Why birds are being killed by cats

For over 100 years, birdlovers have complained about cats killing wild birds. But now there seem to be more cats roaming around out there than ever before. Here's one reason why. Take a look at the income and expenditures of Alley Cat Allies, the leading feral cat advocacy group (from their 2007 annual report)--



$4.2 million spent last year to promote the caring for free-ranging cats. Nobody who cares about birds is spending close to that amount of money to protect birds from cats.

I'm not a fan of killing cats. I'm all for TNR (trap-neuter-release) of feral cats--as long as the cats are released into a controlled situation where they can do only minimal damage to birds and other wildlife. Alley Cat Allies, and other feral cat advocates, need to realize that they've only gone 80% of the way to fixing the feral cat problem. Unless they find a place to put the feral cats where they can't roam willy nilly over the landscape, TNR is a flawed and incomplete solution.