Do We Really Know That Cats Kill By The Billions? Not So Fast

[LWolf]

95. In my area,

the local organization that rescues, spays/neuters, and vaccinates feral cats offer those that are too old/wild for socialization as "barn cats." People who take them keep them in kibble in the barn, and they keep the rodent population in barns down.

When I moved into my place there was an entire colony of feral cats in my barn. The people before me allowed them to breed freely, so there were new litters every year.

I set about trapping, spaying/neutering, and releasing. I collected all the kittens and socialized them and found them homes. I worked on earning the trust of a couple less aggressive. Still after one year, there were none left. None. Out of about a dozen adults. The local coyote, hawk, and owl population did them in.

I've been fighting the booming rodent population ever since. They did a great job with the rodents. I haven't gotten more, though, because I view it as a cat death sentence. My pet cat is forced to stay indoors. Not her idea, to say the least.

It's always about the birds. My experience with a lifetime of outdoor cats before moving here where outdoors means death, though, was that cats catch many more rodents than birds. And that year living with a colony of feral cats in the barn? I didn't see them taking birds, or find piles of feathers. When they were gone, the bird population stayed about the same. The rodent population skyrocketed.

For what it's worth.