This epistle is the result of friends’ and my personal experiences with observing—often helplessly—domestic and feral cats killing wildlife, sometimes for food, but more often because they are programmed to do so.
A genetic study in 2007 concluded that domestic cats are descended from African wildcats, Felix silvestris lybica, which hunted small birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and insects for food and pleasure—and their domestic kin are still doing that today. The first recorded domestic cats were cult animals in ancient Egypt, thought to have been domesticated 9,500 years ago in Neolithic times, and they are still cult animals in the U.S. today.
That opens the door to what is causing serious problems for wildlife and man in this part of the Earth today: cats killing native wildlife, and cat-owners who will not accept responsibility for their pet’s actions. World conservation organizations address the wanton killing by domestic and feral cats in many, many citations on any conservation website you may turn to—the domestic cat is a significant predator of small mammals and birds.
United Kingdom assessments indicate that cats may be accountable for an estimated 64.8 million bird deaths each year. Certain species appear more susceptible than others; for example, 30 percent of house sparrow (and finches) mortality is linked to the domestic cat. In the recovery of rare and endangered species, it was also concluded that 31 percent of deaths were a result of cat predation.
The American Bird Conservancy has accumulated data regarding the impact of cats on wildlife that cannot be refuted: “Some free-roaming domestic cats kill more than 100 animals each year. One well-fed cat that roamed a wildlife experiment station was recorded to have killed more than 1,600 animals (mostly small mammals) over 18 months. Birds that nest or feed on the ground, such as California Quail, are the most susceptible to cat predation, as are nestlings and fledglings of many other bird species.”
According to national humans society studies, there are more than 77 million pet cats in the United States; while a 1997 nationwide poll showed that only 35 percent are kept exclusively indoors, leaving the majority of owned cats free to kill birds and other wildlife at least some of the time. (Using that data, it means that around 787 million small mammals alone are killed by cats in the US annually in our cities, suburbs, farmlands and natural areas). While the trap, neuter and release projects only add more numbers of dead wildlife to the total.
Extensive studies of the feeding habits of free-roaming domestic cats have been conducted over the last 55 years in Europe, North America, Australia, Africa, and on many islands. These studies show that the number and types of animals killed by cats varies greatly, depending on the individual cats, the time of year, and availability of prey. Roughly 60 percent to 70 percent of the wildlife cats kill are small mammals; 20 percent to 30 percent are birds; and up to 10 are amphibians, fish, reptiles, and insects.
Oregon State law protects the Yellow-pine Chipmunk, Neotamias amoenus, which are killed by outdoor and feral cats. Most birds are also protected by state and federal laws; the exception being the English Sparrow, European Starling and Asian (Collared) Dove.
Addressing these laws as related to death-by-cat, then makes cat-owners who allow and encourage their cats to go outdoors (and kill protected wildlife) guilty of violating state and federal laws. But even more importantly, owners are guilty of allowing their cats to destroy vital components of Oregon’s complex ecosystems, a process that will, in time, throw a monkey wrench into all that holds everything together in our wildlife communities.
Last night, I interrupted my neighbor’s cat from killing a native Eastern Cottontail, Sylvilagus floridanus, in my front yard. But, time after time I observed it running off with lizards, chipmunks, juncos and finches from my bird feeder and can do nothing about it. Even though the cat deposits its prize on my neighbor’s porch—which in cat language is saying, “hey, owner, come out and join me! this is fun!” the cats continue roaming free.
I have a good friend in Sisters who loves her cat to be outside, but knows what instinct drives them into doing, so (at her request) I helped her build a, “catio,” an enclosed back porch that allows her cats to be “outside,” yet separates her cats from the prey they kill for food and pleasure, and at the same time protects the cats from the wildlife that would eat them.
I also helped a man save some bats that got into his home though a builder’s mistake, and while doing so noticed the man had three beautiful cats. I asked him if he allowed his cats outdoors, and his answer was an alarming, “Oh, no! I never allow my cats to go outside! I love then too much to expose them to bobcats and coyotes.”
In closing, may I suggest to our County Commissioners, to begin a solution to outdoor and feral cats killing wildlife. This particular statue has been put into motion by several counties in our neighboring state to the north.
To wit: Statute: Cat license—Requirement.
All cats over eight-weeks of age harbored, kept or maintained within the county shall be registered with the animal protection and control program and shall wear a current license tag issued by the program at all times; provided, however, that a license issued by an incorporated city within the county shall be valid under the provisions of this chapter for a period no greater than one year from its date of issuance; and provided further, that cats while kept at kennels, pet shops and animal shelters, or the facilities licensed pursuant to this chapter shall be exempt from the provisions of this section.
Cat licenses shall be valid for twelve months from the date of issuance. Application for cat license issuance or renewal shall be made within a timely manner as listed below:
(1) In the case of a newly acquired cat, the application shall be made within thirty days of such acquisition;
(2) In the case of a newly adult cat, the application shall be made within thirty days of the time the cat becomes six months of age, or acquires a permanent set of canine teeth; and
(3) In the case of a new resident to the county with an adult cat unlicensed by animal protection and control, the application shall be made within thirty days of establishing residency.
(4) Any cat observed harassing native wildlife shall be captured and returned to the owner who must pay restitution for allowing a registered cat to roam free. Unregistered cats will be euthanized.
Note: Next column we’ll explore cat-borne Taxoplasma gondii, a disease that causes memory loss in infected senior citizens, and serious complications for unborn infants.
This article appears in Apr 3-9, 2014.
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Wildlife societies and bird conservationists continue to use exaggerated figures of “millions” and “billions” as the number of birds, small mammals, reptiles, and amphibians killed each year by cats. However, they also state that it is difficult to come up with “solid” numbers to support their claims, so they use estimates. ACR understands that it is difficult to know exactly how many cats (pets and ferals) are roaming free, but again, the fact is that few scientific studies have been conducted to accurately portray cat predation, and the two studies commonly referred to by conservation groups are the Churcher/Lawton study and the Coleman/Temple study or “Wisconsin study.” But both studies have been criticized for basing their estimates on very limited data and unpublished data. So, until more studies are conducted and more accurate numbers are gathered, let us take responsibility for our (human) contributions (habitat destruction, develop¬ment, and pollution) to the decline of bird populations instead of blaming cats. Gary J. Patronek, VMD, Ph.D. Tufts University says this about bird predation statistics, “Whittling down guesses or extrapolations from limited observa¬tions by a factor of 10 or even 100 does not make these estimates any more credible, and the fact that they are the best available data is not sufficient to justify their use when the consequences may be extermination for cats…What I find inconsistent in an otherwise scientific debate about biodiversity is how indictment of cats has been pursued almost in spite of the evidence.”
Yes, there is no denying cats kill birds (and small mammals and reptiles). They are predators, they hunt, and they do so out of instinct just as other mammals do. But that does not mean we should round up all predators and decide who we should kill and who should live. Not to mention, many zoologists have observed that feral cats are more scavengers than predators. Their begging and opportunistic behavior “has enabled many feral cats almost to give up hunting altogether,” says Peter Neville, a UK biologist; this behavior has contributed to their being domesticated in the first place over 5,000 years ago. Roger Tabor, also a UK biologist, adds, “Although cats are superb hunters, it is their scavenging ability that allows them to survive as feral-living animals and live with us eating food off a saucer…” Feral cats are very resourceful and have been able to survive on garbage and food scraps for centuries.
When not begging for handouts or digging through garbage, cats mostly prey on rodents (mam-mals). “The famous German ethologist and biologist Paul Leyhausen was one of the first scientists to note that the domestic cat is a rodent specialist. The cat’s ability to sit and wait is better suited to catching rodents than to catching birds. Anyone who has watched feral cats over time has seen them sitting in front of an opening in the ground or in a building waiting for rodents to emerge. Cats have the patience to wait for hours. They have a predilection for ambush as a hunting skill. When birds take off, they can fly in any direction, which surprises the cat and makes them more difficult to catch. Some cats, however, do become specialists at catching birds.” Numerous studies on the stomach analysis and fecal analysis of feral and rural cats have been conducted; several examples are listed below:
• 1940, Oregon: A study on the stomach analysis of 80 feral cat and rural cats concluded: mammals made up 61.8% of the stomach contents by volume; birds 18.9%; carrion 10.7%; garbage 6.3%; cereal 2%.
• 1941, Oklahoma: The examination of 107 cat stomachs concluded: mammals 55% by volume; garbage 26.5%; insects 12.5%; birds 4%; reptiles 2%. Frank McMurry and Charles Sperry states “the data not justify the common belief that every roadside or field-roaming cat is in search of avian food.”
• 1949, Michigan: “In his article ‘Farm Cat as Predator,’ the head of a wildlife experiment station described exactly that: one farm cat and the total prey it brought home over a period of eighteen months – 1,628 mammals and 62 birds. With restrained triumph, the article suggested that this ‘positive statistical record,’ while perhaps not typical, casts doubt on the negative reputation of the domestic cat, ‘a scapegoat with few to speak up on his behalf.’”
• 1951, California: Food habits of the feral house cat of the Sacramento Valley found: “mammals were clearly the primary source of food (64.1% by volume), although birds were substantially represented (25.2%).”
• 1957, Missouri: “The stomachs of 110 cats killed on highways, away from towns or farm dwell¬ings, showed that the primary foods were ‘injurious rodents’ and that ‘the house cat’s feeding is largely beneficial to man’s interests.’ These hunting house cats were found to feed upon small rodents ‘more than four times as often as upon rabbit, the second most important food, and nearly nine times as often as upon birds.’”
• Although these findings have been from early studies in the US, many studies on cat predation have also been conducted in New Zealand, Australia, and various islands around the world. The study in New Zealand’s Orongorongo Valley of feral house cats found (by fecal analysis) that mammals accounted for 93% of the food, by weight and birds 5.2%. And a study by Coman and Brunner, in Australia, found (by stomach analysis) that mammals made up 88% of cats’ diets, by volume and birds made up 5.2%.
Numerous studies have also shown the “variation [of the cat’s diet] is seasonal with any geographic area…Writes Hubbs: ‘This seasonal variability of the cat’s diet suggests a constant adjustment to availability of various types of prey and is not necessarily a direct reflection of preference.’ The cat’s only preference is for staying alive. It will eat what it can and must; it will kill when it can and must.” It has also been noted that “even when feral cats (along with other predators) take almost every last mouse, as in the California area studies by Oliver Pearson [(who studies the complex interaction between predator and prey)], it is wrong to assume permanent damage…the predators don’t destroy the prey population; when the mouse population comes back up again in a few years, the carnivores also breed up high numbers again, Pearson explains.” Again, it is hard to esti¬mate how many “kills” cats make per year, with little research, but studies do show that cats prey mostly on rodents (mammals), not birds, and their diets vary by season and geographic area; which depend upon the availability of prey.
There is nothing exaggerated about these figures. Scientific publications tend to utilize conservative estimates. Regardless, what solid number or level of mortality caused by cats is acceptable to you?
This part:
“But that does not mean we should round up all predators and decide who we should kill and who should live.”
You do that – you make that decision every single time you release-return (re-abandon) a cat back outdoors through TNR. Why is the life of that one cat worth more or valued more than the dozens, if not hundreds or more, critters she will kill during the course of her life time outside?
These red herrings are awfully tiresome. First, get up to speed. At the link below are enough recent papers to keep you busy. Look under Scientific Literature:
http://www.abcbirds.org/abcprograms/policy/cats/helpful_resources.html
But since you do bring up those two studies, I will offer the following about Churcher/Lawton:
There may be some legitimate criticism to this study in the sense that they only studied one village in all of England. Had they subdivided England and studied a few more, that would have strengthened their results. However, what is interesting is that they got almost every owned cat in the village to participate (I think 70 out of 72).
297 birds were brought back to the owners of 70 cats in one year, which was 35% of all animals brought back. This is just one village and is likely happening in most environments. There is reason to act and not wait for bird and other wildlife populations to become seriously threatened.
Kind of ironic you ignore the latest research, complain about a lack of studies (there are plenty), and then cite items from 1940 to 1957, when cat overpopulation barely existed and birds were not in the serious decline that they are in today.
And why are they in decline? For the causes you listed, AS WELL AS, anthropogenic causes including window strikes and cats and pesticides and so on. There is a long list and they ALL need attention.
Several clarifications are warranted.
You are quite correct to note that “Churcher/Lawton study and the Coleman/Temple study” are less than perfect. Luckily, we do not have to exclusively rely on those studies. The most recent estimate, based on a systematic data-driven review (and published in the scientific journal “Nature Communications”), was conducted by scientists from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. According to their data, outdoor cats kill 1.4-3.7 billion birds and 6.9-20.7 billion mammals every year in the United States. That’s 25-77 birds and 100-405 mammals killed by the average outdoor cat in just one year. Of course, the majority of these deaths are from unowned cats, like those commonly called “feral.”
The ability to scavenge does not preclude hunting. Nile crocodiles, for example, are capable scavengers but also highly skilled hunters. It is obvious that cats will scavenge. As was mentioned, cats eat food off a plate. What is sometimes less obvious, is that many cats are also still very skilled hunters, whether it be with balls of string, feather toys, birds, or other wildlife. Unlike Nile crocodiles in Africa, however, cats are not a native species in the United States. They are considered a non-native, invasive species because their presence disrupts the natural functioning of ecosystems. Whether they are hunting native mammals, birds, reptiles, or insects, cats are exhibiting an unnatural predatory pressure. These pressures by feral cats, in particular, have contributed to the extinction of 33 species worldwide and remain a primary threat to 8% of the world’s critically endangered birds, mammals, and reptiles.
One point that seems painfully obvious is that we, as pet owners, need to do a better job. We should be trying to protect cats, birds, and people by keeping cats indoors. Let’s license cats, restrict them from free-roaming across everyone’s property, and generally treat them like dogs.
DeeACR, the fact that cats kill more mammals and reptiles than birds does not excuse anything. First off, numerous studies have shown that bird species disappear when cats become too numerous in certain areas, especially on islands, but also in habitat fragments like parks. And is killing reptiles or small mammals any better than killing birds? Especially in light of at least one study which showed that, when cats shared habitat with both beneficial native mammals and exotic pest mammals, the cats preferentially exterminated the native species and actually *increased* the numbers of pest mammals like House Mice by eliminating their competition!
What we should do, at a bare minimum, is stop all feeding of outdoor cats. Cat advocates repeatedly make the nonsensical argument that cats are equivalent to natural predators. Not true, because if natural predators kill off too many of their prey, those predators starve, their population declines, and the prey populations then get a chance to recover. If cats kill off too many prey? No problem, some soft-hearted soft-headed cat-lover will dump out a bag of friskies, keeping the cats alive so they can keep killing off the prey species until they are all extinct. Outdoor cats should *never* be fed except while luring them into traps.
Some pretty old studies used by the TNR folk…we don’t introduce any other predators and we would be insane to allow a few cat feeders to to destroy wildlife and property values and peace of mind.
Excellent article!! Thank you, now if TNR people will get out of fantasy land and truly prove they love ALL animals by making changes.
Birds are just a minor subset of all the thousands of native animal species (billions of individual animals) that cat-lickers (criminally irresponsible cat-advocates) are annihilating around the world with their man-made invasive species vermin cats.
Not only are these demented invasive-species house-cats-ONLY “animal lovers” are now killing off all Big Cats in all wildlife reserves around the world:
thenational D0T ae SLASH news/uae-news/big-cat-owners-warned-to-keep-them-acres-away-from-feral-strays
And for the ultimate example of absurdity and species-conservation irony, now making all moggie-licking residents of the UK (the inventors of that TNR insanity) the complete laughingstocks of the whole world, they’ve already made their ONE AND ONLY NATIVE CAT SPECIES EXTINCT in the UK with their invasive species “moggies”:
guardian D0T co D0T uk SLASH environment/2012/sep/16/scottish-wildcat-extinction
“A report, produced by the Scottish Wildcat Association, reviewed 2,000 records of camera trap recordings, eyewitness reports and road kills, and concluded there may be only about 40 wildcats left in Scotland in the wild today. ‘However you juggle the figures, it is hard to find anything positive,’ says Steve Piper, the association’s chairman. ‘The overwhelming evidence is that the wildcat is going to be extinct within months.'” … “However, it is not the loss of habitat that is causing the current cat crisis in the Cairngorms. It is the spread of the domestic cat.” … “‘Essentially the Highland wildcat is being eradicated by an alien invasive species: the domestic cat.'” (report quoted from 2 years ago, they are no-doubt extinct by now)
As well as killing off all their inland River Otters in England (and elsewhere) with their cats’ parasites:
wildlifeextra D0T com SLASH go/news/otter-toxoplasmosis D0T html
As well as cats’ parasites killing off all rare and endangered marine mammals on all coastlines around the world (worse than any oil-spill that has ever existed or could even be imagined):
news D0T msn D0T com SLASH science-technology/deadly-cat-feces-killing-thousands-of-marine-mammals
environmentalhealthnews D0T org SLASH ehs/news/hawaiian-monk-seals
Plus these cat-licking “animal lover” psychopaths and sociopaths are also killing off all the Mountain Lions (Cougars, Puma, Endangered Florida Panther, etc.), and all other native cat species in North America:
rapidcityjournal D0T com SLASH sports/local/feral-cats-pose-threat-to-birds-lions/article_8ec451c9-4b03-55a3-baa7-71ac577905cb D0T html
But now these cat-lickers are even killing off rare whales and causing massive birth-defects in the indigenous Inuit people who depend on seal-meat for their very survival. Seals that were infected (and are also dying-off) from these cat-lickers’ cats’ parasites.
Cat parasite found in western Arctic Beluga deemed infectious
news.ubc D0T ca SLASH 2014/02/13/bigthaw/
Let’s thank these psychotic bible-home-schooled cat-lickers for all the fine work they do for being such fantastic “animal lovers”, shall we? THEY JUST LOVE CATS SO MUCH! So caring! So thoughtful! So intelligent! So FULL of love for living things! So much so that they will even sacrifice whole races of humans to death-by-birth-defect to prove how much they love their cats.
I’d love to thank them all, each with a gift of a solitary-confinement prison-cell — FOR LIFE. Better yet, for their VAST ecological crimes and sins against all of nature and all of humanity, hanged-until-dead would be a far more fitting “gift” for them AND the whole planet. That used to be the punishment for engaging in bio-warfare against the human population and all other animal life in any country. I say bring it back — special, just for them.
Since you’re going to do a T. gondii article, here’s a recap (excerpt) of most every fact I’ve collected on the issue. Things you might not want to leave-out.
Then there’s cats’ most insidious disease of all, their Toxoplasma gondii parasite that cats spread through their feces into all other animals. This is how humans get it in their dinner-meats, cats roaming around stockyards and farms (herbivores can contract this parasite in no other way). This is why cats are routinely destroyed around gestating livestock or important wildlife by shooting or drowning them. So those animals won’t suffer from the same things that can happen to the unborn fetus of any pregnant woman. (Miscarriages, still-births, hydrocephaly, and microcephaly.) It can make you blind or even kill you at any time during your life once you’ve been infected. It becomes a permanent lifetime parasite in your mind, killing you when your immune system becomes compromised by disease or chemo and immunosuppressive therapies. It can last over a year in any soils or waters and not even washing your hands or garden vegetables in bleach will destroy the oocysts. Contrary to cat-lickers’ self-deceptive myths, a cat can become reinfected many times during its life and spread millions of oocysts each time. It’s now linked to the cause of autism, schizophrenia, memory-loss, and brain cancers; as well as increasing the suicide rate in women almost 2-fold even though they’ve never suffered from any mental or emotional health issues previously. This parasite is also killing off rare and endangered marine-mammals along all coastlines and inland river-otters from cats’ T. gondii oocysts in run-off from the land, the oocysts surviving even in saltwater. A catastrophic ecological disaster of multi-continent-sized proportions worse than any oil-spill that has ever existed or could even be imagined.
Its strange life cycle is meant to infect rodents. Any rodents infected with it lose their fear of cats and are attracted to cat urine.
scitizen D0T com SLASH neuroscience/parasite-hijacks-the-mind-of-its-host_a-23-509 D0T html
Cats attract rodents to your home with their whole slew of diseases (like The Plague from rats and fleas, many people have died from cat-transmitted Plague in the USA already, it is alive and well and being spread by cats today). If you want rodents in your home keep cats outside of it to attract diseased rodents to your area. I experienced this phenomenon (as have many others), and all rodent problems disappeared after I shot and buried every last one of hundreds of cats on my lands.
Another interesting experiment. They wanted to find out if dogs could possibly transmit cat-shat Toxoplasma gondii oocysts. A dog infected with T. gondii from a source-cat cannot. That stage of the parasite’s life-cycle is 100% dependent on cat-physiology as its primary reproductive host. But if dogs ingest oocyst-laden cat-feces then dogs can pass the oocysts produced by cats & their common brain-hijacking parasite.
ncbi D0T nlm D0T nih D0T gov SLASH pubmed/9477489?dopt=Abstract&holding=f1000,f1000m,isrctn
It is interesting to note: That these Toxoplasma gondii oocysts shed by cats can even survive the hydrochloric stomach acids for the duration that they remain in a mammal’s digestive tract. And then they doubt my words when I tell them of the studies where they found that this parasite’s oocysts (seeds) can even survive washing your hands in bleach. You could wash your hands and garden vegetables in hydrochloric acid and digestive enzymes for the same duration that food remains in an animal’s digestive tract and even that won’t destroy it. Your hands would be dissolved into a digestible pulp long before you could kill the Toxoplasma gondii oocysts.
Yeah, “basic hygiene” is going to keep your kids safe from going blind sometime during their life, becoming autistic, or die if they ever require any immunosuppressive therapies during their lifetime if they had ever played in a sandbox that a neighbor’s cat has defecated in.
Someone who will save the life of a cat over yours is not to be trusted by any other human alive on this planet. Even cat-admirers can’t trust their fellow cat-admirers to save each others’ lives when it comes right down to it. Truth is, they’d even rather that their own family and friends die (if they have any, not likely) than any of their deadly disease-infested cats. Sociopaths, one and all.
My god, what a bunch of rants. Cat haters abound. Why don’t you just euthanize cat owners for allowing their cats outdoors? You all are cruel and inhumane and I hate to think you might live in my neighborhood. My cat doesn’t go outside. But you all pretty much make me sick.
om goodness all these statistics….for real? come on…. humans started all the hub bub when we socialized and tamed creatures now we want to kill them cuz we screwed up..and now there are so many…blah blah blah… I live in the city – I see hundreds of migratory gorgeous birds of all kinds hit building windows…what to do? shoot the architects that wont work with conservationists to use different materials that wont attract birds? Aids is passed on from human to human.. should we kill them too? so we can save our children from contracting it? Statistics are skewed according to political beliefs and so on…intelligent compassionate evolved humans keep animal companions inside- trap neuter rehome or release and manage the feral colony, when the feral becomes ill- it is the colony caretakers responsibility to either make sure that cat is properly treated by a vet or if quality of life is threatened by an illness or disease, gentle euthanasia is the way to go.
After reading the comments above where people are trying desperately to sound like they are ingenious, and know what they are talking about; the majority are nothing more than hateful, crude and disgusting human beings. Those of you that have nothing more to do with your time than to try and find rationals for killing cats is disgusting, and it speaks volumes as to what kind of people you really are. It makes me nervous to think that such low life wannabes may actually live in my neighborhood around civilized human beings with family as well as pets. You should all be ashamed of yourself, and I certainly hope you have no offspring to pass on your hatred of living things; not only cats. As far as the comments stating that a cat lover would rather save the life of a cat versus a human being; well I would say that is quite possibly true in your particular case. The majority of you addressed “cat lickers” as you called it; idiots. Maybe if people of today showed a little bit more of compassion and tons more of good old common sense, maybe this whole thread wouldn’t even be an issue. Many of you seem to get off on facts, but the fact that you are all ignoring, is the FACT that people like you in general are proven to be the types of people who commit murder of other human beings! Says a lot about you; huh? Until I came across this thread today, I guess that I did not realize just how many people have lost the ability to show a little kindness to the less fortunate, whether human or animal. I would hate to wake up everyday with such negative, hateful beliefs as yours; but misery love company.
Reading the comments about cats in this so called post , I am sick to my stomach ! People with this much hatred of cats worry me more than any chance of me catching anything from a cat . You say all these studies have proved what you ate saying ! I think you are full of bs ! I have lived with Cats all my life and many many people I know have also. Everything you say is not true about the cats ! And the TNR programs are the best solution for the over population. If everyone would spay and nueter there pets and help with the TNR in there neighborhoods. The ferrel , homeless , abandoned , homeless cats population would slow and the populations would drop in just a few years. Killing these cats is not the answer ! Stop blaming these cats for a human caused problem . Make people get there pets spayed and neutered and if they don’t give them huge fines if caught . Make them have there pets microchips also and if caught , fine them a big fine. If caught a second time they should not be aloud to have a pet again. Those laws alone would help with homeless dogs and cats . No it won’t stop more animals from homelessness completely but it would help alot more than you know . I to hope to never have a neighbor that hates cats like these people on here. They are more scary than any cat disease I could possible get from a ferrel cat . I think people that could harm a innocent animal like they say they have done and will do are more of a threat than and homeless cat! Human killers start by killing animals ! That is a proven fact that no one can say in not a true statement ! I am all for shooting these people than any homeless cat ! Oh and make people who don’t get there pets spayed or neutered have to volunteer at the animal shelters and have to watch while they kill the homeless cats and dogs cause no one will adopt them and they need room for more homeless pets that will most likely end up having to die because there owners let them run free or they got out and picked up and because the did not chip there pet never were able to find them in most cases . Humans have caused the homeless dog and cat population ! Stop blaming the animals , they deserve live there life also ! All this hatrered for these cats makes me want to just die ! How a human can harm a innocent animal and not even care is a human I pray I never come across hurting one cause I know that human will regret the day I seen them do it ! That is a promise ! May God have mercy on your soul cause I promise you I won’t!