My cat's latest victim.

I think the collar with the bell idea is the best. One of our neighbours has a cat that kills everything (recent corpses include great tits, voles, a great spotted woodpecker and an owl - owl!! where does it end?). My wife is going to ask them to fit a collar with a bell on it. It's not foolproof (someone in the RSPB mag said he saw a cat stalking a bird with its bell in its mouth) but it's more likely to work than not.

If the safety collar doesn't work, I'd just put a 'proper' collar on. Is the cat really going to strangle itself? The probability is remote in the extreme (I would guess the majority of domestic cats have collars, yet I've never heard of one being strangled, other than in urban myth land).

Introducing a philosophical note, I might add that depending on the rarity/type of the species a cat might be killing, maybe it wouldn't be so bad if some cats did string themselves up. I like cats but generally speaking one might ask, would one prefer a wild owl (which may have dependents) to live rather than a serial killer non-indigenous domestic cat, which is one of millions in the UK? I think I know what I'd go for.

Try a block of concrete tied to the collar.

All cats are different. They shouldn't all be tarred with the same brush.

Of our three rescued tabby males from the same batch we had one psycho-killer. He was determined to rid the world of anything near his own size. He would sever your arm if your tried to pick him up! We loved him dearly and still miss him years later.

The second was the largest, an absolute bore, a featherweight, affectionate, fat git who only thought about food but never hunted. He left his personality in the box he weas born in. Never missed a mealtime until he too vanished suddenly.

The surviving number three weighs as much as a small calf, looks all skin and bone and never jumps up or hunts. Blackbirds ignore his sphinx impression as he sunbathes calmly on the lawn. Polite to a fault and dignified he'd win a scrap against any wildcat twice his size.

But he hasn't been the same since he received a flip-top-head job from an attack with a Stanley knife and had to be repaired overnight. He seems to have lost his memory and forgets why he crossed the room to have a snack. He shakes his paws when he has finished eating his way through a side of beef for elevenses and prefers to live out of doors year-round. He has a kennel by the back door.

One day we had a visit from a pair of the neighbour's young female cats. They were facinated by our goldfish pond. Suddenly an emperor dragonlfly appeared high above the water. One of the cats launched from a seated position, reached an effortless 6 feet in the air with full twist. Caught the poor creature in its mouth and then landed on the same rock it had been sitting on for a quick snack.

quote:

Originally posted by ARC:

I would love my children and grandchildren in the future to see songbirds, voles and mice but I guess the actions of others may well prevent this.

Brendan

Brendan

You do realise that the biggest contributor to the loss of the above mentioned animals is humans? The kills that cats make are peanuts compared to our farming, building, pollution and other ongoing habitat destruction.

Humans blaming cats (or Magpies or other animals) for the loss of wildlife is truly hypocritical. Animals do it instinctivly; we know exactly what we are destroying. We humans love scapegoats - always ready to blame someone other than ourselves.

I've recently been helping fight to stop someone building on the last bit of green land in my neighbourhood. The cats in our street may take some animals, but they don't destroy whole animal communities. The bulders will decimate the animals and their habitat. And the builders do it for profit.

Do you really think cats are the true villans in this case?



Stephen

quote:

Originally posted by KRO:
They are the most dispicable creatures selfish and unloving,why people have them beats me, drown it and buy a dog.

At least a cat can't bite the arm off of a small child - cats mame, dogs can and do kill.

As others have stated, any animal that eats its own crap and doesn't even have sense enough to bury it (cats actually bury theirs as they see us as dominant "cats", and wild cats leave poo around to mark their territory) isn't even worthy of my contempt.

Dogs are also stupid enough to do what they're told and love you out of duty - at least if a cat's affectionate to you AFTER you've fed it, you know it actually likes you. You never know where you are with a mutt.

Moaning about a cat killing some vermin like a bat is frankly laughable when humans kill everything else all the time - mainly by driving those stupid tin boxes on wheels.

Another 'passing the blame' story.

We destroy the Cormorant habitats, they seek out new sources of food (where people fish), we shoot them for doing it.

'Cormorant policy amended, but 1,500 birds may already have been shot'



Stephen

quote:

Originally posted by Stephen Bennett:
Animals do it instinctivly; we know exactly what we are destroying. We humans love scapegoats - always ready to blame someone other than ourselves.

There is no way that predators would choose to live at such a great density.

If left to fend for themselves, they would spread out dramatically, and the damage would be far smaller.

cheers, Martin