Just had to chase the neighbors cat away from a juvenile kookaburra that was on the ground in our yard. The cat has been on the other side of the fence waiting for its chance to finish the job.

We put the bird in a cardboard box to take to the local vet tomorrow.

Can anyone give me any good reason why cats are still allowed to roam free without consequence in this country?

Update: We were woken by cat noises again this morning. After a safe and quiet night in a box the fledgling kookaburra was released where it was found and after several attempts it managed to fly up onto a roof where it will at least be safe from ground based predators today. Multiple adults birds in the area this morning and some amazing bird calls.

  • I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world
    82·
    2 months ago

    Because the idea that cats are devastating to local bird populations and responsible for species becoming endangered or extinct is mostly a myth. The actual number of birds killed by cats is essentially a rounding error in the face of astronomically high number of deaths caused by human activity. But people don’t like to feel responsible for things, so flawed studies are latched on to as cold, hard, fact when it doesn’t match reality at all.

    And why would it? Think about how crazy a claim it is that bird populations are declining because of cats, and not things like cars, windows, wind turbines, jet engines, habitat loss, loss of insects, air pollution, noise pollution, light pollution, pesticides, plastic litter, chemical spills, or high powered radars.

    That being said, cats are still predators; and against things like flightless birds that have no defenses, they can still be a problem. But against birds capable of flight, they just aren’t going to kill that many.

    That being said, if you don’t want cats to be roaming free because the piss and shit everywhere and can create feral populations, those are all perfectly valid reasons. But wanting to ban them to protect the birds is a bit like hearing synthetic rubber is an environmental issue and deciding the best course of action is to ban it’s use in tennis balls.

        • YeahToast@aussie.zone
          3·
          2 months ago

          Eh, in my opinion that’s not a great paper, it’s basically just an essay with some references, not a RCT or a literature review. They also make the point “…so what if cats kill 10-15% of the annual population that’s a usual predator -prey ratio”… except… its an introduced prey???

        • Dimand@aussie.zone
          31·
          2 months ago

          Swiss institution author that only mentioned a single Australian study. And their main argument is that the animals that cats kill could be breeding faster than the cats are killing them. Hence it’s not a problem.

          It’s a fair point if we are talking about rats or noisy minors. It’s not a valid argument if we consider any form of endangered species, of which Aus has many.

    • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      All agreed! Feral cats are far more of an issue than Puss-in-Boots taking a walk in the garden.

    • shirro@aussie.zoneOPEnglish
      31·
      2 months ago

      Because the idea that cats are devastating to local bird populations and responsible for species becoming endangered or extinct is mostly a myth.

      Native animal extinctions are primarily due to human activity and introduction of invasive predatory species is only one of many destructive human activities. As far as I can tell the messaging that cat impacts are overstated are primarily from a particular pet lobby group which is like asking the NRA about gun control or the fossil fuel industry about carbon emissions.