Cats: A Love-Hate Relationship

[KLS52]

Here is a good example of the way most cat lovers just don't care about other animals: A cat owner make a video of his cat trying to catch a squirrel. (And the squirrel manage to escape).

Basically rather than protecting the squirrel from his cat, the pet owner prefers to go on making his video (it doesn't matter that the squirrel might end up being killed).
And as a result the video gets more than 2M views and 15K thumbs-ups. Basically most people are fine with that. They even liked the way the cat owner didn’t care about the squirrel’s life.

I agree videotaping something like this is despicable. I’m glad the squirrel got away.

I disagree that “most” cat lovers don’t care about other animals. Perhaps “some”. I do know there are people who have cats that are allowed outside and these people take it in stride when the cat hunts and kills, shrugging it off as nature. I do not agree with said people.

I also acknowledge that I have taken some of what you’ve been posting too personally. Since a lot of your opinions of cat lovers do not apply to me, I’m going to try and be less reactive. I am a responsible cat owner and lover of all creatures great and small and I care about their well being.

 

[silva]

What I dislike so much about this thread is the focus on a cats predatory behaviour. They ARE predators, they are carnivours, and have been changed remarkedly by so many years of human interference. I think it's horrid to pick on the cats being cats rather than the humans who've taken animals that hunt for food by natural instincts and made then human dependant with inborn insticts that don't even suit their needs. Domestic cats aren't randomly killing birds and smaller animals with malice, it is there nature.
I absolutely believe cats should be either confined to a home or closely monitored outdoors. They are fragile to diseases and parasites unlike other wild animals and have no place in the ecosystem anymore. They are a product of human manipulation and humans should be held responsible.

 

[silva]

How about coyotes preying on the roaming cats? I cringe when I see a little cat outside in the dark early hours

 

[Gaspard]

How about coyotes preying on the roaming cats? I cringe when I see a little cat outside in the dark early hours

I'm fine with that as long as the coyote isn't a pet. It would be sad however.

 

[Calliegirl]

Sadly, we do have two rescued stray cats that stay outdoors, but they are put up at night in the garage. The garage isn't ideal but it does have lots of beds, heated cat houses, and things to play with until late morning. I don't open the kitty door to let them out until after the birds are done with their early morning activities on the ground. There's no room in the house as I already have two cats in my bedroom, and my roommate has large dogs (who have the run of the house) that kill all small animals they can get ahold of.

I rescue what I can from the outside cats, but sometimes they do catch something when I'm inside and we find their remains in the garage. They almost always eat what they catch at least, and yes, they always have food available.

We're in a rural area with lots of animals: mice, rats, squirrels, rabbits, gophers, snakes, coyotes, bob cats, owls, hawks, and lots and lots of song birds. There are a few owls who live in one of the trees, and they kill and eat way more animals than all of our cats and dogs put together. We know, we see the pellets with animal parts littering the ground under the tree.

Being in a rural area, so many people dump animals here, and even more get barn cats but never fix them, and they breed like crazy. There used to be a lot of cats running around, but quite a few have been killed by coyotes, dogs, and occasionally cars.