I know I know… “obligate carnivore”

  • dodgy_bagel
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    4 months ago

    https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2380

    We estimate that free-ranging domestic cats kill 1.3–4.0 billion birds and 6.3–22.3 billion mammals annually. Un-owned cats, as opposed to owned pets, cause the majority of this mortality. Our findings suggest that free-ranging cats cause substantially greater wildlife mortality than previously thought and are likely the single greatest source of anthropogenic mortality for US birds and mammals.

    Unless, of course, you’re saying that we shouldn’t stop one bad thing because we do other bad things.

    We should rethink our attachments to miniature tigers.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Un-owned cats, as opposed to owned pets, cause the majority of this mortality

      I’m not sure what the solution is here.

      We should rethink our attachments to miniature tigers.

      And do what? Its not the pets that are doing the bulk of the killing.

      • dodgy_bagel
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        4 months ago

        Please be serious. I read the source that I posted; you’re not being clever. Cats don’t magically show up from nowhere. Our culture around cats enables and feeds the feral population. If we didn’t keep cats as pets, and animal control treated them the same way they treat raccoons, then this problem would be dramatically reduced. Probably eliminated, but they might turn into an intractable urban pest.