
Originally Posted by
BigLeRoy
You're arguing anecdotes and I'm arguing statistics. I STRONGLY encourage you to read the article "The Case Against Cats" in the latest [December 2016] issue of The Atlantic. A few choice excerpts:
"A 2013 study found that outdoor cats in the U.S. kill somewhere between 1.3 billion and 4 billion birds and between 6.3 billion and 22.3 billion mammals EACH YEAR. It's fair to say....that cats may be considered 'nightmarish invaders, capable of ransacking whole ecosystems and annihilating feebler life-forms in their path.'"
In the Hawaiian Islands, felines "prey on endangered birds such as the petrel, the nene, the Laysan albatross, and have helped decimate the Hawaiian crow."
"In Australia, with its 3 million pet cats and 20 million feral cats (and about 23 million people), cats have contributed to wiping out several mouse, rat, and bandicoot species. They currently threaten the much-beloved greater bilby. Cats are implicated, according to one study, in 14 percent of all reptile, mammal, and bird extinctions on islands...."