re: How many out door cats is kosher for a normal neighborhood house?

How do you know this? Are you keeping track of where he/she is at all times? You think it stays solely on your property all day?


It’s irresponsible and rude to your neighbors (assuming you live with other people around you)

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So how am I a dick?

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1. your cat is an indiscriminate killer and it is well documented that they are decimating song bird populations. Each outdoor cat adds to that problem, you add to that problem

2. You are forcing your neighbors to deal with an outside animal they probably dont want to have to deal with. Cats get on, under, and into cars. Screw with outside arangements and gardens. Etc

3. You are risking injury to the animal by not providing it a safe shelter. If you aren't on a farm/barn then the cat could get injured from traffic, people, other animals, etc. Just because you are too lazy to find an alternative method of pest control.

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Here is the OPs complaint about the cats, he attracts,because he’s busy feeding birds (who have natural food all around)

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Let's see......

What kind of lawn do you have? If you're like most you have one of non-native turf species that you never let get to the point of seeding (which doesn't matter for alot of native bird species because they don't eat those seeds). If you're like others you also like to have "weed-free" lawn, so you probably dump all sorts of chemicals on that lawn in an effort to control that, which means you kill off any and everything those native seeding-eating birds would actually seek out and eat. I'm also sure that if like others you can't have any sort of "pest" insects doing any sort of "damage" to your lawn and garden, so you probably dump untold gallons of chemicals on your lawn to control those, killing off a wide spectrum of insects that native birds eat, whilst at times allowing non-native, invasive insects to thrive (because they aren't susceptible to many chemicals you broadcast). Those few invasive insects don't help, though, because most native birds haven't evolved to hunt or eat them. You probably live in a neighborhood with neighbors who follow the same practices. Collectively, you have cut down trees, eliminated thickets, wiped out native "weeds", and eliminated food sources for said native birds driving them to increasingly concentrated areas that are, themselves, being wiped out.

So.....no, those birds don't have plenty of "natural food" around.

Throw in the damn free range cats that don't belong in the environment and you're needlessly stressing a vital part of local ecosystems by impacting every aspect of a native bird's lifecycle.

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Just be glad you don't live next to the neighborhood cat lady that feeds them in the alley or something like that

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We have damn near that very scenario in our neighborhood. Cat Momma goes everyday to a convience store and feeds a whole tribe of stray cats. No telling how much $$ she spends a week feeding them.

It came as a surprise to me that Elf cat who patrolled the flower beds for food also pooped there. Then I found her disintegrating poop and it was full of very small bones and lots of very small teeth.
I decided to accept that she was providing bone meal and that was ok.

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Outside cats and wild cats are different things.

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Both equally destructive.

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well if he comes in my flowerbeds and eats poison I've left out that's on him. If he puts footprints on my car he will wish he had eaten poison

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Fair enough. I don't have a problem with that. Like I said before my cat stays home. He is fixed and we feed him. He kills rodents and shits in my flowerbeds. I don't give a damn about songbirds or anyone who feeds them. And I think anyone lecturing others on a message board calling people dicks because a cat killed a bird is an a-hole

I fricking hate cats so if it ventures into my yard regularly, zero

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2. My cat isn't killing song birds.

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Pretty much every free range cat owner I have ever talked to says some variation of this. It simply cannot be true.