Our house abuts a wilderness area that’s been home to a colony of feral cats that the neighborhood has cared for for years (including spaying and neutering, and finding homes for the amenable ones). A couple of months ago a new family moved in across the street, and just now they had Animal Control out to gather up the cats. These are not adoptable cats, else they’d all have been homed already.
They took out a hit on the cats, basically. Motherfuckers.
While cats are inarguably cool, they are also one of the greatest human-caused dangers to life on our planet. They did the right thing.
We bought a house that, courtesy of the previous owner, has a very “bird friendly” yard. We also have an outdoor cat that someone dumped in my front yard when she was a kitten. We nursed her back to health and had her spayed. She has lived at my in-laws farm for a few years. We discussed bringing her to our new house and decided that, because she is an extremely effective serial killer, she will stay on the farm. It’s possible to love cats while also recognizing that they can be an invasive species in some circumstances. Their nearly unparalleled hunting skills are an asset to them and a serious threat to the creatures around them.
I’d never put much thought into it, but a few years back I was doom scrolling and came across a research paper that talked about the just pure damage feral cats cause. Between 1-3 BILLION birds killed globally, that’s insanse!!
And I like cats but letting them run wild just isn’t the way. I feel that way about any feral animal, or invasive species. Clear them out.