18
In my experience, the mere presence of cat odors and pheromones is enough to deter rodents. In my work as a building manager, I recently hired an exterminator--four times--to treat an apartment where several mice were heard and seen on a nightly basis. The mice only retreated when I left a small bin of mildly used cat litter in every room. Glad to see the high value of working cats acknowledged in this article! And it's a wonderful opportunity for sterilized ferals to develop symbiotic relations with folks who appreciate them.
76
@Carol
True story - my friend worked in an insurance company that had a real mice problem. Nothing worked. At that time I had a cat, Buster, who was a great mouser. I loaned them the cat. He stayed in her office all day and at night was shut in the records room where the problems was. Every morning they would removed the bodies of the mice he killed. Three weeks=no more mice.
26
There is one old grey and white tomcat that lives in our 14-stall horse barn. We call him Jack the Ripper. He arrived here unannounced and when he was taken to another barn across town he arrived back a week later a bit thinner. Tried again. Same result. We had a rodent problem. No more. Rats rarely last long. And he loves to eat them. Another arrived on the porch about four years ago. A tuxedo. His name is Chairman Mao. He yells "Mao!"at me a lot and follows around the farm as I work. Wouldn't come within 10 feet at first. He also loves to eat rodents, but likes field mice, moles and chipmunks. He eats some. Sometimes he leaves them for me. Sometimes just a part. Kinda foul, but I praise him anyway. No poisons or exterminators needed. They were both neutered somehow. I inherited both later (long story) and they both refuse to come in the house. Prefer to be unconfined, I imagine. Got a heated cathouse and water bowl for Mao to hang on the porch. Jack rules the barn. Rarely they get a bird. Usually one of the gang of english house sparrows that besiege the barn. Mostly the robins look to be laughing at them. Jack and Mao pretend they're not there. These two mostly feral men don't much like each other, or anyone else, for that matter, but they like me. Happiest cats I have ever had the privilege to live with. I don't own these boys. Actually, they are the undoubted masters here, if I'm honest. They chose to live with me and stay here. I count them among my best friends.
220
@Gowan McAvity,
Thank you for sharing your tail of cats, now wearing their heavy outdoor winter furs. For the yuletide season, you might enjoy reading 'The Abandoned' by Paul Gallico, an American journalist, who lived for a year during WWII in the countryside of England with one Great Dane and seventeen cats.
Gallico also wrote 'The Snow Goose' for the men at Dunkirk, fighting for their life, and it took off like fire across Europe, inspiring many not to give up hope for freedom.
To All Creatures Great and Small, we would be lost without them to make this a better world.
23
I have a neighbor and friend who works with a shelter trapping and neutering feral cats in our little area. She feeds and gives them water and a warm place in her garage when it’s cold. We both used to have a gopher problem before those feral cats moved in. No more. Those cats are super effective.
I love birds and they get food in my yard. Cats are a threat to the birds, and while they are interested in the birds they actually have only killed them on a few occasions. There are good and bad sides to everything. The environmental impact of feral cats on birds is far less, I believe, than what we humans ourselves do with our daily driving, energy and food consumption, and pesticide use.
I have children and live in an area where plague is endemic and hantavirus exists. So having a cat patrol clearing our area of mice, gophers, and even rabbits (they don’t like to hang around with the cats) gives me much needed peace of mind.
44
Feral cats are an invasive species,exterminating native species in many parts of the country. Theyspread rabies and other diseases. Time to eradicate.
3
@SkL It doesn't matter what "you believe" the facts are that cats kill up to 3.7 Billion birds annually in the U.S. alone.
3
@SkL How do you know how many they kill? They generally eat them....
1
I understand the concern about the wild songbirds population, but feral cats are already out there. The TNR program helps reduce the overall feral population which in turn reduces their impact on birds, etc. I think it’s great that these neutered, relocated cats get someone to look after them as they live out their lives.
We share our home with a TNR rescue named Rasmus.
55
@Annika
With all due respect, there is absolutely no conclusive evidence that TNR actually reduces feral cat populations. Most of the statements out there saying that TNR reduces those populations are not based on any scientific studies or even long-term data collected by volunteers. There are even some suggestions that TNR does nothing to reduce the effects of feral cats on wildlife.
I know that there has been a great deal of back and forth between the feral cat rescue community and conservation biologists about how to deal with this problem, but the best place to start is a well-designed, unbiased, and long-term study on whether or not TNR works to reduce feral cat populations. I think this would be in the best interest for all involved and would be a good way to help figure how best to address the problems associated with feral cats in a humane and non-lethal way (and I am emphasizing non-lethal).
7
If you neuter the feral cats, they cannot reproduce. That's a good step.
If you can't educate people to stop discarding their non-neutered pets when they tire of them, then that's a problem.
Now if we can only get that sort of person to stop reproducing . . . .
14
@B. They don't stop hunting just because they're neutered. Still a big, net loss for native wildlife if cats are left outside to hunt. Cats are gratuitous killers. Its their instinct. They also live longer if kept indoors. We are losing so many other species at such a great rate we cannot afford this additional threat. Cats are not in jeopardy of extinction, but birds and other species are.
1
I live in Ghana, and poisonous snakes and scorpions in the garden are a real issue that everyone in my neighborhood contends with. I have 2 cats, a Maine Coon male and a female tabby. Since I moved into my house in 2010, I have seen only 1 living "bad" snake, which slithered up my downspout and across the roof to leap into the branches of an overhanging tree; and 2 dead scorpions, one in the garden and one on my dining room floor (I wish my cats could explain that one!). My neighbors without cats complain constantly about scorpions and snakes in their yards. My cats are 15 and 13 now, and have long stopped jumping the 7 foot cement brick garden wall, so I let them out every day for their garden patrols. They help in the house too, chasing geckos away. (Gecko excrement is very alkaline and damages the paint on the walls, so even though they are cute, and eat insects, I do not want them in the house.) The male is the better hunter, and has brought live lizards and a dead squirrel into the house. I think these gifts are a good exchange for freedom from snakes and scorpions. Neither cat has ever brought me a dead bird, nor have I ever seen bird remains in the yard. There are all sorts of little birds in the passion fruit vines, hummingbirds on the zinnias, and lots of butterflies. The cats leave all these little fluttery creatures alone.
33
@Patricia J Thomas The idea that your cats only kill the animals you deem worthy of death is as absurd as the assertion there are hummingbird on the continent of Africa.
1
@Andy The hummingbirds on my zinnias would disagree with you, and so would those on my neighbor's flowers. And I did not say my cats KILL snakes or scorpions; only that there are none in my garden, and my catless neighbors do have these poisonous creatures. I am happy my cats keep green mambas and other pit vipers out of my garden. It is not that I "deem them worthy of death," it is rather that I don't want to be bit by one of them when I am pulling weeds. You do know what kinds of snakes inhabit sub-Saharan Africa?
I had an extreme mice problem until I came home one day and found a large red tomcat in my detached garage. There had been many mice in that garage before he showed up so I slowly coaxed him into checking out my house too. After a couple of visits by him the mice had move on. He came around every week or so after that and took care of business. Our environment here in So. California is full of mice and if you don't have cats you will have mice.
15
Black Kitty, our feral cat, did all the adopting and adapting. She just happened to show up after some New Mexico mountain rodents had eaten critical insulation in our SUV and blown the computer. Welcome cat! She lives in our garage (in the rafters where there is now a cat bed with a heating pad), and the cars are untouched for two years now. She has become a "one-man cat," totally domesticated, lap snuggling, etc. but around only me. Anyone else, and she scats. I suspect she senses a bit of feral in this old mountain man.
23
Two years ago I exited my car to open the gate at the beginning of our seven hundred foot driveway. BK, as Barn Kitty has come to be known, said, "meow." I replied with a term universally recognized by most cats as a welcoming invitation to interact with humans "here kitty kitty. " She "meowed" at the right gate - she's spayed and vaccinated has the run of the house, has a barn to full of hay to hunt vermin in, has access to affection, kibble and water ... And our farm has reduced its vermin population by 97 known kills. Good kitty.
5
Feral cat colonies are created by human beings that abandon their cats and "throw them away." This is another problem created by humans. On the Animal Planet television show "My Cat From Hell" the host Jackson Galaxy has promoted the TNR program with feral cats and tells his viewers to spay or neuter their cats and keep them indoors. He even featured feral cat colonies and demonstrated what can be done to bring the feral cat populations down.
Years ago there was construction on my street and mice were invading my apartment building. My cat (who has never been outside) caught two mice in my apartment. A cat doesn't have to be feral to be a good "mouser." Cats are smart and savvy hunters.
3
I had no idea there were feral cats in my neighborhood until my elderly golden retriever died and I decided, after 40 years of dog ownership, to take a break. Not two weeks after she passed, a big orange tabby brazenly strolled past my kitchen glass door as if it had every right to be on my patio. I was out the door like a screaming bat out hell throwing that wildlife-murdering trespasser out of my yard.
Four more cats, clearly wild with thickened fur and no collars, have shown up in my yard since. Just 2 weeks ago at sunset while cleaning out rain gutters, a black cat was startled to see me when he used a tree to access my roof (I’ve since trimmed the tree back). I yelled and chased him as he hid under my solar panels that were just repaired after inexplicably failing. It was near dark and I couldn’t find him. I was incensed.
I learned from neighbors that an unknown someone may be feeding them. I even found empty cat food cans in front of a disheveled house where no one answers the door. I’ve allowed my yard to go partially wild and have many large old trees that shelter songbirds, squirrels, and hawks. I’ve seen rats and mice over the years as well. So what?! RODENTS FEED HAWKS and other predators like coyotes. Now the birds aren’t hanging around the lawn anymore because of the cats.
Cats are utterly destructive to nature and should be kept INDOORS, not released into neighborhoods. They are NOT welcome in my yard and I’m considering going to war against them.
Amazing how Nature (yet again) already had the answer!
1
Can this be done in the DC area too? Just moved to this area and there is a rodent crisis here.
1
No mention of the devastating impact of feral cats on birds?
1
Thank you for the pleasant article with positive information about feral cats. It's a nice change from all the articles being published lately that spew false facts based on gross exaggeration and junk science that only encourages hatred toward cats, both domestic and feral. I've had cats for all of my 53 years and, while I have received plenty of rat and mouse gifts and I have seen evidence of many other rodent kills, I have never once seen evidence of any bird kills. The cats are smart enough to know that the birds are too fast for them...or at least the healthy birds are. Besides, if cats killed even half as many birds as claimed, there would not be a single bird left alive on the planet. Plus, when the cats are TNR'ed, they are kept well-fed and taken care of, and are even less likely to go after wildlife. Now we just need to get people to take responsibility for their cats and stop abandoning them. Cats are wonderful creatures and deserve to be loved and kept safe from harm for their entire lives.
8
Cats are responsible for killing roughly 2.5 billion wild birds a year in the United States. I like cats too but many bird species are struggling for survival.
19
@Janice Tweedy Various studies worldwide have shown that the effects of cats on bird populations are exaggerated. Humans are a far greater factor through habitat destruction and other interactions like birds crashing into windows. As well, cats kill vermin such as rats and mice that eat bird eggs.The world is much more complex than "cats kill birds."
9
Once established, a male habit of spraying is impossible to break. The barn lower level stank.
The same with battling for turf.
In more rural areas they can end up in a fox's or coyote's dinner.
Mr. George tipped the scales at 17 lbs on a largely rodent dinner wandering about, and then one day wasn't there.
1
I am thrilled that some are practicing ways to compassionately deal with feral cats. I have fed several through the years and trapped/neutered quite a few as well. I always release them in my backyard and provide food, water, and heated shelter. Currently I have three ferals that I have taken care of (along with momma cat) from before they were weaned. I trapped and neutered her 6 kittens at 3 months old and, sadly, lost three kittens and momma cat to coyotes or some other predator. The three know their names, come when called, love to be petted/scratched by me (only). My only problem with the TNR program here is that they will return tiny babies to areas in which they are not wanted and they end up starving and/or sick. I would have domesticated all 6 of the kittens but, not being a hoarder, was full up. Ten years ago I trapped and domesticated three feral kittens and enjoy them yet today along with a few other rescues.
4
The city I live in began encouraging people to capture feral cats and having the cats neutered/spayed at no cost to the home owners. They, too, are returned back to where they were caught. It has been a wonderful program. Before it began there were feral cats everywhere; now the numbers are manageable. I wish there was a program on which people that get a cat from another person (not the shelter) could get their cat fixed at a minimal cost. The people that allow their cat to have litter after litter are the root of the problem. I'm dismayed every time I go to a local shelter and see the seemingly endless number of cats up for adoption. One thing to remember though is that whether or not they are fixed a cat (male and female) can still spray everything in sight. I know because I had a cat for years and years that was fixed; he didn't spray until I got a dog and, BAM, he soon started marking his territory.
3
In the past two years we have had a rabbit explosion in our area. This has brought out more coyotes, so I keep my girl in at night. It has also meant more damage to gardens in my area. Except that my cat seems to think that I plant a garden solely to attract rabbits, and is happy to prevent the damage. She greatly enjoys Lapin Tartare Al Fresco, while we enjoy undamaged veg.
1
We have provided regular food, a heated water bowl and warmed shelter for a feral cat for 5 years. We also feed a large number of birds and squirrels. Over the years, I have found dozens of dead rodents, but only two birds and probably 3 squirrels. I can't be certain that "Milo" is not killing birds elsewhere but he only hunts at night and certainly not a threat to the bird population we feed. I just wish he could do something about the occasional raccoon that raids our bird feeders!
4
I took in a semi-feral cat when I lived in Mexico. She had been sort of cared for and spayed during a neighborhood campaign but was living completely outside, and her elderly caregiver had passed away. I actually took both her and her young adult kitten to control roof rats around my rental house in a rural meadow. They lived in my horse stall (empty), which I was going to enclose better for the winter for them. Then a family of bobcats got wind of their food, and I woke up one night to a loud brawl outside my bedroom window. Mom was up in the rafters, but I never saw the kitten again after that (presumably, she was killed by the bobcats, which will eat house cats, preferring them over smaller prey). I decided to give the mom a try in the house for safety. She took to it better than any of my dogs, using her litter box right away (I used sand from the yard at first for familiarity) and loving the back of the sofa as her perch. When I returned to the States, she came with me, and she has loved being a house cat. She was an excellent mouser in Mexico (I would find tails and heads), but one does have to watch for larger predators like big cats, coyotes, and feral dogs. I would also recommend assessing quality of life too. Saving a cat from euthanasia isn't much of a rescue if they have mites, fleas, rotten teeth, and other health problems mentioned here in the comments.
5
Feral cats is certainly not the answer. Increasing evidence now indicates they are extremely harmful for wild birds. Because of this damage to our environment feral cats need to be removed from neighborhoods and surrounding forests. Any benefit they may have in affecting mouse populations is vastly exceeded by the cost of contributing to the decline of our native bird species.
21
@bill care to cite this "increasing evidence"? Everything I've seen fails to estimate the impact of rodent damage to bird populations, which can also be considerable.
5
Before the arrival of Baba, a feral cat, who came to live with my Himalayan orphan, Minou, me and Albert, a mouse who found our apartment warm and comfy, after his taking many cushy naps on my pillow and drinking the water from the edge of the pan for coffee at breakfast, a decision had to be made on whether Albert and I were going to share the same bed.
A tall green giant dressed in marine colors, showed up at the door eventually, carrying an iron box, possibly with weapons of mouse destruction, and he squeezed himself into the kitchenette, which began to rumble under his weight like the sounds of a pending environmental disaster.
Minou jumped into my arms, while I leaned back in my chair holding on to each other, while Albert skipped and frolicked over the boots of his assassin, evading his shots. All to say, it was an impossible mission, farcical to watch and the end of the affair.
And, then came Baba to keep Minou company. I had forgotten about Albert, having grown accustomed to his whiskers, when returning from work one evening, I found him in the corridor minus his head. No mouse or roach ever came to stay again.
Be careful, because cats often known as 'Mousers' have low tolerance for poison placed under shelves and other areas in your home, leading to tragedy.
Jeremy is an indoor/outdoor cat and has just brought in a mouse. 'Jer, you are supposed to take them out, and by the way, after climbing trees at dawn, it's time for you to take up squirrel patrol!'
4
You’d be better off with a rat terrier. They are awesome hunters and vermin killers. And they love to cuddle.
6
Cats kill billions of birds every year. They do so in Urban areas and Rural. Intentionally increasing the number of cats outdoors is pure wanton destruction by introducing and maintaining a major predator in numbers vastly exceeding those that would otherwise be sustainable. My urban cat would present me with about two birds a week, despite having a collar bell, until I had to bring him inside. If we did not have the habit of killing every fox, coyote, and snake, even when it was a non-venomous eater of rodents, and spreading our edible trash, we would not have a problem worthy of the name. I put this uncaring unthinking behavior in the same category as choosing to plant invasive plants rather than native plants in the little bits of “nature” that we permit to exist. That it is the same sort of unnecessary wanton destruction. This attitude extends to all aspects of our lives, where we spend no time at all on mitigating our impact.
17
@Dnain1953 citations needed. Be sure that they also estimate the impacts of a rodent explosion on bird populations should cats be removed from the environment.
9
we have an indoor cat but we had rats outside. to convince the rats to go elsewhere I made a mix of some smelly oil (poo pourri) and some very spicy ghost oil. the rats don't like the ghost oil and the smell tips them off where it is. no more rats - without killing them, without a lot of fuss.
3
My husband was anti-cat when we adopted Bandit, a.k.a the assassin, but now loves him because he has terminated many of the rabbits who would otherwise have chewed up his beautiful hosta plants
2
Introduction of cats into the environment is equivalent to taking away bird habitat: wild birds don't survive cat predation.
Good news: Birdsbesafe.com collar protects birds from cats, still permits successful hunting of rodents.
The Messenger movie shows the many pressures on our fast-declining wild birds (and what we can do to help):
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/the-messenger-our-movie-review/
6
@M I have yet to see a SINGLE study that addresses the impact of SUBTRACTING cats from the environment. Other than what happened in Europe in the twelvth century that is. Rodents have impacts on bird populations, too - and removing cats means rats eating eggs, birds, etc.
13
Feral cats kill over *one billion* wild birds every year. Feral cats are not native to the tri-state area. Feral cats' predation on native birds, driving some to extinction, is a manmade ecological disaster.
There are dogs that make excellent mousers, and that don't go after birds. Use the dogs. Eliminate feral cats. Discourage cat owners from allowing their pets to go outside. Safer for the cats.
13
"In a tree by the brook
There's a songbird who sings
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiving"
Haven't even bothered reading the cats-eat-birds comments, because they're gonna be inevitable.
I have a remote cabin in the Canadian woods. Lots of mice. My cat would go out at night and clear the area. after that, just the smell of him kept the mice away. My Rottweiler is also a great mouser and his smell also keeps them away.
Basically, if mice smell predator urine they stay away. Try sprinkling used cat litter around the outside perimeter of your buildings. It works. Mouse and rat poison just attracts more rodents due to its smell.
4
We, like so many, have had lots of cats over the years.
From a fluffy white persian pure-bred to a scrawny pregnant street cat who adopted us to be a maternity ward.
All were loved and well cared for.
I believe our happiest cats have been outdoor ones- free to roam and hunt. However, our current cat lives indoors now because she was an over-hunter- she would kill so many rodents and birds in one day that she would just leave them where she killed them- untouched.
One thing to remember when caring for feral cats is they get full of parasites from eating rodents, which makes them very sick.
Its important to make sure that these feral working cats are wormed regularly in order to keep them healthy and happy.
8
I rescued a small family of feral cats a number of years ago. Some couldn't be socialized, but given time, trust and plenty of food, several discovered they liked indoor plumbing. Two of my ferals eventually were neutered and survived. They're now surprisingly domesticated. One sits happily in my lap, while both stake out places on my bed at night. They react strongly to strangers and the vet, but with me, they both want and are capable of extending love. Feral cats are not the mongrels many people make them out to be, yet they are extraordinary hunters. Some 10 years on, my life with all the ferals has been an amazing experience.
8
I am a cat fan and own two - one a great and appreciated mouser. But feral cats kill a lot more than mice. They are superb predators and account for many, many birds (we have one in our neighborhood that regularly haunts the bird feeders), reptiles and small mammals. It is impossible to "train" them to concentrate on mice. If it moves and is of suitable size they are going to kill it. Keep the cats safely inside so they can take care of the mice that come in and become a problem.
10
@mark Think about bird feeders. Think about flying in to perch on what seems a safe place, and eat the food put out by the humans. Can you see any trouble coming? -- We had hanging bird feeders in one of the trees so we could watch the birds. What we saw was acrobatic performances by the local rats, and then the feeder would disappear - this is a rural, semi-wilderness area; we assumed it was the rats stealing the feeders out of the tree. Our neighbors, long-term residents here, agreed. Meanwhile, the well-nourished local rats produced more and more young, and amused themselves by gnawing through the heavy wooden door on our shed to investigate the compost and mulch stored there. After a season of this, we stopped using bird feeders and started encouraging predators - foxes, feral cats and large birds. The rats left. At present we have some resident feral cats. We put food out for them out in the open, in flat dishes (large plant saucers). The cats eat the food as do the foxes and the ravens -- and hundreds of small birds. We have no trouble with rats or mice. In the past 15 years I have found the remains of only two songbirds. Their population has increased since we started this, and we have the pleasure of their company, their songs, their beauty.
5
I have been involved in the animal welfare world for the past 20 years, as a volunteer, humane educator, SPCA board member, and TNR activist. My philosophy on feral cats has changed over the years. I was a caretaker of a small colony of feral cats for almost 10 years. I was never comfortable with leaving cats outdoors while my pet cats lived safely and comfortably indoors. I finally had the last cat euthanized, which gave me the opportunity to view him up close. His gums and teeth were in terrible shape, which my vet described as probably feeling like having lots of canker sores. His ears were full of mites. This is no way for a cat or any other domesticated animal to live. We would never tolerate a dog living a similar life. Domesticated animals that are subjected to living in the wild suffer silently from insidious diseases and from exposure to extreme weather. I have seen it first hand, as I volunteer at a shelter, where cats are brought in after living outdoors with frost bitten ears and toes, flea infestations, and other parasites, just to name a few. Many times, these cats aren't even feral, but rather they are strays that have known the comfort of living in a home with all their needs met, including medical. I think the real solution is to elevate the status of cats to that of dogs, requiring licensing and enforcing ordinances, making people responsible and improving the lives of cats. It worked for dogs, and it can work for cats
17
@Geri Ritchie
Dear Geri, thank you for your comment. While I still question the effectiveness of TNR--the evidence about its effectiveness just isn't there--I agree with your thoughts about how we really need to change human attitudes towards domestic cats. This is, after all, a people problem and cats really are the victims in all of this. As someone who has taken in strays or adopted unwanted cats over the years, I appreciate your dedication.
6
@Geri Ritchie I agree with you. I think feral cats lead a miserable existence. I think spay and neuter programs should be used until the populations are eradicated.
1
This is an interesting program, though it raises questions about the threat outdoor feral cats might pose to birds. We had a barn cat in Missouri, a black cat who may have been shunned elsewhere because of country superstitions, who moved in and became a friendly and welcome eradicator of mice and rats. We named her Cleopatra, and fed her, and loved her. She stayed until she had kittens, and then moved them away, perhaps because of our dogs. Even feral cats become more flexible over time, and more domesticated, and sometimes even turn into pets. Jerusalem has a large feral cat population that was encouraged under the British Mandate to eradicate rats. The cats sometimes adopt a local human, and try to move in with them. One kitten who did this never left the house once she made it inside. In general, indoor cats are healthier, and don't pose problems to birds and other local wildlife. But cats in cafes and stores and warehouses could serve a valuable, and old-fashioned, purpose.
8
Most of the birds killed by cats are either sparrows or starlings. Both species are non-native European imports.
18
Patently untrue. Yes, it is true that both European Starlings and European House Sparrows are non-native and are huge problems. To state that "most of the birds killed by sparrows are either..." reveals a gross misunderstanding of actual bird populations in the United States.
"Sparrows" have more than a dozen different species in North America alone. Feral cats, and, even worse, non-feral "house" cats kill untold millions of native birds. Think Robins, Finches, Northern Cardinals, Eastern Bluebirds, Titmice, Chickadees.....the list is almost endless.
To presume that encouraging the presence of feral cats in the hope that they will "control" a local rodent population is not based on ANY observable evidence.
9
@scott ochiltree. Can you cite some evidence for this preposterous assertion? Cats don't discriminate. BTW, cats are non-native too.
@scott ochiltree
How can you make that statement? We have very few english sparrows and starlings where I live. The cats love the redpolls every winter though and fledged robins are in grave danger every spring.
1
I have a small ranch on the outskirts of Tucson. At one time my hay barn was home to many pack rats and a few snakes. Pack rats attract rattlesnakes. Besides the destruction pack rats cause, I did not want to take a chance on a rattlesnake hiding out under a pallet of hay. I found a working cat program based in Phoenix. This program works with the local animal shelters and will take feral, non social cats that are scheduled for euthanasia. The program spays and neuters the cats and vaccinates them. They do no charge for placing the cats at various ranches and farms.
I have had my working cat for over two years. No one in my family has touched her. She is interested in our activities, but keeps her distance. I have not seen signs of pack rats since she has been working here and really have not seen a rattlesnake either. Surprisingly I have not seen many rodent carcasses and my barn is home to many birds.
This program is great and gives cats a new lease on life. And I do not have to deal with poisons and chemicals that further harm wildlife and the environment.
90
Most of their catches are consumed. Thus very few carcasses.
I echo some of the other comments here: pesticides, low insect population, habitat loss, light pollution, windows, and of course, humans are the bird killers of the world. We all make choices: more pesticides, less insects, less cats? Some cats, less pesticides, more insects? I choose the latter. We’d all be better for it, birds and humans included.
13
@Elle Rose Tell that to the up to 3.7 Billions birds killed each year by your cats.
My indoor cat passed away, and after several months, a squirrel started entering my basement (through the chimney or some hole in the foundation, I suppose). It was knocking all the ceiling tiles down and rattling noisily every day. When I adopted two new cats, the squirrel disappeared just from the presence of the cats in the upstairs part of house.
23
In old Egypt cats were deified, mummified and even worshiped because of their ability to keep down the rodent populations that ate so much of the grain.
They have always been part of farm life, but on the down side they kill a lot of birds which in turn eat a lot of insects. It's kind of a Yin and Yang situation.
15
In old Egypt cats were raised/farmed on a large scale for mummification. People bought the mummies by size (cost) just as we buy flowers for funerals.
Your article is very one-sided and full of assumptions and speculation. You assume cats reduce mice populations, but provide no data actually showing that outdoor cats have a significant effect on mouse populations. In contrast, there are multiple published studies showing how outdoor cats kill a wide range of wildlife, including rare or threatened species. You also do not adequately address the health and wellness issues for cats that are in feral cat colonies.
To be clear, I’m not anti-cat. Of over a decade, my wife and I have been lucky to have a wonderful cat that we rescued after she was abandoned. She was close to death from starvation, and we found her the day before the first winter storm of the season that dropped over 10” of snow and sleet. She no longer is cold, starving, and full of fleas like when we found her. And she is an amazing companion for us.
Feral cat colonies generate a lot of heated emotions. I expect a more factual, balanced reporting from the New York Times on this controversial issue.
26
@Andros: This is not an article about feral cat colonies. It is an article on putting feral cats to work in a way that will likely keep them out of colonies. It is not about neglecting feral cats; rather, the program requires that adopted working cats be provided for as pets would be, with food, shelter, and veterinary care. In my experience, stray or feral cats who are well fed will still hunt rodents but will generally neglect birds, who are much harder to catch. We've had up to three cats living in our yard, and they would catch more mice on some days than they would catch birds in a year. In any case, the stray or feral cats who are not adopted as working cats will do more harm to the environment than those who are adopted. For cats that cannot be adopted as pets, adoption as working cats is a practical and humane alternative. And from the cat's perspective, it may be a near ideal situation.
57
@Andros - thank you for that. Outdoor cats will go after song birds before bothering with mice in the wild. Feral cats kill over 100 million songbirds a year
@Andros
Okay, I suspect this "reader comment" is more fake Russian news (ref. today's headline article). Since when did 10" of snow fall in the Bahamas? Apparently their Internet Research Agency has moved on from anti-Hillary initiatives to anti-cat efforts.
(Just joking, Andros--apparently you moved to a better place.)
1
We have two outdoor cats, Tequila and Margarita, both of whom are pretty decent mousers. As commercial beekeepers we need them to keep down the mouse populations that would otherwise live in - and destroy - the wax comb in the thousands of honey and brood boxes we store during the off-season.
We live in a relatively rural area where we have lots of songbirds and robins. We feed a lot of birds and yet haven't seen any significant predation by these two cats. On the other hand, we have a third cat, Bosley, who is an old indoor cat and who grew up in the city confined to the upper floor of a house with a deck.
When he gets out now we generally expect to get a present on the kitchen floor. Don't ask me why the two outdoor cats appear to leave the songbirds alone and go after the mice in our storage shed, and Bosley, who has a free-feed bowl of food, has that killer instinct in him whenever he sees feathers.
16
I’ve noticed feral cats who sleep during the day and hunt at night prefer to hunt mice and rats who are also awake and scurrying around looking for food in the dark. Indoor cats who have adjusted their hours to their human’s schedule, sleeping at night, sometimes will be up during the day and may find an occasional bird in the daylight while the mice are asleep. If it was up to the cat, I think they prefer rodent food. From my experience with cats all my life, if they are allowed out at night, they go back to their wild ways in the cover of darkness—where there are less birds to be had. Of course, it’s a dog eat cat world and they are also more in danger. It is amazing to watch cats and I’ve loved knowing cats both feral and domestic.
12
@Jeff Lee I have noticed that my "mouse presents" are usually confined to one organ left behind. What I didn't realize at first was that at least sometimes they leave no evidence at all....
Bosley may be bringing you presents, and the feral cats may be keeping them for themselves.
3
@Jeff Lee
There is a lovely children's book about the relationship between cats, mice, and bees called "The Old Ladies Who Liked Cats." The mayor of an island town decrees that cats cannot go outside at night. The mice population flourishes, the bee colonies collapse, the clover dies, the cows stop making milk, the sailors in the navy become weak and sickly, and the island is overtaken by pirates. If you have a child in your life, you may want to get a copy.
7
Just a really great article and thanks so much. We have a number of cats who've been dropped off in our neighborhood. (Apparently people think churches will take them in?) We care for them in every way checking on them several times a day. Some have come to like getting pets, others are a no go on the petting but enjoy the food and sweet talk. They are named and have veterinary records. People are shocked when we give the number that come for feedings. I, on the other hand, am shocked at the number of people who move and abandon their cats or drop them off in other neighborhoods hoping someone will taken them in not having gone to the trouble to spay/neuter. Call me fond of this form of being who needs us as much as we need them. I am also fond of dogs, and bunnies, and turkey buzzards, and most other living things, including most humans.
47
@Brian
“...Birds, rabbits, reptiles, native rodents...”???
I get that you’re writing from Ohio, Brian, so I’m only partially kidding when I ask: have you ever been to a major urban area like NYC?
There are no rabbits, reptiles, etc...!
Birds and “native mammals” with nests close enough to the ground to be accessible to cats succumbed to rats long ago and certainly long before these cats ever came into the picture.
Do you not get that this article is about a specific urban solution to a very urban problem?
My street has supported a feral cat colony for years and not only do we not have any mice or rat issues, but we also don’t have any issues with pets, kids or other wildlife being poisoned. Two of the cats live under my stoop in heated shelters and they often bring me “presents” (despite being fed 4 cans of wet food a day and having full access to dry food at all times). I’ve never gotten anything but mice and rats and I, for one, am grateful for these gifts each time. I should also note that we have a robust and healthy populations of local and migratory song birds and even the occasional hawk.
Please spare us the pearl-clutching for the songbirds unless you are one of those people who puts market lines across all your picture windows, regularly feeds birds both seed and suet all winter long, and keeps and maintains shelters for songbirds. I’m tired of people decrying cats while at the same time doing nothing to help the birds they purport to love so much.
39
@Max - I think they're referring to homes outside the city. I live right in the middle of Brooklyn and yet I have seen songbirds in my own back yard. Just last year I saw a pair of Rose Breasted Grosbeaks, whose numbers are in decline from feral cat predation. Even in the inner city, an outdoor cat will cover a large swath of neighboring real estate in his search for game.
8
@Max
@Ma
There’s a lot of science documenting native songbird declines in the urban/suburban interface due to outdoor cats. And many urban areas were built right in the middle of major migratory flyways. I lived in downtown Saint Louis which sits right on the banks of the Mississippi, among the largest of migratory flyways in North America. Every spring and fall I’d see the carnage on the sidewalks from beautiful, colorful songbirds flying into buildings. The ones who survive but end up on the ground stunned for a few minutes would recover and resume their journey if they weren’t then taken out by the feral cats roaming around everywhere.
1
@Max Thank you!
1
Bravo for the “ working cat “ we have a rat problem here in South Florida and our “ community cat” program keeps that under control
“Feral” describes a behavior. The preferred term is “ community cats” whether working or jus fed by loving volunteers. All go through TNVR ( trap neuter van I ate return ) and in our town they get a microchip as well. A key to our succcess is that the cats are all fed very early in the morning to that during the daytime they are not seen by humans so much.
24
@Working doc - I applaud the community effort but I must implore you to neuter and never to feed the "community" cats. A fed cat will go after the more tempting flash of feathers; the hungry cat will go for the abundant fauna on the ground.
4
If I may, "The Cat" by Ogden Nash:
You get a wife, you get a house,
Eventually you get a mouse.
You get some words regarding mice,
You get a kitty in a trice.
By two a.m. or thereabouts,
The mouse is in, the cat is out.
It dawns upon you, in your cot,
The mouse is silent, the cat is not.
Instead of kitty, says your spouse,
You should have got another mouse.
23
And how many native birds do they kill in the process? Feral cats are an ecological disaster and should be eradicated.
20
@Jasphil - written by someone who, no doubt is a dog lover, but has no clue about feral cats. Many native birds in South Florida are prime targets of the neighborhood hawks; even doves are targeted by hawks. I have never had a bird left at my front door, only mice and rats. You can't always buy into a "study" done by academics who are "guesstimating" numbers, especially when the numbers appear to be shocking and brings more attention to their research.
You apparently didn't read the article in its entirety which encourages the use of feral cats in the pursuit of cutting down the wild rodent population. Cats don't need to be eradicated, just redirected.
2
Fortunately, the cats referred to in the article are neutered and will not contribute to future population.
2
My daughter has 5 house rats, and these rats also do not like intruding field mice. Oh the conundrum of getting a feral cat to shoo the mice, but not the rats!
2
Feral cats kill billions of wild birds every year. This is a short sighted solution to a much larger problem. I'd rather have mice and beautiful songbirds in and around my home than neither
28
@Tony - Thank you for reminding them of this critical piece of information that the author conveniently (or negligently omitted from the article.
@Tony - again, BILLIONS of birds? Who came up with those numbers and how many studies point to this conclusion. You read it once and now you're a believer?
3
@Tony Until those cute mice bring ticks into your house...
1
I captured the wildest feral cat in the neighborhood, Drazet, for TNR, and she had to stay in a shed for a while due to an infection. I noticed that she did not run for the door once she figured out she'd have food delivered. Still very wild, she just didn't want to go back to outside like, she's very nervous. People had even shot at her before I found out.
So she wound up side with me. Still wild acting a bit, can be too rough often, but she isn't mean. She does follow commands and is devoted to me. An open door to the outside scares her. Sad really to think how miserable she was as a feral cat. Drazet is curled up here now with her semi feral buddy, Loki, that followed her - which I felt was odd, too. The minute she saw Drazet with me she jumped a fence and started trying to get inside, prior to that she never came near me. She is a mean cat, but not rough lol. Odd pair.
A lot of work to get them tame, but worth it. They make very interesting pets with a lot of personality.
35
RE cats killing birds comments, I let my cat out fr a while at night, weather permitting (it's cold here), so this isn't an issue. Maybe someone will give this a try in the interest of the birds.
There is a feral cat in the neighborhood that has killed all the chipmunks that lived in my back yard that used to feast on the bird food I put out. I felt pretty sad about it. The rabbit disappeared not too long ago.
I've noticed fewer migrating birds coming through the yard this fall. They used to stop here to eat as they passed by every spring and fall. I think the comments about habitat degradation and climate change are right about these ALSO being big factors in declining bird populations.
7
@Brandy Danu
The two feral cats just off my property come at night to climb up in hedges and eat the roosting birds. Your night cat kills mightily. It is an invasive species. Thanks so much.
3
@Tom - again, cats are NOT an invasive species. They've been on this planet for thousands of years ~ from before the time of the pharaohs.
7
I feel the same way about a lot of people.
1
Our terrier is a fantastic mouser.
10
@jkk I had a beagle that was able to snatch a mouse up alive and take it outside for a play toy(horrible) and snack
Sadly, cats are also highly effective at eliminating song bird populations. Tread carefully, nature lovers!
19
My thoughts exactly. Indoor cat, yes......outdoor, no
14
@Philippe Egalité,
Have just told the outdoor cat, now sleeping in luxury on a couch that is greater than my net worth that he has to paw in his bird housing inspector medal. True, Mr. and Mrs. Titmouse get into a flutter when he nears their house, built by my sibling Bear, but with no pair of wings or an aptitude for pole skimming, his paws rest on the ground.
1
We have six cats ( we were normal 3 cats ago). Four live indoors and two are feral. Two live in the garage and keep us vermin free. All have been neutered and they tolerate us.
Cats are clean animals, and all use litter boxes.
It works well for us, as we live on the edge of the forest and farmland.
15
@Art Seaman -- "Cats are clean animals, and all use litter boxes": and when you are not looking... ?
Cats are filthy animals.
I have a dear friend who is a cat rescuer, does exactly what the article recommends, catching, neutering, etc. One of her rescues climbed a big tree and killed a male woodpecker, sleeping in its nest, who had been in the neighborhood for years. It was so beautiful. BTW NYC cats evidently don't attack NYC rats, according to something I read here last year. That would be helpful. Still I get the point here. OK. But what about the birds? They are being decimated by many sources of problems. They have to sleep at night and make open nests. Everyone loves birds. So do cats.
24
@Martin Veintraub I did TNR in Brooklyn with a feral family that showed up on my patio one sleeting January night. The kittens and Papa took to me and occasionally came into the apartment, Mama never did. They left dead rat presents all the time, as well as birds.
I lived in the basement apartment of a building built in the mid 1800s. Mice=a lot=big problem. It was a nightmare for the person before me. But I moved in with 3 cats. I never had a problem.
20
@sjs - was that before the Civil War? ;-)
2
@Matthew Bram
Actually, it was. House was built around 1850. I was also working in a place built in the 1830's down the street (the old section of town). No mice there either because there was an apartment on the top floor and the tenant has 5 cats. Go Kitties!
3
@sjs -- "I moved in with 3 cats. I never had a problem." Do you mean: no odor whatsoever?
Feral cats are definitely a challenge, but this is a good idea for NYC. Cats are the best mousers. I had mice every winter in my attic and basement, and occasionally one would stray into my living quarters. When I got a cat - she lived indoors- she quickly took care of the interlopers. And since then, no mouse has ever come back to my attic or basement, despite that the cat has not been in either spot. I guess the word somehow got out to the mice world.
21
@Lily Same here, Lily. I did read somewhere that word does get around - in that cat dander is a deterrent to other mice. Well done.
2
I've had rescued cats. And I've had (and have) Whippet Lurchers. My Lurchers live to kill rodents (including the invasive grey squirrel which has virtually decimated our native brown squirrels). Plus they can outrun a rabbit (they are sighthounds) let alone any other rodents, and unless there is a hole too small for the little one to get through (same problem for a cat), they are amazing. They never play with or eat their prey--they either bring it to me (if I am nearby) or leave it by the front steps. Neither of them are interested in birds (except one likes to watch hummingbirds at my hanging fuchsias which are too high for them to reach.
When I had both a cat and a Lurcher at the same time (they liked each other), the cat preferred to watch the Lurcher go after rodents (which is their style) and showed no interest in eating them. They both went after insects together. Go figure...
16
I have a mouse problem in my house. I also have a mole, vole, chipmunk and bird problem in my house. My two cats just bring everything into the house for a bit of chasing fun and then grow bored with it. I am constantly chasing small animals all through the house. Most of the time I can get them back inside but the odd rodent ends up hidden away and then dies in some place I cannot find them. Ugh.
5
For Juniper: as our bird population is threatened by tall glass buildings and over lighted cities during migrations, that your cat brings in birds is appalling. Cats cannot help themselves, even when well fed. Their instinct to pounce upon and immobilize through shock or puncture wounds, means one less wild bird.
Birders know: an indoor cat will not get run over in the road, suffer from various illnesses brought on by contact with or wounding by feral dogs, rats, etc. Cats slay birds. If your mice are indoors, keep the cat(s) indoors. Please.
15
cats are the apex! We should treasure them like the Egyptians did. Loved seeing the article on one of the most elegantly designed creatures ever.
38
@Tony
Yep, the Egyptians revered the cats so much they bred, slaughtered and mummified hundreds of them. Check National Geographic re: cat mummies.
2
feral cats in nyc have a life expectance of 3-4 years at best. Between the elements of weather, fleas and lice from laying in the grass, fights with other cats and then there are cars and trucks........ I have two cats both are from rescue they keep mice away and go crazy when the see an insect. Forget the chemicals just geta cat see how you no longer see vermin.
17
@frank monaco The managed colony I fed had cats that lived to about 14.
3
Feral cats kill birds - we even have term for that one - an 'appeal to nature' fallacy or a subset of the naturalistic fallacy.
13
@SteveRR
Yes, some cats kill some birds. But there are wildly exaggerated numbers floating around and the mistaken belief that songbirds declines are due to cats. No, the songbird decline is due to invasion bird species and loss of habitat.
PS. before I moved to the city, I had outdoor cats for about 40 years. That's a lot of cats. Only one of them chased birds.
25
Even if the numbers are inflated, outdoor cats kill millions of birds- every owner finds the remains sometimes. Indoor cats can kill the mice and rats in your house.
8
@Roy Bridgman - well, actually no. My cats are not interested in birds. They watch them but already know the birds are just too quick to allow themselves to be caught. They will try to catch squirrels as well and have never succeeded.
4
Why not a predatory bird? An owl, or small hawk?
7
@Grittenhouse Owls are relatively rare in urban areas, and even the three or four dozen or so (peak winter population) who live in NY have a huge range. Hawks are more common, with even larger overlapping ranges. A feral cat will cover a few dozen acres at best, and have a much larger appetite.
8
@Grittenhouse
I too read the book "Owls in the Family" by Farley Mowat when I was a kid, but the problems—humorous and not—he documents inherent in having owls for pets showed me I really didn't want an owl as a family member.
The red-tailed hawks that have taken up residence in Tompkins Square are much-loved, but I rather doubt anyone would want one indoors, even as a "working" bird.
6
@Sal - a cat's ideal diet is 5 mice a day. The larger the hawk down here in South Florida, the larger their appetite. I've witness a hawk attacking and shredding a dove here in my residential neighborhood. Even the squirrels hide when they see hawks circling.
1
Lots of comments from those pro- and anti-cat across the country. However, the article is about cats, feral and otherwise, in New York City.
What is a good solution for this densely inhabited—by people, rodents, cats—city cannot be good for other places, urban, suburban and rural, across the country.
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Indoor cats are a great solution: outdoor cats are terrible for birds and terrible for the cat. The SPCA is advocating for irresponsible ownership.
9
@Andrew Porter
The Trap Neuter Release program is being pushed nationwide, even here in LA that has many urban/suburban/wild nooks and crannies that are vital to wildlife populations fleeing habitat destruction.
I live in a leafy Valley neighborhood with many mature trees on my property and I’ve spotted native and migratory species like Bewick’s wren, Acorn woodpecker, hooded oriole, and even yellow-rumped warbler and white-crowned sparrow, regular winter visitors from Alaska. It’s not just European house sparrows and rock doves in the suburbs.
This idea that free-roaming cats are okay in suburban settings is false and dangerous to the biodiversity that’s just as important in the suburbs as it is in rural areas.
What a bad idea on so many levels! Outdoor cats kill millions of birds every year, and not just pigeons. If you care at all about cats please keep them inside. Outdoors they are exposed to rat poison, antifreeze, can get hit by a car or abducted by people who like to torture animals. The only sure way to keep rodents out of your house is to seal all entryways and make sure there is no food source.
21
@Lucky Poodle
Sigh. We've been through this one. Yes, the outdoors is not a good place for cats. Yes, some people, usually those in charge of parks, do put out rat poison. Cars are a constant threat. It's been fifty years or more since my family let a cat out the back door. Also that many years since we purchased an animal -- since that time, they've all been rescues.
That said, some "rescued" animals -- i.e., those that have been neutered, vaccinated, dewormed and given flea and tick medication, not that the latter last for long -- just will not acclimate themselves to the house. They cannot be touched, will not get along with other cats and, if male, spray. They need to be outdoors.
If one provides an insulated, waterproof box and some kibble (but not at night -- it attracts raccoons), that's the best that can be done.
As for the birds, it's been about 15 years since I've seen a dead one despite the presence of my neighbor's cats and an occasional stray. It's really harder than we think for a cat to catch a bird.
33
@Lucky Poodle for every unfortunate bird killed by a cat in NYC, we lose dozens in building and car strikes. In migration we often lose more than ten million a day nationwide. By the nature of the environment, urban cats tend to take more invasive bird species and sadly a wild robin or cardinal here and there, rural cats are a much greater risk to native breeding birds, especially ground nesters.
As an aside, in recent years we're discovering how many chicks are lost to squirrels and chipmunks, and it is devastating.
And they aren't discussing socialized cats here, but feral or strictly outdoor socialized cats. We have a feral colony in our block of about twenty cats. There are five or six that will allow a person to get close to them, but they can't be brought inside. Cats need to be socialized to people (and other cats) between the ages of six to twelve weeks. If you miss that window, it is very difficult to adjust them to living with people. The strategy chosen by this program helps reduce overpopulation (neutering) and larger colonies are much greater risks for infectious diseases than smaller groups, so relocation helps there as well.
20
@Sal
A previous NY TIMES article outlined cats' strong desire to be outside, and how they can actually become neurotic if kept indoors too long. My last cat broke my heart; he was a huge, sweet, gray-pink long fur with a big intelligence. He would sit by the door for hours waiting for me to leave so he could run out. Twice we caught him and got him back, but the third time he disappeared. Since then I cannot keep a cat indoors, since that cat showed me how important being outside is.
As for killing birds, the worst thing in this country is bird feeders passing diseases from one bird to another and teaching young birds they don't have to forage. Get rid of that profit-maker for companies and save the birds.
5
A friend of mine has long been involved with the welfare of feral cats in Brooklyn, practicing TNR etc.
She's great.
14
While on vacation, our cat sitter sent us a photo of one of our cats, a male, hanging out with a mouse he had befriended, it seemed. They shared the food bowl and were napping together. I was not amused. I asked her to escort the mouse out and when I got home I called the exterminator. He could not find evidence of an infestation inside and found the house to be fairly well sealed. He said the cat brought the mouse in from the fenced yard where he was allowed to go, and he did it again! This time he was a little rougher and the poor thing wasn't in such good shape. I was too wimpy to do anything about it when I put it outside. I know, it was cruel, and I should have put it out of its misery. I always heard FEMALE cats were better mousers. This wasn't really efficient "mousing".
6
The author should read The Lion in the Living Room. Data show that feral cats coexist with rodents and much prefer other food sources to hunting mice and rats. Historically, much more damage has been done by introducing felines than by the rodents they were intended to control.
The logic behind feral cats controlling a rodent population has a similar scientific foundation as eugenics, anecdotal observation substituting for actual science - but I digress.
As Umi commented, a systemic approach is required including controlling the food sources, not the seemingly elegant solution of introducing another invasive species.
As for those who cry-out that rodents harbor disease, they need to consider that the felines they are introducing will harbor most of the same diseases and tend to be more likely to make human contact than the rodents.
6
We adopted a stray from the vet a few years ago. She had been living outside someone's house, and when she had kittens was delivered to the vet. She's a great mouser, and now she'll even sit in our laps! Took a loooooong time for that to happen.
I love this story.
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Where do I sign?
7
I'm confused why the relationship between songbirds and feral cats appears to be a major "sub argument" in the comments. Or why natural wildlife habitats are being destroyed by predator cats.
The reality is NYC is teeming with rodents and obviously the problem cannot be contained by...anything. Until we have a strict, codified system as to how garbage is stored and collected, starting with the ubiquitous use of impervious, lidded garbage receptacles instead of dripping, wet and torn plastic garbage bags, residents of NYC have no chance to stave off rodent infestation. Not only are rodents firmly entrenched inside the walls of many buildings but all green spaces from Central
Park to individual patios/backyards behind Brownstones are no longer bucolic spaces. You can hardly sit on a bench in Central Park without seeing rats and mice scurrying around it rustling in the bushes. If coops on Fifth Avenue, the most expensive and arguably most well-maintained buildings in New York suffer from infiltration by mice and rodents in the service basements just imagine what the problem is like in Section Eight housing. For a short time we had a "mouse problem" in our very well maintained building Suddenly we saw mice on a nightly basis. My next door neighbor did not have this unnerving experience: they had purchased a plain old cat and never experienced one creepy night. The building wide mouse issue quickly ceased. But it gave me a new respect for cats. Rodents do not merit pity.
30
@Umi I don’t think anyone is arguing that you shouldn’t be allowed to use cats to control mice within the limits of your own property specifically in an urban environment such as NYC (apart from the increased risk of exposure to Toxoplasma parasites that can only be spread from rodents to humans through cats). Unfortunately this article does not put such limits on its recommendations. If you are confused why these complaints exist, consider volunteering at a local wildlife rehabilitator for a week, and you will get to witness the destruction caused by feral cats to songbirds, native rabbits and other small mammals, etc. Go to an animal hospital if you want to see the feral cats that have been maimed by other cats and predators, run over by cars, etc. Cats are responsible for billions of deaths of native wildlife each year. On islands with endemic species, they have pushed some species to extinction, such as the extinct Lyall’s Wren of New Zealand.
23
@Brian "Cats are responsible for billions of deaths of native wildlife each year."
While there's no doubt that cats kill other animals, I keep reading about the improbable number of animal deaths caused by cats. Can you back that figure up with documented facts? It's hard to believe that anyone, or any group, has actually counted billions of dead native animals.
14
@Paul The estimated annual US losses of birds by domesticated cats are between 0.5 - 1 billion. This is in line with building strikes. I can see the potential of an overestimated count- building strikes leave very visible evidence whereas cats often dispose of the evidence...
6
Love that photo of the wonderfully named Mr. Nasty -- the stuff mouse nightmares are made of!
20
Follow the evidence and act accordingly: vaccinations are good, climate change is real and caused in large part by humans, and outdoor cats are a major destructive force to native wildlife. Keep your bloody cats indoors!
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@Subtropical Matt For community aka feral cats the outdoors Is their home. Adopting an outside cat Is a mutually beneficial and humane act. Of course, other companion cats should remain indoors for their health and safety. And for the record, humans are the greatest destructive to the environment and wildlife.
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I agree completely that humans are the most destructive species on the planet. One of our destructive actions has been introducing non-native cats into the environment. So we have a choice to atone for that action: continue to facilitate feral and outdoor cat populations, resulting in great damage and suffering to native animals, or capture and euthanize - as humanely as possible - outdoor cats. When all the creatures involved are considered, the latter option results in less pain and suffering than the other. And by the way, humans are native species to all parts of the planet where they migrated to and survived by normal human means. Not to say we aren't out of control, but that's another subject.
New York City, and indeed most highly urbanized spaces, is not a natural environment. Your average location described in this story is already not a good environment for small birds, except for pigeons. In this human-created landscape, there are herbivores and scavengers, but no predators unless you introduce a cat.
13
@KFitz Central Park sits right in the middle and is an important habitat for wildlife and migratory birds. There are in fact urban hawks and owls that help control the rodent population. I’ve seen a Barred Owl up close in downtown Cleveland. Additionally by using cats specifically to control rodents, you are spreading Toxoplasma parasites throughout the city.
14
@KFitz There are lots of humans, the biggest predator of them all.
9
@Brian The hawks also eat fellow birds.
1
I've been a landlord for 15 years mostly older semi-detached houses in Toronto and I LOVE tenants with cats. Nothing else keeps mice away. Mice will generally not bother a house where there is a cat of any shape or temperament.
78
As someone who actively practices TNR and fosters rescue cats, I find it appalling that any of you who have commented would suggest terminating feral cats. They’re generally the products of cats who were not spayed or who were abandoned by selfish people to learn to survive on their own. They didn’t ask to be in their position, nor did they ask to be domesticated 10,000 years ago.
Do we really think the death of songbirds is the most serious crisis our ecological system is facing today? Maybe recycle and use LED lights and not kill innocent animals who have no voice of their own.
105
@Ashley Chilton Why are cats the “innocent animals” in this scenario, and not the native animals at the bottom of the food chain (birds, rabbits, reptiles, native rodents and other small mammals) that are being dramatically affected by the cats we have introduced here? Nobody is denying the history of how we got here. Certainly cats that are adoptable should be rescued and rehomed. But I’m not sure I can support releasing feral cats back into the wild to suffer and spread suffering to native wildlife. As for recycling, LED lights, etc, there are many threats to our ecosystem, and we can have discussions about all of them. The fact that there are other threats to our environment doesn’t mean we shouldn’t discuss this specific threat. If you don’t believe me, you should volunteer with a local wildlife rehabilitator for a week.
26
Cats kill just about everything they can, including each other and anthropomorphizing them is childish. They don’t have a voice because they are not human. I love cats. But I love and care for my fellow humans much more. I’d rather have euthanasia as the last option for over population of any species except humans.
11
I, too, have worked with feral cats for years. They are indeed the product of human irresponsibility. They are here through no fault of their own because humans failed to sterilize their cats. And they have as much right to live as any other creature.
38
Mousers don't need to be outdoor cats only. We adopted 2 cats from the humane society who had been feral, taken from a hoarding property, sterilized and then homeless. I went into the shelter and asked for the to cats that had been there the longest. They said that people did not want to adopt them because they weren't affectionate. It took some time for them to accept human beings, but to day they are very affectionate creatures.
They are excellent mousers. They also eat those scary house centipedes. My two feral rescues don't go outside. When a mouse gets into the house, usually when the weather turns cold, they take care of it. I feel badly for the mouse seeking warmth, but usually the cats scare the mouse off before it sets up residence or becomes a meal. Our two feral rescue cats are a little odd, not having had human affection until they were adopted, but they are wonderful mousers, not finicky, and are wonderful pets.
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@Erin Yes we have also taken in many strays, and our first one was also the oldest at the shelter. We don’t have a mouse problem in our home but I don’t see a problem with cars controlling mice indoors. The debate here is about letting them loose on the neighborhood to not only kill mice but a wide variety of native wildlife as well, and also put themselves at risk from other cats and predators, cars, disease, etc. If you do have cats eating mice though you should be concerned about the risk of toxoplasmosis.
9
@Brian I also have two dogs. All together, I haven't seen a mouse in some time. But you do make a good point about toxoplasmosis - and I don't allow my cats to go outside due to some of our neighbors' bully approach that big large dogs roaming the neighborhood and scaring other animals and people makes their owners tough in their eyes (what utter nonsense). Even our county's humane society officials throw up their hands.
It's not an easy problem to resolve. If I lived out in the country, I'd probably have a barn cat. But for the number of feral cats exceeding the number of good homes, it is a dilemma what to do with them. No one wants to euthanize them due to their unfortunate homeless plight. Adopt, sterilize, and there are still so many more still needing a home.
We do the best we can do one by one. It never feels like enough.
Hello? What about the environmental damage done by the vastly increased numbers of mice and rats attracted and subsidized by human activity? TNR-ing a few cats stabilizes the local feral cat population, a population that going to be far smaller than the numbers of rats and mice. And the cats will be far more effective than anything else at helping to control the rodents. Dealing with rats and mice is an ongoing, frustrating, effort - it's never entirely successful, until you enlist the aid of cats. We experienced this - poison etc. never was entirely successful; the rats and mice seemed to adopt survival strategies, and the population would always rebuild. After I made friends with a young, very frightened, skittish, and feral cat taking shelter in our garage one winter, and I got her and her kittens neutered, (investing a lot of patience along the way, and tolerating a lot of frightened scratches, until she did become both a loving pet and lap cat, and an assiduous mouser who taught her children the same skills in a deliberate manner - feral cats can become pets, with time, tolerance, patience, attention to the cat's point of view, good food and vet care) and brought them into our home - they thrived, grew up healthy and immaculate, and went through the rodent population in our basement with a whirlwind of enthusiastic, permanently successful aggression. No more rodents, ever. Cats are also among the smartest non-human mammals - killing them is thus particularly callous.
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Nancy and Eric Gurney wrote a wonderful children's book in 1965: "The King, the Mice and the Cheese." There are some life lessons there, principally, don't mess with nature.
Cats, the top killer of native wild birds in North America by a long shot, are an invasive species. They are not a solution, especially not for an invasive rodent problem that people have created and that people perpetuate through their own filthy habits.
The suggestion that feral cats will solve our rodent problem is pure folly.
22
@Amazed
Humans are an invasive species. The cats are just along for the ride, at our invitation - because they catch mice, as they have done for us for thousands of years. There's no folly to it, a cat is the most effective trap there is.
They would not survive all that well as an invasive species if we did not alter the natural balance by eliminating almost every predator larger than our cats. Coyotes consider them to be a valuable food source, but most people don't want coyotes around.
The overall alteration of the natural world is what's killing the birds. Ordinary glass windows kill between .5 and 1 billion birds a year (https://www.sciencenews.org/article/windows-may-kill-988-million-birds-year-united-states). Pesticides and habitat loss kill even more.
Humans and our activities are the problem here, without us nature would adjust the cat 'problem' pretty quickly.
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@S. B. You’ve simply listed many of the manmade problems afflicting the environment, without addressing what to do about those problems. It’s as if you’re saying we should not do anything about cats until we’ve solved all the other problems first. They all need to be solved. I volunteer with a downtown Lights Out program to rescue migratory birds that have hit windows. We’ve also put decals on our windows, stopped using pesticide/herbicide, taken in strays, etc. What have you done?
8
@Amazed
I find dead birds beneath my windows. I found an apparently healthy - but dead - magnificent young owl in an out building, likely dead from eating poisoned mice. Better a predator death for both than the human made mess of windows, wildlife habitat loss and poison.
You go, kitties.
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The smarter thing for Mr. Stroiker to do would be to seal off any entrance that the mice are using, and effectively store any food substance that might be supporting and attracting them.
11
I have gone over the exterior of my house time and again, filling foundation cracks with cement, caulking around windows, and doing the same to the inside.
Rarely, but still, a mouse will get in.
A boy cat in particular will get the poor wee, sleeket, cowerin' and panicked beastie.
13
@Allison The mouse and rat population has exploded in New York. It's a quaint concept to think filling up cracks will make the problem go away. A crack need only be barely visible to be big enough for a rodent. The problem is the low standard for managing even our residential garbage (let alone restaurants that deposit dozens of plastic bags filled with food garbage on sidewalks every night). I don't think putting away the Oreos in an airtight container is particularly effective when there appears to be no standards regarding the storage of trash awaiting pick up by the Sanitation Dept. Its appalling that all property owners, from single family brownstone owners to landlords of large apartment houses, are not required to keep garbage in impervious, lidded, airtight containers until Sanitation comes to collect. It's disgusting how often the sidewalks are crowded with untidy, leaking, smelly garbage bags...sometimes placed on the curb a day (or longer) before collection. I see rats crawling around the bags; invariably a bag has been ripped open for any number of reasons. All trash should be stored in those widely-used containers built specifically to keep garbage "safe" from nuisances like rats, mice, raccoons (inside, in basements e.g., as well as outside on curbs). It's baffling and idiotic that these receptacles are the law nearly everywhere except in this rodent-infested city. Thus sealing cracks, etc. just isn't nearly enough.
23
@B. The argument here isn’t about indoor mouse control. Through you should still be concerned about toxoplasmosis.
3
I was a gardener in Atlanta suburbs. I had voles which destroy expensive perennials, shrubs and trees by eating their roots. So I got a working cat. This worked like a charm. The cat brought me a vole a day. Sometimes two voles. I would pet her and say, "Good cat!" Then I would pick up the vole and take it to the trash. Apparently she thought I ate them, because she always brought me more, lol. I was happy. Cat was happy. She was with us for eight years. In all that time, she never brought me a bird. I placed bird feeders in the middle of our yard where squirrels couldn't jump from trees to the feeder and cats couldn't ambush. A little common sense was all that was required. Voles, mice and rats are easily caught compared to birds. Unfortunately, her demise was due to secondary rodent poison put out by one of our neighbors. She apparently ate the rodent and then succumbed herself. By the time I realized what was happening, it was too late. Secondary poisoning of predator species happens all the time. And you may kill two generations. A hawk, for example, will pick up a sick rat and take it to her nest to feed her young and herself. I know farmers with orchards put out poison for root and bark eating rodents, not to mention squirrels to keep them from a nut crop, but when you do that you poison the creatures further up the chain. Better to have cats in my opinion.
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@Patricia Snyder That is a straw man argument. No one is suggesting use rodenticides in such situations, rather, be aware there is a downside to feral cats. They kill many species and usually whatever is easiest, while also spreading Toxoplasma gondii to innocent victims in the area, without consent, or even informing them of the risks. There are also property rights issues, with leaving such cats roaming.
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@a
So no poisons, no cats. Your solution is to do what about mice and rats? By the way, RATS are a part of the toxo infection circuit.
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@s parson Rats are an intermediate host and it is when the cat eats the rat that the parasite reproduces sexually in the gut of the cat and is shed in the cat's feces, releasing millions of oocysts into the environment. Having free roaming cats intended to eat such rodents is most certainly not preventing the spread of the cat parasite, if that is what you are saying. Even indoors, you might not want your cat eating mice or rats...just saying. Rodents tend to increase where there is a food supply, such as garbage in plastic bags, which they chew through. Garbage really has to be in rodent proof containers. We have those, and even just aluminum garbage cans with a lid work. And, yes, non-toxic rat and mice traps exist, and are self-repeating and self-emptying, and don't spread Tg to your household or garden.
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Cats are funny. My girls were curious about a mouse that some years ago got into the house, but our older boy, who was developing a little pancreatitis at the time, nevertheless got up and did the job.
Our new-ish boy, adopted from a cat cafe, is a pleasant fellow but must have been a restaurant cat at one time. A little frenetic, a little stand-offish, except when one is cooking, and then he likes to watch. And he really likes the basement. It's in the basement that he's most affectionate. On the first cold night of the year, he got himself a mouse. After that, as if he'd proved his worth, he became more relaxed.
Good to have cats.
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Birds and cats have been going at it since long before humans were a thing. Why do we think we need to mess with the cat population to save the songbirds? And what do song birds do for our ecosystem exactly? I think there is more of a need to lessen the population of mice rather than worms. Birds eat worms and small insects. We killed all the insects and worms are not really an issue. I am an unashamed cat lover. I have a cat and 2 parakeets.
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@Mark Cats are not native to North America. Domestic cats originated in the Middle East, so it was only in that area that birds and cats were going at it. Humans have introduced cats all over the globe, including on island groups such as Hawaii and New Zealand where they have threatened endemic species that previously had no natural predator. The Lyall's Wren for example was hunted to extinction in New Zealand by introduced cats. As for what birds do for the population - they eat mosquitos, insects, grubs, etc that affect us and our food production directly. As birds such as the Eskimo Curlew were hunted to extinction in the US, there was a simultaneous outbreak in Rocky Mountain locusts destroying our crops. They were one of the curlew's primary food sources. Birds do not only eat worms and insects, but can also eat small rodents such as mice. Songbirds also serve as a food source for other native birds such as owls, hawks, and falcons, which also eat mice. As someone else mentioned, there is also a serious public health concern with allowing feral cats to spread toxoplasmosis from rodents to people and livestock. Cats are the primary vector for the spread of that parasite.
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@Brian
People are not native to North America. Cows, sheep, goats, horses and... jeez, even some birds are not native. Cow produced methane may or may not be our most controllable and tolerated green house gas. Pig waste is an unnatural disaster come flood time.
Please tell us what you think is a better plan for reducing rodent problems. In the meantime: cats rule.
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@Brian The blue jay is the only non raptor bird that would eat mice besides crows. Blue Jays rip the heads off cardinals and other birds. If birds were effective at killing mice we would not have brought cats into the picture. Guess what cats helped to prevent? Plague spread by fleas that bit rats then humans. If not cats then more poison? Those are the choices.
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I wish that there were a more effective way of knowing how many birds cats kill than by extrapolation. For 8 years, we had an outdoor cat who did, in fact, kill lots of mice (and there are lots where I live) and very few birds (perhaps a few birds each year, not the hundreds people assume). He brought his prey to our front step, faithfully. That cat died of heart problems and now our cats are indoor cats who seem fine with that status. I wonder how much the bird population suffers from environmental degradation to their habitats and food sources, not just from felines. Just saying.....and wondering.
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@Marilyn Certainly there are many manmade factors affecting bird populations. There's not much I can personally do about the spread of agriculture and the loss of habitat. But I can take in strays and bring them to rescues that will adopt them out responsibly. I would note that studies have shown that outdoor cats kill more animals than just the ones that they bring back to your house. The well-fed neighbor cat around us was killing baby rabbits just for fun and not bringing them back to any house, just leaving them by a fence in a backyard. Ferals also often have multiple different "owners" who they go to for food, covering several blocks of houses, and those people are completely unaware that their cat has four different names from four different "owners".
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I have seen hawks and owls killing birds and cats, picking them up with their claws, what about them, Brian? I could not even rescue some small cardinals from the hawks, which started circling me, although the crows, too, called out in distress...
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@MarIilyn
When I was a kid (many years ago) we had 3 cats over a period of 4 years. We would frequently find dead mice on our front porch. As far as birds, we would find feathers and some internal organ that apparently wasn't very yummy but the rest of the bird apparently was. In the 70's where I grew up in upstate New York everyone let their cats and dogs run. The dogs generally did OK. Cats, not so much.
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This is totally irresponsible. I totally agree with the folks who are calling cats "invasive species". Wildlife are under enough pressure from humans, they don't need a bunch of cats running around too. Harden some hearts and do the right thing. Put feral cats down. It's better for everyone.
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@Carthes Perhaps spend some time living in a densely populated urban area which has seen its rodent population explode. Rodents have always been a problem in NYC but for a long time they mostly lived in sewers and the subway system. As the antiquated infrastructure has started crumbling and the containment of garbage has been grossly ineffective rodents have infiltrated residential buildings: infestations inside the walls and a small hole next to a sink pipe and...voilà!...a rodent is in residence with small children. Rat bites and apartments teeming with emboldened mice are not a standard for decent, sanitary living conditions. Urban dwellers must first worry about the impact the rodents have on its human population. If feral cats can save people from the horror of rodent infestation and attendant adverse health conditions then perhaps it makes sense in certain environments. The rodents are everywhere: in empty lots, dank basement tenement apartments and in the kitchens and backyards of multimillion dollar townhouses.
Surely no one can think a rat terrifying a child or mice crawling on sleeping apartment dwellers or a mouse gnawing at bread for sandwiches or jumping out of cabinets when doors are opened. Hardened hearts indeed!
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I'm really sick of these cats killing songbird comments. Are you people also anti vaxers? If you haven't noticed there is a insect apocalypse happening, maybe your weed killer is responsible for the lack of birds that eat insects to survive. Easier to blame cats than look in the mirror isn't it?
There is no proof that cats are responsible for the lack of birds. I have had never had one of my cats (over my 63 years I've had a lot of cats) present a dead bird present but they have left me plenty of mice. You pearl clutching conspiracy loving people make me sick.
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@Paulie Not an anti-vaxxer, and we don't use weed killer. But I'm not sure what that has to do with cats.
Obviously there are many factors affecting wildlife populations, but feral cats are near the top of that list.
Consider volunteering with your local wildlife rehabilitator for a few days, and you will see all the maimed birds, rabbits, etc, that are rescued from cats. Most do not survive and have to be euthanized. Our local rehabbers are always posting photos about this. On islands with endemic bird species, cats have caused the extinction or near extinction of species through hunting and the spread of toxoplasmosis. See for example the extinct Lyall's wren of New Zealand. There was a Washington Post article from a few years ago about the billions of birds killed annually by cats.
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@Paulie Not an anti-vaxxer, and we don't use weed killer. But what do cats have to do with that? Consider volunteering at your local wildlife rehabilitator for a few days, and you will see how many maimed birds, rabbits, etc, are rescued from cats and brought to them. Most are too badly injured and have to be euthanized. Rehabbers around us are always posting photos on Facebook about this. It's not a fantasy. On small islands with endemic species, cats have been responsible for the extinction or near extinction of several species through hunting and the spread of toxoplasmosis. See for example the extinct Lyall's wren of New Zealand. For more info see the Washington Post article from 2013 titled "Outdoor cats kill between 1.4 billion and 3.7 billion birds a year, study says".
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@Paulie
Are you a climate-science denier too? There is proof aplenty that predation of native birds by invasive cats is decimating avian populations.
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Is there any scientific support for any of the conclusions reached in this article?
Are feral cats, who are fed by humans, going to be effective at dealing with mice populations?
Science has already shown that cats are terrible at dealing with rats. Moreover, they have contributed to the decline of many native species of songbird.
Isn't it irresponsible to be promoting a method of mice control without taking a serious look into whether or not this is actually effective? And, more importantly, not destructive to native species?
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Whether or not the cat actually catches any mice is mostly irrelevant. The mice will stay away simply from the smell or sight of the cat.
Now, admittedly, that just makes the mice someone else's problem so it's not exactly the best solution for everyone.
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Feral and outdoor cats should NEVER be encouraged. They are responsible for BILLIONS (yes, the B word) of deaths of birds every year.
Support for TNR programs is highly misguided and opposed by virtually ALL wildlife groups.
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@Stewdint Cats don't just kill and disrupt by direct predation, they also kill indirectly, through the spread of Toxoplasma gondii into our environment. These feral cat lovers never mention that rodents are often the intermediate host for the cat parasite Toxoplasma gondii, which is a cat parasite that completes its life cycle in the gut of the cat. A single cat can shed millions of the parasite oocysts in its feces.
The parasite can kill the human fetus if it infects it early in first trimester, and can cause severe brain damage, hearing loss, and vision loss in later trimesters. People become infected by many routes, including dust inhalation, playground soil, garden soil, contaminated water, contaminated food sources. Grazing animals can become infected and the parasite can enter our food supply that way too. Bah.
This is not a benign parasite. It has a tropism for our central nervous system. The parasite can later re-emerge from our central nervous system, even in adult acquired infections, and cause damage and vision loss in the ocular form.
Keeping a feral cat around to kill mice is a public health hazard. Just use a nontoxic GoodNatureA24 self repeating trap in strategic areas, or a snap trap. I use both and they work fine. We generally don't eat mice, so I'm not too worried about getting toxoplasmosis from the mouse intermediate host. It is the cat that is the biggest source of the parasite, spreading it in feces.
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@Stewdint This depends upon the environment. As a serious birder (I bird more than 150 days a year) I've never found a neotropical migrating songbird killed by a cat, but I see at least a dozen to building strikes every year. You won't find the roughly 300 species that nest in NA in urban areas, but you will find them here in migration. Shorebirds are more at risk (and they are also attacked by squirrels and racoons) and we try to remove all mammals from their breeding grounds. Urban nesting arboreal species are under threat by squirrels, chipmunks, snakes, other birds and insect borne diseases far more than by cats- should we kill forbids for taking songbirds? I believe most sane environment groups are more forgiving of TNR.
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Perhaps in NY feral cats might be an apex predator. In Vermont, they are fodder for coyotes, bobcats, and fisher cats (which aren't actually cats). The idea of a barn cat might sound quaint but many of them meet a nasty end. And I would echo previous comments about the toll they take on songbirds. Feral cats are destructive invasive species.
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@RAC-SVT
"...many of them meet a nasty end."
Sometimes referred to as, "The circle of life"
Cats belong indoors for their own safety (from cars, other cats, predators, lunatics) as well as the safety of native birds, rabbits, and other wildlife. We have taken in four strays ourselves, and they are very happy being indoors. They are a highly invasive species that kills billions (with a B) of birds and mammals each year. Before we understood how serious this issue is, we were feeding an outdoor that could've been rescued and adopted out. Then one day he came by and had been mauled by another cat, with large wounds on his neck, and had difficulty breathing. He had to be put down. Another outdoor cat was picking off baby rabbits from a nest one at a time, killing them for fun, even though he was being fed by neighbors. We trapped him and took him to a rescue, where they found a microchip, and it turned out he had been lost over a year ago. They reunited him with his owners. We don't let pet dogs roam the neighborhood - we shouldn't treat pet cats any differently. Any time your outdoor cat brings home a "present", think of the generations of offspring that could have existed and will now not exist.
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I agree that cats belong indoors for their own safety. It's been 50 years since we allowed a cat to waltz out the back door.
But some people do. Too often intact, they breed. The offspring grow up on the streets. Some escapees from careless owners end up begging to be allowed into someone else's house.
My cats all wandered into the back or front yard and stayed. I scooped them up and had them fixed. They stay in the house.
But I recognize the need to trap, neuter, and either re-home or, when intractably feral, release them.
Re feral: Two years ago I spent absolute months taming a semi-feral cat; it broke my heart when, just a year and a half later, he was diagnosed, too late, with FIP and I had to euthanize him.
The first time he jumped onto my bed when I was reading, the look of wonder and pleasure on his face was a thing to behold. He'd done something clever and, to him, novel. What a guy.
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@Brian: there are definite risks to having cats go outside as you list. However, there are risks to having them stay inside: obesity, diabetes, pancreatitis, OCD-like symptoms, and boredom. I write as a veterinarian who believes that in medicine there are often layers of grey. Not everything is black and white, and very often there is no "right" decision. So much depends on the animal, the owner, and their unique situation.
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Not a word about dead songbirds here, just a feel good story about dead mice. Cats kill, that’s why they are great mousers but they also kill birds. At least acknowledge that.
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True enough, Michael. Cats, tragically kill billions of endangered songbirds. They are #3 on the list of songbird deaths - #1 is anthropogenic climate change which kills entire species rather than one at a time, #2 is collisions w/ the windows in our high-rise buildings.
Homo sapiens, the ultimate invasive species, is responsible for most songbird deaths.
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Wlli this mean the death of the few remaining song birds ?
Mice carry many serious diseases .
Let us at least admit the tradeoff .
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Thank you for this article. Richie does great work for the feral cats of this city.
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