LETTER

More heat than light (no mention of cats in heat, please)

 

My mind reels at Robert Thompsett's diatribe against those who think cats should be kept indoors, characterizing them as "Bird Nazis"!

My goodness! Nazis, dinosaurs, "ten kilometre long meteors", goody goodies and avian flu? He covers a lot of ground.

He contradicts himself, as his argument that cat food and the "carnage" it creates would be a good reason to abolish cats, but I thought that his argument was about not bothering to protect birds.

We know that both the birds and the bees are under severe stress and are rapidly thinning out across the world.

Leaving the bees aside, what is happening to the birds? They are being killed in alarming numbers, killed by flying into tall buildings, by changes in agricultural practices but also by very large numbers by cats.

This is being published by such neo-Nazi publications as Science News, Nature, Wildlife Management Institute, Canadian Geographic, The Telegraph and in The Proceedings of the Fourth International Partners in Flight Conference which states: "Cats have contributed to declines and extinctions of birds worldwide and are one of the most important drivers of global bird extinctions."

Mr. Thompsett may see Nazis in every closet, but if you have a cat, they will get used to staying indoors, as recommended by the SPCA, where  they will live longer, not get into fights with other cats or dogs, not get run over by cars and will not kill birds and other small animals.

Let feral cats stay outdoors and hunt for survival and let domestic cats stay indoors with their owners where they can be the companions that their owners feed them to be.

Full disclosure: I do not own a cat, when I see one, I wish it was indoors; I have a bird feeder and enjoy seeing the birds in my garden.

David Page
Aylmer