Regardless of your thoughts or feelings while reading this, please read it in its entirety. The conclusion may hold some surprises.
There is a call to action for the United States Fish & Wildlife Service along with the Department of the Interior to take action against a major wildlife threat looming across the country. Due to their threats against natural ecosystems, Domestic cats (Felis catus) need to be regulated or banned!
*An estimated 117 to 157 million exotic predators in the form of free-ranging domestic cats (Felis catus), are estimated to kill at least one billion birds every year in the United States. Cats have contributed to declines and extinctions of birds worldwide and are one of the most important drivers of global bird extinctions.
Every year, thousands of cats are abandoned, released, or escape into the wild, and many of these turn to their feral state and form feral colonies. These colonies pose a real and severe threat to wildlife and natural ecosystems everywhere. A single cat can easily kill hundreds of wild, native animals in a year. Multiply this by a colony of 20 cats, then again by the number of colonies in township, which can easily number over 20, and you can see just how widespread of a problem this is. Typical prey items for cats include songbirds, rodents, reptiles, amphibians, and insects. Their primary instinct and prey items are songbirds and small mammals. All songbirds except for 2 in the entire country are protected by federal law, and many of these are even endangered.
Cats are natural predators that have an amazing ability to adapt to a wide range of living circumstances and have the ability to establish colonies everywhere in the United States. In many places, they have few, if any, natural predators which allow them to flourish. They are also prolific breeders and a single female can produce 20 babies in a single year. *Because of their ability to overwhelm existing native species and natural ecosystem processes in environments in which they have been introduced, domestic cats are moreover classified as invasive species. **Due largely to impacts resulting from its predation on other species, the domestic cat is listed by the IUCN as one of the “100 of the world’s worst invasive alien species”.
By listing these environmental hazards as injurious under the Lacey Act, they can prohibit the importation and transport across state lines. Further legislation should include orders and local funding to eradicate populations and legislation to prohibit ownership or implement permit processes to own these animals.
Feral Cats have established breeding populations in every state in the union and have caused significant damage to wildlife and they continue to pose a great risk to many native species, including threatened and endangered species. ***Historically, cats have been specifically implicated in at least 33 bird extinctions, making them one of the most important causes of bird extinctions worldwide.
Millions of dollars have been spent on efforts to fight this massive problem, and yet it only continues to grow.
Conclusion:
Now I’m sure many of you were getting more and more upset as you read through this, and some may even be downright furious inside. This was written to give you an understanding of how reptile enthusiasts and python keepers/breeders throughout the country are feeling today with the announcement that 4 species of Boids are being added to the Lacey Act. Think of the love you have for your cats and know that many people love and care for their pythons just as much. The interesting thing is, this article is not made up of made up statistics, false reports, and fake science like the python legislation is. It is entirely accurate and true to the best of my research and knowledge. Feral cats are a tremendous problem in the entire US, however nothing is being done to control it. And the government doesn’t dare attempt to do so based on the massive backlash they are bound to receive. On the other hand, the large snakes being added to the Lacey Act are an issue only evident to a small region of South Florida and CAN NOT become a problem anywhere else in the contiguous United States despite their falsified data stating otherwise. This federal action punishes every owner of these animals throughout the country due to a small local issue that affects less than 1% of the country. Much effort was made by reptile enthusiasts to prevent this, but unfortunately, there just aren’t enough reptile people to fight this. I wrote this in hopes of enlightening all Americans to our loss of liberties and freedoms. Today it’s pythons, tomorrow its lizards, hamsters, and birds, and before you know it….this article will become reality and you will be fighting for your rights to keep your dogs and cats. So please, even if you are not a big fan of reptiles, help take action against unjust regulations like the python ban because before you know, it will be affecting something you love.
This was written to increase awareness so feel free to link, cross-post, and re-post.
*NICO DAUPHINÉ1 AND ROBERT J. COOPER. Proceedings of the Fourth International Partners in Flight Conference: Tundra to Tropics
http://www.abcbirds.org/abcprograms/policy/cats/pdf/impacts_of_free_ranging_domestic_cats.pdf
**ISSG. 2008. Invasive Species Specialist Group Global Invasive Species Database. [Online.]
Available at: (20 September 2008).
***NOGALES, M., A. MARTÍN, B. R. TERSHY, C. J. DONLAN, D. VEITCH, N. PUERTA, B. WOOD, AND J. ALSONSO. 2004. A review of feral cat eradication on islands. Conservation Biology 18:310–319.
http://www.change.org/petitions/over-turn-the-python-ban-over-turn-the-python-ban-from-1-17-12
Also if the pythons which pose a substantially smaller risk are added to the injurious wildlife list... then by all logic domestic cats should be listed as well. Too bad us wildlife biologists don't have the money/clout to influence the politicians to make that reality.
(Also cat owners- its incredibly cheap to build an outdoor cat pen/cat run, its a win for everyone involved- your cat doesn't die a horrific death, you don't witness said death, your cat gets the outdoor time it wants, and your cat is stopped from killing birds, mice and the most overlooked (but heavily impacted) group-HERPS. )
I know this is supposed to be satirical, but wildlife biologists nationwide wish something would be done about cats.
Regardless, this article is an attempt to raise awareness to the loss of freedom of choice, not the minutiae of which species is identified. Please consider that Jessica.
Are you a trained wildlife biologist/what do you do since biology is such a broad field.
(for reference- I'm finishing my wildlife biology degree at a major university, work as a wildlife biologist grew up in a wildlife biologist family and have yet to meet a wildlife biologist who doesn't agree that feral cats are one of the leading contributors to bird/herp/small mammal mortality globally complete with many first hand accounts of observation of mortality/disease spread by feral/outdoor cats.)
While I feel for you - I can't get past YOU using inaccurate claims about cats to make a point that another person/group is making inaccurate claims about pythons. It's almost like a group throwing another "under the bus" to make a point....not cool.
I agree with you, Jessica, that Dauphine's work constituted some fairly questionable science at best. Where I disagree with you is the notion that cats represent a beneficial addition to our fauna, or any serious remedy to non-native pests. Cats are immensely successful, admirable predators because they are adaptable generalists and prey on whatever is available and easy to catch. Feral cats prey heavily on starlings, sparrows and pigeons in cities because those are the most common birds of the appropriate size in most urban areas, but that's a self-fulfilling prophecy. In a rural area with broader options to choose from, a cat will not restrict himself to pests--and there is easier game than starlings to be had much of the time. That is 30 years of living in an area with a serious feral/barn/free-range pet cat problem speaking.
Bottom line--pythons don't belong in the Everglades, that's past dispute. Cats belong INDOORS--unless you have a caged run, or you're a farmer and keep a couple of FIXED barn cats for rodent control.
I simply put in that bit about feral cats being used as invasive species control because it is an option that has been suggested, but not fully explored. I have qualms about this idea's efficacy, but I put it in there to illustrate the opposite end of the spectrum. History has shown that using one non-native species to eradicate another hardly ever works like planned, as with the mongoose in Hawaii. I certainly do not think feral or outdoor cats should be allowed in natural areas, but I do think the idea that they could be a well-managed alternative to chemical pest control in urban areas at least holds a little merit as something to explore. (Honey bees are an introduced species too, but they are beneficial.) It also potentially turns feral cats in urban settings into local resources instead of financial drains on the shelter and animal control system.
Many people seem so against the idea of predation in general. There is always going to be some level of predation and mortality of endangered species no matter what we do. We need to accept that and work to figure out what an acceptable level is, figure out how everything works as a whole with humans, their dwellings and animal counterparts considered as part of the natural system, not outside the system.
My main point, however, was that using anything with Nico Dauphine's name on it and saying that it constitutes real research is automatically going to turn many of the most responsible and educated of cat owners off of our plea for all pet owners to band together against the python bans before the banning spreads to other animals.
Last year I put a motion sensing light on my front porch. It didn't take long for the cats to figure out how to activated it so that they could spot the songbirds in bushes easier. They'd walk the rail up to the light turning it on, walk back down the rail looking into the bushes. They inevitably would jump in and pull out a bird. In a neighborhood filled with feral cats I can tell you that they are eating more than Starlings.