Are kitty cats really as cute and cuddly as we think? According to a Jan. 29 NPR report, cats kill billions of smaller animals each year.
Pete Marra and his colleagues in the animal ecology department of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute estimate that Americans own approximately 84 million cats. Of those cats, 40 to 70 percent are allowed outside. At least half and up to 80 percent of cats that go outside are hunters.
That means there are as many has 47 million cats out hunting other animals each day. Then there’s an additional 40 to 80 million stray and feral cats without owners that are almost all hunting. That’s a lot of feline predators.
Marra and his team estimate cats kill over 15 billion small mammals and up to 3.7 billion birds each year. While these numbers are estimates, Marra believes the numbers are accurate enough that it seems very possible that cats are causing declines in wildlife population in some areas.
What can you do to keep your cat from killing? Confine your cat to indoors. This will keep your furry friend safe, as well as stop him from hunting. Also, spay or neuter your cat to keep it from breeding.
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