Badger cull? Right or WRONG?

[Emma two]

...not just cats but the crow family ,squirrels and those raptors who now seem to be extremely common have to eat something other than frozen chicks from the freezer...

 

It's true that the family corvidae are relentless egg and chick theives, and on well managed shoots as well as RSPB sanctuaries they have to be controlled by being shot and trapped. However shooting them requires a gun of course, and somewhere to shoot, and that may not, for a number of reasons be in your own garden. The numbers of gun owners compared with the number of cat keepers is comparitively small. So many people can't do much about the crow et al problem, but millions could do something about the cat problem.

 

Of course it all boils down to the most dangerously irresponsible animal of them all, humans! cat owners particularly seem to be in denial, there is overwhelming eveidence to support the case against felines...

 

 

 

Cats are thought to take some 55 million birds in British gardens every year, including red-listed species such as House Sparrow and Starling.

Dr Tim Harrison, BTO Garden BirdWatch

 

THE GREY SQUIRREL is having a devastating impact on our songbird population. It ranks alongside the domestic and feral cat as the top predator of farmland birds. This is just one of the findings of Professor Roy Brown of Birkbeck, University of London, in a new review carried out for the wildlife charity SongBird Survival.

Professor Roy Brown (wildlife extra.com)

 

Town birds such as starlings and sparrows may be in decline because they are simply too scared to breed. New research shows that Britain now has so many cats - more than nine million - that birds' fear of them may be having as great an impact on their decline as the numbers killed...

Predators influence prey populations not only by eating individuals, but also by altering behavior, including foraging patterns and use of different habitats," the study continues. "It is emerging that the consequences of these effects may be larger than those of predation mortality.''

‘Wildlife today’

The Independent 2007

 

While many cat owners may believe their pet cannot possibly

have a significant impact just because it hunts, the cumulative devastation of cat attacks on wildlife is substantial...Worldwide, cats may have been involved in the extinction of more bird species than any other cause, except

habitat destruction.

 

Youcouldsavetheworld.com

 

Cats being kept as pets allow the population in an area to hugely exceed the number that could be supported naturally. Responsible owner awareness desperately needed. Cat predation on songbirds must be addressed

songbirds-slaughter.org.uk (2010)

Edited October 1, 2012 by Emma two

[Worms]

Although I'm not a great fan of the domestic moggie I'm a little dubious of some of the claims for songbird 'demise'.

 

I conduct bird surveys as part of my job. I'm constatntly surprised at some of the figures presented regarding the decline of some species.

 

As for house sparrows and starlings, well I'm convinced that it is a lack of nesting opportunity. I live on the edge of a small market town within 100 yds of fields and a river. House sparrows on the local estate are rare...most houses built since the 1970s with sealed roof spaces...I live in a 15th century house with open eaves and I'm positively inundated with nesting house sparrows, starlings and swifts. I constructed a green oak framed workshop/garage a few years ago and incorporated open eaves and bird boxes...bloody crawling with house sparrows! My untidy (read natural) garden has a native species, fruit and nut rich hedgerow and I have nesting song thrush, blackbird, blue tit, robin, wren and dunnock. My neighbours have sod all in their sealed eaves house and gravelled garden with trees in pots!

 

On the badger note I'm trying to sort out the figures for varous wildlife species and bTB etc. I think I made an error suggesting Krebs claimed the list of bTB prevalence in wildlife but I've got it somewhere...!

 

An interesting list in the Krebs report is the EU countries with bTB and badgers...we appear to be rather unusual in this country with the badger/bovine problem!

[Steve Walker]

I believe the standard response to misguided concerns that wildlife is being eaten would be to rush through a bill limiting cats to two tits between 10 and 12 cm and a blackbird per day and a complete ban on taking parakeets.

[Emma two]

I believe the standard response to misguided concerns that wildlife is being eaten would be to rush through a bill limiting cats to two tits between 10 and 12 cm and a blackbird per day and a complete ban on taking parakeets.

 

 

Any such bill and subsequent legislation would have to be tit specific, for example your 10-12 cm is ok for blue tits as the adults of that species mature to that size, however some of us have great tits and they are significantly bigger at up to 14cm! so a 10 cm tit of that species is liable to be a chick. As a non native species and pests in their own right the bag on parakeets should be unlimited.

 

The stinking felines which vist my garden practice 'catch and release' on the frogs, however one finds alive but mutilated specimens lying around waiting to die of their woumds.

 

Perhaps, in the spirit of fairness the householder/landowner should have the legal right to kill any cat found upon that land, I would be happy with a brace a day, it wouldn't take me long to be rid of the 6 which come into our garden, and I have a nice old Winchester .410 which is hardly used now.

 

[Chris Goddard]

Strange you know BUT there are CATS around here BUT you NEVER see the same one twice??? Taste like CHICKEN or RABBIT I am told.........