I'm so proud of my little hunters when we play with toys that simulate prey. They're so fierce. Larry will become fierce. Good job, hunter! Good job, good job!
this post was submitted on 24 May 2025
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Fuck me that is adorable! We'll done, Larry, you are indeed a mighty hunter!
A vegetarian!
"Outdoor cats" are an invasive species that kill billions of animals every year, are a significant contributor to dozens of species' extinction, and live shorter lives than cats properly cared for (i.e. kept indoors) including nearly 3x the risk for infections.
It's a plague. We can't keep normalizing this.
Yeah but birds aren't real.
Thanks tech, did not appreciate the original post b/c of how lightly it treats the killing of wonderful beautiful birbs
"Outdoor cats" are just cats. They are not a domesticated species, hunting is their instinct, and should just not be introduced in places where they wreck havoc to the environment. Where they are endemic (Europe and continental Asia) they don't cause troubles to the ecosystem
As long as you spend time providing your cat proper enrichment to express their hunting instincts, an indoor cat will be just as happy as an outdoor cat.
In my experience it highly depends on the cat. Some are perfectly content with proper scratchers and toys inside, some just visibly suffer staying inside, it might help we are far from the busy city with plenty of green and huntable animals, but most of our cats spend ~80% of time outdoor during summer and ~30% during winter.
most of our cats spend ~80% of time outdoor during summer and ~30% during winter.
put a camera on them if you think they're not killing birds. seriously.
I'm not saying they are not killing birds, or mice, or small preys in general. Cats are predators and amongst the best. What I'm saying is that they are invasive only in places they never were in before human brought them (like Australia or small islands). In continental Eurasia (except areas where they are explicitly been controlled), they have always been there, and the environment is adapted to their presence and will not significantly suffer, not more than any other predator.
Wrong. Outdoor cats pose a significant risk to birds in Europe as well, especially because Europe has massively reduced the habitat of wildlife in recent centuries.
Cats found 200-500 meters away from any property are shot by hunters in Germany. Between 2007 and 2022 over 160,000 cats were killed in just 5/16 German states (the remaining one's don't publish numbers).
Source? Never heard of that. German sources are fine as well.
That's where the 160,000 deaths number came from. The largest German nature conservation NGO is also quoted as saying cats are a danger to birds.
A single district in Northern Germany has had 660 cats shot within a year. In the dstrict's state 2580 cats were shot in total. Note that the "landesweit" doesn't refer to countrywide but rather to statewide (as German states are called "federal countries").
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