Are Bird Feeders Cruel

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Originally Posted by BD1

Great point about the cats, tigerlily. By far, outdoor cats are one of the leading cause (if not THE leading causing) for the decimation of songbirds. I remember a documentary that I think was filmed in England about the numbers of rodents, birds, etc that cats were killing and the numbers were astronomical. Too bad the cats don't go south and leave the birds alone.

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I saw that same show and was frankly shocked at how much impact the average well fed house cat was having on the local birds and small mammals. Here's a very interesting site that talks about this (and mentions in #1 that same study you talked about).....

http://www.owra.org/cateffect.htm

I found this part very interesting....

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act protects native birds from being killed or kept by people. Any person who willfully allows his or her cat to injure or kill migratory birds is, in effect, in violation of this federal law. While this may seem like an extreme interpretation, the "sport" hunting of wild animals by our well-fed pet cats is a waste of life and a crime against our wildlife, at least ethically, because it is preventable.

Not that anyone is likely to actually use that law on a pet cat owner, but if the law can be read that way, it's actually a federal offense to knowingly allow your cat to prey on these birds.

Cats are a problem here as well with the decimation of our native songbirds but the biggest contributing factor behind the fall in numbers is the destruction of hedgerows by housing developers and farmers. Songbirds and many other animals use hedgerows as sanctuary from predators so to try and counter-act the falls in numbers of these animals a lot of voluntary wildlife groups have started planting hedgerows and maintaining them so as to provide the songbirds and such with shelter and protection. I don't know if this is the case in the States but if not it's always a good thing to consider if bird numbers are suffering