Cats to be put on leashes to protect wildlife? EU says No

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Cats to be put on leashes to protect wildlife? EU says No

November 28, 2019

BRUSSELS (AP) — Put domestic cats on a leash to better protect threatened birds and the environment? The European Union says that would deny mankind’s furry friend its unalienable right to roam.

The EU’s executive said Thursday that it is “a strong defender of free movement rights — including of cats” and “categorically” denied it would ever force cats to be kept indoors or on a leash, as one scientific study suggests.

Tilburg University scientists wrote in Oxford’s Journal of Environmental Law that free-ranging domestic cats “impact biodiversity through predation, disturbance, competition, disease and hybridization,” and added that the predatory impact is worse than often assumed.

They argued that EU laws and directives could effectively force owners to keep them indoors or on a leash outdoors.

https://apnews.com/2ea2d3edea304defa0375a7dbedc35ae

[Jewls2]

1. So, dogs don't need a leash either?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. I think that cat destruction of wild things is vastly overrated.

I'm speaking as someone who has had cats. They really aren't that successful at hunting.

As for dogs, too many of them attack humans. So yeah, they do need to be on leashes. An unleashed cat almost never attacks a human. After all how many stories do we read about a cat killing its owner, as compared to similar stories about dogs.

[mopinko]

3. when someone puts out a study that finds the proper rate of predation, we can talk.

healthy ecosystems need predators. till i see a study that takes that into account, i aint gonna get bent.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. Right. I keep on reading things about how

domestic cats murder a billion birds a year, and I wonder how they come up with those numbers. My cats, even when they spent time outdoors, nailed on average a bird a year. They did better with mice, and got perhaps two rabbits a year. And we're talking when I had three cats. So maybe my felines were singularly incompetent.

[mopinko]

5. i dont think 'outdoor cats' and 'feral cats' are the same thing.

chicago is having a lot of success w feral colonies to deal w rats.
the colonies are cared for, in some cases by the whole block. it beats introducing poisons into the environment.

if there weren't a niche for urban predators, coyotes wouldnt be moving in all over the country.
as long as i see rats all the freakin time, there are not enough cats.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. What I have read more than once is the claim that

household cats, allowed to roam outside, are vicious predators responsible for the killing of vast numbers of birds. Not feral cats. Household cats.

And yeah, we need cats to keep certain vermin under control.

I understand that one reason the bubonic plague was so terrible in the 14th century was that there was some kind of vendetta against cats, and vast number of them were killed. So no cats left to keep the rats under control. Hmmm.

[mopinko]

8. yup. also

the thing that made me suspicious of the study was remembering that wolves were stripped from yellowstone to benefit the deer and elk. didnt work out that way.

[pansypoo53219]

7. poo. keep your cats inside. i always will have feline hostages w/ stockholms.