freediver wrote on Jan 5^th, 2011 at 9:36am:


Im not going to cry when the locust plaugue made its way through and my pets had a field day with them.

As for the birds, there has been no evidence to suggest she has got any.  No feathers in the yard, nothing.

My fathers yard is a different story, his cat knows how to hunt.

Freediver, Im not going to get rid of our cat who is a brillant family companion for all of us, including our dogs over a couple of little lizards.  When it comes to birds, we will do our best to ensure she doesnt get any, and will exhaust as many methods as possible.

And yes, we do leave her out by herself during the day unsupervised, and until there is evidence to suggest she is misbehaving we will continue to do so.  If she starts killing birds and the like, or ventures outside our yard, she will only be allowed out supervised.

The cats have gone through three serves of tinned fish. I set the trap a few hours ago. Fingers crossed.

freediver wrote on Jan 5^th, 2011 at 10:12am:


Im not avoiding the issue of non birds, its just a non issue to me full stop.

And we will be doing all we can to ensure she doesnt get birds.  Birds dont tend to come to our yard anyway because the dogs hunt them first, however until there is evidence she has killed one, Im not going to lock her inside.  Why punish her if she has done nothing wrong.

We are not irrespsonsible owners in one bit.  Our cat stays in her own yard, and yes, I know they can jump, however this one has yet to be caught out.  Im not going to lock her inside just incase she leaves the yard.  Thats like locking the dogs inside because we left the gate open.

There is no evidence to suggest she has killed birds, no evidence to suggest she has left the yard.  Our neighbours comment how they only see the thing with the dogs.

So if no one has seen her do anything wrong, its no irresponsible of me to allow her time outside.

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So only birds matter to you? I'm guessing you have concern for them because you like having birds around, not because you have any concern for biodiversity.

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Everything, except becoming a responsible pet owner.

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Do your dogs climb trees. or just your cat?

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You just gave some evidence.

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It is not punishment. It is part of being a responsible pet owner.

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You just don't care what native animals your cat kills - so long as they aren't birds? Doesn't sound very responsible to me. It sounds selfish.

Gee freediver, I didnt realise you were such a favourite of lizards, I guess its time to lock the dogs up as well since they eat them too.  I just hope you apply the same car to our wildlife when you speak out against road users since vehicles would do more damage to the ecolife than my cat could ever hope, or the developer who took our new block of land that was farming land and made it residential.

My parents used to have cats when I was living at home. They were very much domesticated so my observations probably arn't typical of all cats.

They all had bells put on them. What ever they caught they would proudly show us. Many times my Mum found a pair of mouse legs on the back step in the morning.......And I guess that is my point. My observations have been that when the cat is young it catches mostly mice, maybe a few blackbirds or sparrows and maybe a few lizards. I don't think they caught any native birds and my theory is that native birds don't spend a lot of time on the ground where they can be caught. Once cats get a bit older and lose their speed and agility they dont catch anything, especially well fed domestic cats like the ones we had. The cats I had proudly displayed what they caught so we know that they mostly just caught mice.

freediver wrote on Jan 5^th, 2011 at 9:14pm:


Just merely highlighting a gross misrepresentation in your claim about my cat.  While the great white hunter takes the odd lizard, my car in the ten years I did heavy commuting to work wiped out so much wildlife it was sad.  Cars by design are wildlife killers.  I cant go crook at my cat for the odd lizard and grasshoppers during a plaugue when my car has wiped out thousands of animals and reptiles can I.  Only two weeks ago I ran over a baby turtle.  I was sad it happened but I didnt lock up the car and not drive it again.

Not one person has mentioned how cats get rid of rats & mice.

I saw a doco on TV once that said something along these lines:

"modern human civilisation would not have flourished without cats
because we would have been overrun with rats & mice & bubonic plague.
Indeed the bubonic plague happened after cats were considered
devils by the church & destroyed.
The rats had a field day & millions died from the bubonic plague
carried inside the fleas on the rats.
It nearly wiped out Europe."