I am pretty sure the simplest and most humane solution is... to put a small bell on your cat. I am suprised no one else has said this.
What about un-owned cats? Those are what they say kill the most.
The Killer Cats Are Winning
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Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning
#62Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning
#63> This is a ridiculous point to waffle on: pet cats should no more be allowed to roam around at will than should pet dogs, horses, pythons, or pot-bellied pigs. Actually, my Dad grew up on a mountain where, every day after school, he would come home and gather up the pig and cows that had been let free to eat for the day. So there's certainly use cases for letting a pig roam free and gather some forage. By the time I…
Actually, my Dad grew up on a mountain where, every day after school, he would come home and gather up the pig and cows that had been let free to eat for the day. The statement you quoted said cats "should be no more allowed to roam than ". Your father's livestock were allowed to roam. Ergo, maybe the author wasn't talking about the farm your father grew up on. Something something false equivalencies or something. Di…
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Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's amazing how a cat will learn something in 5 seconds if they are truly motivated. They will learn a squirt gun so fast they will spook if you make one with your fingers. My cats learned what "treat" meant in a day and run to the kitchen if we say the word to them.
Yeah, the hard part is just that cats have different motivations than dogs. Dogs will do something just because they know you want them to do it and you are above them in the pack. They are also more likely to be food motivated. One of my cats is very food motivated. She will always come running for the word "treat". One of them is extremely not food motivated. He gets excited when I say treat because the other cats…
"Dogs will do something just because they know you want them to do it and you are above them in the pack. They are also more likely to be food motivated."
Dr. John Pilley, who trained his dog Chaser to learn over 1000 words and even syntax (like the difference between "To ball take Frisbee" and "To Frisbee take ball")[1], said Chaser is best motivated by play.
"My last words to the class were to remind them that play was Chaser’s reward. I told them that they should always reward their dogs for good behavior by playing with them and petting and praising them. We all learn better and faster when learning is fun."[2]
[1] - https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/dog-spies/how-to-teach-...
[2] - http://www.chaserthebordercollie.com/the-book?_escaped_fragm...!
Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning
#65And a counterpoint http://www.npr.org/2016/04/04/473002208/facing-a-growing-rat... That example is why cats were domesticated in the first place. Not having a healthy predator prey relationship in areas leads to public health issues.
> "They totally freak me out," says Courtney Bledsoe, as she sees a rat dart across the street while picking up her son at a Lincoln Park preschool. And we're having rats picking up children at school, now.
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Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning
#66I am pretty sure the simplest and most humane solution is... to put a small bell on your cat. I am suprised no one else has said this.
What about un-owned cats? Those are what they say kill the most.
I believe maybe it would fall into the jurisdiction of local pet enforcement / RSPCA group to put bells on the cats.
But yeah, that would be no easy task. Trying to herd cats comes to mind :)
Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
He said "birds" not "bats". If you're going to be snarky, at least get the classification right.
He may have been referring to pigeons. Rats with wings is an apt metaphor.
Pigeons only account for one of those 200+ species the OP mentioned though (unless they live in one of those regions with the native Band-Tailed Pigeons). That particular kind of pigeon that everyone loathes (European Rock Pigeons) aren't even native to the New World and are an evasive species.
Ironically, they're in the decline in their natural habitat while thriving in North/South America. The Americas has a few native pigeons, but none are as well known or wide spread as the Rock Pigeon. Quite a few pigeon species are also far from the ugly "rats with wing" stereotype[1], but they don't live in Europe or North America.
Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indoors is categorically not better for the cats. They're nocturnal predators. Let them hunt as is their desire and way of living. It's like keeping birds in cages and not letting them fly. Or chickens in battery farms. There are so many unhappy cats imprisoned for the benefit of their fluffy -loving captors. If you have cats, you must let them be cats. So here's the rub: we really have to stop keeping so many cats
I have three cats. The youngest straight up chose to be an indoor cat. He was a feral kitten, about 12 weeks when I first encountered him (based on the vet's estimate of 16 weeks when I eventually brought him in). I left food out for him for a month, as he progressively hung around more and more and watched my two indoor cats through the sliding glass door in the back of my apartment. After about a month he seemed to…
She got out for a week when she was around 3 years old, and came back so thin you could touch your fingers together on either side of her stomach.
Yeah, but maybe they were the best seven days of her life, worth more than a decade living indoors.
It just seems to absurd to decide what's "best" for them. By what standard?
Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'll put a terrier up against a cat any day. As you describe: grab, bite, dead, move on to the next one. None of this "let's play with it for a bit" crap from cats, there's work to be done. Mole problem? Borrow a dachshund for a week, no more moles. For efficient, methodical obliteration of a local pest population, hard to beat a canine for Terminator-like determination and efficiency. Cats just dick around too much.
I'll put my cats up against your terrier any day. Bite, whimper, dead. That would be your terrier. My cats kill moles and mice. They do a damn good job of it. Only thing dogs seem capable of killing: rabbits and themselves.
I'll put my cats up against your terrier any day. Bite, whimper, dead. That would be your terrier.
Umm, I think you misread my statement, which was intended as "in a contest of who catches the most rats...". It was not intended as cat vs. dog in a cage match.
Though if that's the direction you want to go, the terriers I personally have are "American Pit Bull Terriers". Tell your cat to bring its A game.
Re: The Killer Cats Are Winning
#70> This is a ridiculous point to waffle on: pet cats should no more be allowed to roam around at will than should pet dogs, horses, pythons, or pot-bellied pigs. Actually, my Dad grew up on a mountain where, every day after school, he would come home and gather up the pig and cows that had been let free to eat for the day. So there's certainly use cases for letting a pig roam free and gather some forage. By the time I…
I have owned cats my entire adult life (I'm 58) and have never allowed them outside. They do just fine indoors. They also live longer, healthier lives, with less disease and much less danger from cars, raccoons, etc. And they don't bother the neighbors.
In the country, I could imagine letting cats outside -- though only after getting them neutered or spayed -- but in the city or suburbs, where I have lived, keeping them inside makes more sense.