So how do you weigh up cruelty? Is it not cruel to allow the death of a huge population of wildlife by letting a cat roam free? It is illegal for people to kill birds, it is illegal to allow your dog to kill wildlife, yet cat owners can allow their pet to kill even the most protected species without any legal recompense. No one has ever been able to explain that to me in any satisfactory way.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
So how do you weigh up cruelty? Is it not cruel to allow the death of a huge population of wildlife by letting a cat roam free? It is illegal for people to kill birds, it is illegal to allow your dog to kill wildlife, yet cat owners can allow their pet to kill even the most protected species without any legal recompense. No one has ever been able to explain that to me in any satisfactory way.
Generally I think it harks back to a time when cats were normally kept as pest control - as they still are on farms. They live in the barns, catch mice and rats. Or in my garden they live under the hedge and catch rabbits. If they are feeding themselves, cats rarely catch birds - too much effort for too little return, probably. And in a rural area, cat poo is really not an issue. I know there are two stray/feral cats in my garden now and then, but I don't find cat poo in my borders. The trouble has come from moving those cats into an urban/suburban situation where there are more people and more cats close together and the cats are fed well enough to be able to 'hunt' without a need for food from the exercise, but the laws and attitudes to them have not really changed. Stray cats need to hunt at twilight. Pet cats really don't.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
So how do you weigh up cruelty? Is it not cruel to allow the death of a huge population of wildlife by letting a cat roam free? It is illegal for people to kill birds, it is illegal to allow your dog to kill wildlife, yet cat owners can allow their pet to kill even the most protected species without any legal recompense. No one has ever been able to explain that to me in any satisfactory way.
Generally I think it harks back to a time when cats were normally kept as pest control - as they still are on farms. They live in the barns, catch mice and rats. Or in my garden they live under the hedge and catch rabbits. If they are feeding themselves, cats rarely catch birds - too much effort for too little return, probably. And in a rural area, cat poo is really not an issue. I know there are two stray/feral cats in my garden now and then, but I don't find cat poo in my borders. The trouble has come from moving those cats into an urban/suburban situation where there are more people and more cats close together and the cats are fed well enough to be able to 'hunt' without a need for food from the exercise, but the laws and attitudes to them have not really changed. Stray cats need to hunt at twilight. Pet cats really don't.
A friend who is 'owned' by three very well fed and adored cats complained yesterday that her three chickens had been killed by a fox ... she said that the fox had only taken one chicken and had left the others ... she said she wouldn't have minded so much had the fox taken the chickens, but to kill 'out of fun rather than out of need' made her angry.
A few weeks ago she was telling me how one of her cats had brought her two dead robins and another of her cats kept killing frogs .......... her cats certainly don't need to hunt ... but they still kill just as the fox did ..... but she can't see it that way .......
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
The gamekeepers here shoot foxes. Would they shoot a cat? Probably. I suspect they see them as very much the same problem. I doubt they'd own up to it as readily though
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I love cats ... I've been owned by some lovely cats in the past ... my son and daughter both have cats that I'm very fond of ... I just don't own one and don't want other people's cats in my garden and believe that cat owners should control and be responsible for their pets.... why is that so hard to understand?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
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The trouble has come from moving those cats into an urban/suburban situation where there are more people and more cats close together and the cats are fed well enough to be able to 'hunt' without a need for food from the exercise, but the laws and attitudes to them have not really changed. Stray cats need to hunt at twilight. Pet cats really don't.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
A few weeks ago she was telling me how one of her cats had brought her two dead robins and another of her cats kept killing frogs .......... her cats certainly don't need to hunt ... but they still kill just as the fox did ..... but she can't see it that way .......
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I love cats ... I've been owned by some lovely cats in the past ... my son and daughter both have cats that I'm very fond of ... I just don't own one and don't want other people's cats in my garden and believe that cat owners should control and be responsible for their pets.... why is that so hard to understand?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.