From: boron_elgar@hotmail.com   
      
   On Wed, 26 Aug 2020 20:20:38 -0700 (PDT), billvan@shaw.ca wrote:   
      
   >On Wednesday, August 26, 2020 at 12:59:28 PM UTC-7, Questor wrote:   
   >> On Tue, 25 Aug 2020 18:43:04 -0400, Boron Elgar    
   wrote:   
   >> >Can we paint the cats black, too? They get billion of US birds   
   >> >annually.   
   >>   
   >> I just don't buy this at all.   
   >>   
   >> I've looked at a couple of these studies.  A recent one was only based on   
   >> several other studies.  They looked at those studies -- some decades old --   
   and   
   >> revised the estimates given based on their own assessment.  In other words,   
   it   
   >> was estimates all the way down.  (After all, how can you measure such a   
   thing?)   
   >> I note also that these studies are touted by conservancy and birding groups   
   --   
   >> hardly unbiased sources.   
   >>   
   >> The numbers don't add up either.  There are about 95 million pet cats in the   
   >> U.S.  The number of feral cats is estimated at 60 to 75 million.  Taking the   
   >> high number, there are about 170 million cats in the U.S.  For each billion   
   >> birds supposedly killed, every cat must kill about six birds a year.  But   
   there   
   >> are tens of millions of indoor cats, or cats like ours, which although she   
   goes   
   >> outside every day, hasn't gotten a bird in many years.  This raises the   
   average   
   >> for all the other cats.  In order to reach the three to four billion dead   
   birds   
   >> suggested by some studies, every bird-killing cat must kill somewhere   
   between 25   
   >> to 35 birds every year.  That simply doesn't comport with my experience of   
   pet   
   >> cats.   
   >>   
   >> I was raised in community that could be catergorized as largely rural.    
   There   
   >> was lots of small game, and in warmer weather our cats roamed outside   
   freely.   
   >> And yet they rarely caught any birds.  Their kills were mostly rodents and   
   >> rabbits.  (And as far as I know, they never caught an adult rabbit.  It was   
   only   
   >> juveniles, particularly during rabbit population spikes.)  They simply did   
   not   
   >> catch anywhere near one bird every two weeks -- or more frequently, if you   
   >> factor in the winter months.   
   >>   
   >> I don't believe this claim about "billions" of birds killed by cats every   
   year.   
   >> It simply doesn't match what I've observed over decades of owning cats.   
   >   
   >Feral cats might be significant bird killers, but I agree with you that   
   >pet cats usually are not. Only one of the three or four cats I have been   
   >owned by ever brought home a bird. We got a little bell to hang from her   
   >collar and she never got another bird. I think and hope that most cat   
   >owners would respond similarly.   
   >   
   >bill   
      
   I hate cats. I love birds.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)