this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2025
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Why?
Outdoor domestic cats have directly contributed to the mass extinction of at least 33 species of wildlife worldwide: https://www.fws.gov/sites/default/files/documents/keep-cats-indoors.pdf
Plus the obvious answer, they live longer when they can't be mauled or run over.
Humans contribute to way more.
Humans bringing perfect predators around is one way how humans contribute to it.
that’s fucking stupid whataboutism, dude.
OK, thanks.
So I guess the situation is this: it depends. For example our cats do kill a bird a year maybe (species that are around in large numbers) but they mostly hunt mice which are abundant in most places and it's actually a benefit to cull their numbers.
While we also had one cat get poisoned by assholes we don't have any issues with cats getting run over ever and that's in a (EU) city.
No. It doesn’t depend
If you say so.
It’s more like if the consensus among ecologists and veterinarians says so, but yes also because I say so I guess
It really does. Situated in Europe, there is no more wildlife to destroy. What wildlife could be destroyed by cats was decimated 10.000 years ago by people. At this point cats are important to cull rat and mice populations. Europe doesn't have nature anymore, and it hasn't in a very long time.
This is as far from the truth as it can possibly be
No. This is straight up wrong.
House cats are not effective mousers, they’re indiscriminate killers who will also kill rodents but will happily kill birds or whatever else they can.
Historically dogs are better mousers than cats, because you can train a dog to kill just what you want.
Cats are ambush predators, they’re not super into chasing prey very far.
Dogs on the other hand will.
It’s why the dachshund or rat terrier exists as a breed.
Your pet cat isn’t a beneficial member of the ecological niche. Sorry.
Feel free to look what I’m saying up and prove me wrong at any point.
it really doesn’t depend. you think your cats kill a bird a year “maybe.”
that’s just what you see. stop letting your cats roam freely outside, in america, europe, or literally anywhere. you see farmers here in the US using all the same coping arguments that you are here to justify why their cats are actually fine to roam free… and then it all adds up and accumulates to the detrimental environmental impacts that we see referenced in the linked sources. you are being a part of the problem.
your cats don’t “just” hunt mice. your cat could give less of a shit if it’s a mouse or an endangered species, it doesn’t know or care. multiply that many times over the millions of cat owners who think just like you, who think “oh well my cats are fine though…”
are they? i don’t think so.
i love cats and im sorry about yours getting poisoned, but, also you have to consider that had you not let your cats free roam there would’ve been a near zero percent chance of a stranger poisoning or otherwise hurting them.
it is doing a disservice to the environment and your pet to let a cat free roam, anywhere. even in agriculture. doesn’t matter.
Darn old law of the jungle... What can do?
I am not arguing about this. Thanks for your statement.
They murder so, so many birds.
Because cats are a godawful menace to local small vertebrate populations.
You mean like mice and rats? We got lots of them to spare.
Also songbirds, reptiles, basically anything small enough for them to kill.