 jklugman says: Interesting article about the conflict between cat lovers and bird watchers. There is good evidence that America's large population of feral cats has decimate bird populations, including endangered species. Bird watchers advocate culling feral cats, which cat lovers do not want to do. The story focuses on Jim Stevenson, who was tried for shooting and killing a feral cat in defense of some piping plovers, an endangered species. The only thing to do with all feral animals is to get rid of them. Feral cats do nothing but kill to eat and they don't discriminate between fauna and introduced animals. If they could wipe out the rabbit population in Australia they might gain a few friends, but the native and transient populations suffer. I understand that feral cats have headaches regularly and have been told they should be given panadol or aspirin with milk. Cat lovers should have the brains to realize the damage they do, as their cats bring home fauna. How can they defend feral cats when cat lovers have caused the problem? Bloody hypocrites. Cat Lover here. I have seen birds attack cats, swooping in and pecking their heads. Bottom line, I don't want to see any creature die. He didn't have to shoot the cat; he could have just scared it away with a shot. The article sets up a really interesting conflict between two sets of values: animal welfare ethics vs. environmental ethics. Like kkcapricorn, animal welfare ethics says it is wrong to inflict suffering on animals. Environmental ethics says that maintaining the environment (including biodiversity) means that you have to cull the feral cats. As you can tell from my avatar, I own a cat and I love him very much (he is 100% indoors and doesn't kill any birds). But I also know that feral cats, introduced to the Americas by European colonists, really have no place here. the evidence seems fairly strong that they are a significant contributing factor to the decimation of certain bird species.... |
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