For The Cat Lovers Amongst You :)

[LazyGun]

Horizon documentary tonight - 50 cats in Shamley Green fitted with a GPS/Cam collar to see what they really get up to. Sounds interesting :)

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/the-secret-life-of-the-cat-bbcs-horizon-programme-finds-out-what-household-moggies-really-get-up-to-after-dark-8656896.html

[Epona]

'Madam' wears a collar and a bell but still catches mice and once brought a baby rabbit in. The collars are safety ones and snap very easily, 'Madam' goes through about 3 a year.

[LazyGun]

Thats a good hunter then if they can still catch the wildlife even when the wildlife is prewarned with a bell :)

[SlackAlice]

I only found out a couple of days ago, our old cat (passed away 10yrs ago) used to 'rattle' next doors knocker, walk in, say hello to everyone there, then walk to their back door, out and over the fence and in our catflap.

We'd changed our door and he couldn't rattle our knocker and he couldn't be @rsed to go the long way round!

[mccfluff]

cats are graceful, very much so, there singing leaves a lot to be desired

on of the things that comes out of this programme is the decrease in cats killing. murph has a collar and 5 bells, she can't move without making a noise

[ummmm]

Cats are very graceful.

Mine isn't much of a hunter. He sits on the wall watching the birds in next doors bird bath but doesn't attempt to move.

He only hunts spiders.

[daffy654]

Fender, as of last year there were an estimated 8 million cats in the UK so I have no idea where your extra 2.3m come from.


///No evidence
Despite the large numbers of birds killed, there is no scientific evidence that predation by cats in gardens is having any impact on bird populations UK-wide. This may be surprising, but many millions of birds die naturally every year, mainly through starvation, disease, or other forms of predation. There is evidence that cats tend to take weak or sickly birds.///
From the RSPB website:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/gardening/unwantedvisitors/cats/birddeclines.aspx

[daffy654]

My report was from LAST YEAR so a bit more recent than yours.

Did you read the article I linked to or are you just choosing to completely discount the evidence against your opinion?

[Psybbo]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22567526

[ladybirder]

No excuses for not putting a collar and bell on a cat. You can buy collars that snap off with a little pressure and if it saves one bird then to me it's worth it. And keeping them in at night keeps both your cat and the local wildlife safe.