re: PETA has gone full retard

quote:

---

cats are a piece of the problem, but willing to bet development and pesticides have a much larger contribution the birds. cat are more likely population control then population destroying. if not for the cats, then ou would likely see more birds die from lack of food/resources

---

Let us say you are correct in your assertion.

Which of these fixes is easier to accomplish:

1. Cease human land development and make changes to human food production policies, or

2. Have childless cat ladies keep their cats indoors and remove feral cats from the environment.

Neither is simple, but, by God, number 2 is much easier.

Cats kill 6.5 million bird in the US every day? They use the same guy who counted China Virus deaths?

quote:

---

We don't have a problem with not enough birds in this world. We just have a lot of people that don't like cats.

---

Why are you so defensive about letting your pet roam free outdoors?

You can’t do it with a dog. Why is a cat different?

The objections to keeping cats contained makes zero sense.

quote:

---

and predators are important to controlling the population of many animals.

---

House cats are not a natural existence in nature.

They are an invasive species we introduced because people think they are cute.

Industrial farming has decimated animal populations. You rarely see green belts on farms like you did back in the day. Quail, dove, pheasant have all suffered because there is less and less habitat for them.

The harvest also kills tons of rodents

quote:

---

Industrial farming has decimated animal populations. You rarely see green belts on farms like you did back in the day. Quail, dove, pheasant have all suffered because there is less and less habitat for them.

---

True.

But tough problem to solve for as we, humans, need to eat.

Easy problem to solve for though is just keeping your pet cats inside.

I think people misunderstand natural selection more than damn near any other universally accepted principle I can think of

It's not retarded roaming cats are scourge.

According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, predation by domestic cats is the leading human-caused threat to birds in the U.S. and Canada. Outdoor pet and feral cats kill an estimated 1.3 to 4 billion birds annually, with unowned cats accounting for about two-thirds of this mortality

The absurdity is cat owners claim "it's just nature" but scream bloody murder when a natural predator gets a cat.

quote:

---

obviously #2 is the easiest piece to fix, but it may be that 10-20B population is the max sustainable population in the US, regardless of the cats.

just like deer population grow over the sustainable land use if not allowed to be hunted, you could see the same issues with birds.....cats may be keeping the population down for a good reason.....

---

ChatGPT:

is there any risk of wild birds being overpopulated in the US? Do cats do a good thing controlling wild bird population?

quote:

---

Broadly, no: the U.S. does not have a general “wild bird overpopulation” problem. The larger pattern is the opposite: U.S. and North American bird populations are in major decline. The 2025 State of the Birds report found continued widespread declines across mainland and marine habitats, with 229 species needing urgent conservation action and 112 “Tipping Point” species having lost more than half their populations over the last 50 years.

There are local exceptions. Some birds thrive in human-made environments, such as urban/suburban Canada geese, gulls, pigeons, starlings, house sparrows, crows, or blackbirds in certain places. These can create nuisance, disease-risk, crop, or property issues. But that is not the same as saying wild birds overall are overpopulated. It usually means human landscapes have favored a few adaptable species while many others decline.

Cats generally do not do a “good thing” by controlling wild bird populations. Free-roaming domestic cats are an introduced predator in North America, and they do not selectively remove only “excess” birds or nuisance species. They kill common birds, declining native birds, fledglings, mammals, reptiles, and other wildlife. A widely cited Nature Communications study estimated that free-ranging cats kill 1.3–4.0 billion birds per year in the U.S., with unowned cats causing most of that mortality.

Ecologically, cat predation is usually considered an added human-caused mortality pressure, not a healthy population-control service. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service describes many migratory birds as facing cumulative human-caused threats, including habitat loss, collisions, climate impacts, and predation by cats. The National Park Service also notes that even well-fed outdoor cats hunt wildlife and that birds provide ecosystem benefits such as pollination, seed dispersal, and insect control.

So the practical answer is: keep pet cats indoors, in a catio, or supervised/on leash. That protects birds and also protects cats from cars, disease, fights, predators, and poisoning. For genuinely overabundant local bird conflicts, wildlife managers use targeted methods like habitat modification, exclusion, egg addling, deterrents, or regulated control—not free-roaming cats.

---

quote:

---

House cats are not a natural existence in nature.

---

That is a very fine line to walk, as all use of animals humans have is not natural existence.

Raising livestock for food is the complete opposite of nature's plan.

Domesticating the horse, which allowed for humanity to spread and build was not natural.

Domesticated dogs are not natural, but a product of humanity reaching the top of the food chain, thus requiring wolves learning to adapt to their place on the totem pole and humans shaping them.

Cats have been domesticated near 10,000 years.