One can only hope this is part of a TNR program. Free roaming domestics are an invasive species and kill billions of other animals a year in the US alone. I get they are cute, but they are also introduced predators messing with ecological systems.
It's a tough balance to strike. On the one hand, cats are adorable, and many people enjoy caring for them. On the other hand, free-roaming cats can have a significant negative impact on local wildlife. I hope they are part of a TNR program. This way, at least the cats are spayed or neutered, which helps control their population and reduces the harmful effects on the ecosystem.
I disagree it's a hard balance. People are welcome to keep pets, but they are not free to let their pets roam freely.
For some reason people have carved out an exception for cats which they do not apply to any other domestic animals. If you want to keep a pet, neuter it, tag it, and keep it inside.
If you let an invasive species roam freely don't be surprised when they are impounded or culled. While I don't know where the video is filmed, in my country it would be terrible to see feral cat shelters built in place of infrastructure that assists our local wildlife.
For some reason people have carved out an exception for cats which they do not apply to any other domestic animals. If you want to keep a pet, neuter it, tag it, and keep it inside.
This.
There's no other pet where anyone would be ok someone letting them roam freely through the neighborhood.
Imagine someone letting their dogs, chickens, goats, hamsters, guinea pigs, regular pigs, rabbits, snakes, turtles or other pets roam freely. That person would get trouble real fast.
Yet cats are somehow allowed to do so, even though they kill hundreds of other animals per year.
People who let their cats roam and kill freely aren't animal lovers but animal haters.
Loving one animal and sacrificing the life of hundreds of others makes you an animal hater.
Cats are only invasive and only a problem because of us. They are a large part of our footprint. Don't you think we should minimize that?
We are no one to 'allow' other animals anything.
Yet here we are, and we are those who 'allowed' cats to spread all over the world and 'allowed' them to kill native animal species, sometimes to extinction.
And not only do we 'allow' them to continue, we 'allow' them to even survive and thrive in enormous numbers by feeding them, so that they aren't dependent on the local prey population, thus 'allowing' cats to exist and thus kill in numbers much higher than would be otherwise possible.
Cats are only invasive and only a problem because of us. They are a large part of our footprint. Don't you think we should minimize that?
Humans are way more invasive and far more creatively than cats. Let's start there.
We've also 'allowed' ourselves to think of ourselves as special, and we've been plundering the planet for centuries. We've attempted to work outside of nature's limits, thus 'allowing' us to take as much as possible from the planet. Once again, I recommend starting there.
394
u/Miserable_Ground_264 6d ago
One can only hope this is part of a TNR program. Free roaming domestics are an invasive species and kill billions of other animals a year in the US alone. I get they are cute, but they are also introduced predators messing with ecological systems.