This is a trail camera photo of what is referred-to around these parts as a ditch tiger - a feral or free-roaming domestic cat. Very few things get me steamed as much as feral cats or cats that have been granted permission to roam freely at large.
In the United States alone cats, like the one pictured above, kill billions of mammals and birds every year. Many, many-fold more than are killed by human-related causes such as wind turbines, power lines, farming practices and automobiles.
Cats are predators of the highest order. They are an introduced, non-native and thus an invasive species. And allowing these stone cold killers to roam is not cute and is not doing native wildlife any favors.
The negative impact of domestic and feral cats goes beyond just killing.
Other damaging effects include disturbance or fear effects – for example, one study showed that briefly placing a taxidermied cat near a blackbird nest reduced subsequent feeding of their young by 1/3. Cats compete with other wild animals such as owls for small prey. And cats introduce rabies, feline leukemia and other diseases to native wildlife.
There is not a single socially redeeming element to tolerating feral and free-roaming domestic cats.
If you are interested in a provocative read there is this from National Geographic - To save birds, should we kill off cats?
Shooting ditch tigers is the harshest of sentences.
Keep your cats indoors people.
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