LETTER

Cats indoors or out?

 

Many people have written in on keeping housecats inside or not. I wonder have any of them seen the new documentary, The Messenger, which was just at the Wakefield film festival? It is in some Ottawa theatres, too, but not in Aylmer’s cinema. This spectacular movie is about migrating birds and confirms the figure of 3.5 million songbirds killed per year by housecats.  Perhaps every cat owner should be billed for replacement songbirds?

And if it is natural that cats are outside hunting – isn’t it also natural that cats be subject to the law of the jungle themselves?  I remember last summer a writer suggesting he would buy a pellet gun to “control” the cats which dig up and defecate in his flowers and lawn.  Tit for tat, right?

And why would protecting songbirds mean we shouldn’t eat chicken or turkey?  They are raised to be eaten, not to be listened to and admired.

W. Reynolds
Vieux Aylmer