Let the Birds Die or Kill the Cat? (2 Viewers)

Let the Birds Die or Kill the Cat?

  • Spare the furball

    Votes: 46 69.7%
  • Save the songbirds, kill the furball

    Votes: 20 30.3%

  • Total voters
    66
Cats are no joke. We had tons of foxes in our backyard in VA and they never messed with our cat. Too much risk for them - they want easier prey.

We had hawks, eagles, and owls as well. Chipmunks, squirrels, and rabbits were abundant so there was really no reason to square off with another predator- lol.

I loved the foxes - beautiful red foxes and they kept the rabbits from getting out of control.
 
Call animal control. “Hi there is a weird cat on my property killing birds and I’m allergic to cats and can’t leave my house”.
 
koudounia.jpg


That's a nice big bell for the herd's leader.
NOT edible (the leader), due to testosterone. Stinks. :)
 
I read through the first page and feel somewhat confident I understand the issue.

I'll preface this by saying I don't kill unless I have to. That means everything from humans on down to ants. I see a person like myself in every creature out there. They're all experiencing life just like I am, but in a different form. Unless I'm under threat in some way, or I need to kill to eat, I let 'em be (and feed 'em and give 'em water and so on).

I also have a cat, and I let him outside regularly. He has racked up a fair body count out there, particularly chipmunks, though to my knowledge no birds. He has managed to bring a couple birds into the house alive; however, that's where his plan hits a wall. Literally. But I digress.

That cat is my friend. He's often the first living creature I make contact with every morning, he sleeps in my bed, and I'll defend him if need be. If one of my neighbors were to harm or kill him on purpose, and I were to find out, I would retaliate feloniously. Don't mess with people's pets. Killing the cat is off the table.

[This is the point where I go back and read more of the thread, including the neighbor conversation.]

That cat may have started off feral, but that's your neighbor's pet, despite the weirdness of it not wanting to go in the house. The back story changes nothing, except making it even more off-the-table for you to demand that he keep it inside.

Step one, which you've taken: Talk to your neighbor and ask him to put a collar with a bell on the cat. This is what I put on my cat. He's a pretty excellent hunter, so it doesn't save the field mice or chipmunks from him, but the birds seem to hear him coming from a mile away. Glad that this part went well.

Step two: Use some kind of cat deterrent around your bird feeders. If I'm imagining the scene correctly, all the bird feeders are located near a lilac bush that the birds use as a hangout spot, and the cat uses as a hunting ground. Just make it a shitty spot for the cat.

Mulch the area under and around the bush with something that will make the cat very uncomfortable, like pine cones or spiky mulch-mats made for this purpose. Double points if your chosen ground cover also makes a bunch of noise when stepped on. If it's safe in your opinion for the plant and the birds, also spread some dried hot pepper around from time to time. Cats hate that stuff.

Of course, if there are any other ambush spots you believe the cat is using, make them inhospitable as well.

From there, I guess wait and hope. If it doesn't work, back to the drawing board. But I imagine these steps will result in the cat not being able to hunt effectively, and ultimately it will give up and find a better spot.
 
Didn’t know boar taint applied to goats as well. Thank you for providing me the opportunity to use the phrase boar taint in context. Boar taint.
Improving my English has been 50% of the reasons I write in this forum :p :)
 
No idea what this thread is about, but thank you very much. :)

Cliff Notes: @Mojo1312 had a cat problem so he bought an owl hoping it would take care of it, but @liftapint ended up adopting the cat before the owl could get to it. Then @Ben8257 ate the cat, not knowing it was Mel's pet. But worry not. Nothing went to waste. He made arrow tips and a knife from the leg bones, a canteen from the bladder, and mittens from the fur.
 
Cliff Notes: @Mojo1312 had a cat problem so he bought an owl hoping it would take care of it, but @liftapint ended up adopting the cat before the owl could get to it. Then @Ben8257 ate the cat, not knowing it was Mel's pet. But worry not. Nothing went to waste. He made arrow tips and a knife from the leg bones, a canteen from the bladder, and mittens from the fur.
... then used the arrow tips to fashion a spear to kill the fox.
 
Three years ago last fall, I hung out four birdfeeders around the lilac bush in the front yard. I maintain the birdfeeders year round. For the first two years, I killed both gray and red squirrels to prevent them from getting into the feeders. A number of incident's lead me to humanize the squirrels, particularly red squirrels. I began throwing out ground seed for the squirrels and ground-feeding songbirds last summer and made friends with a pair of chipmunks. One had the cute habit of running out from the lilac bush and stepping on my shoe when I would scatter birdseed on the ground. The daring chipmunk would even let me pat him. (I never tried to pick him or her up.)

Two years ago, I began mixing my own birdseed, which I do every three to four weeks. Red cardinals, purple and golden finches, titmice, black capped chickadees, blue jays, song sparrows and woodpeckers, which believe it or not, will sit in the platform birdfeeder and peck away at the sunflower hearts without a care in the world, are regular residents.

I live on top of a long slopping hill. The lilac bush is 50 yards from the road. The neighbor across the road has a new cat that is a killing multiple song birds every week. He is a merciless killing machine. The chipmunks that made an appearance earlier this month have disappeared. The male owner of the black cat lives alone.

I don't want to play my hand by talking to the neighbor for the simple reason that if he chooses to ignore my concerns, I will be suspect #1 when his cat doesn't return home after his hunting safari.

how low is the bird feeder to the ground? Can’t you just get a taller bird feeder and grease the pole so if the cat tries to climb it he’ll comically slide down it?
 
... then used the arrow tips to fashion a spear to kill the fox.
Not to mention the homemade dried nutsack rattle, ready for use on the next feral cat that shows up. Easy prey draws predators....
 
We 've got a serious wildboar problem in most of Greece, caused by irresponsible and illiterate "hunters' associations", illegally "introducing" shit tons of them in the wild.
Now, they 've come to city centers (thankfully, the pigs; the "hunters" are much worse and they were here anyway), causing serious danger in the countryside for B-roads traffic too, while properties in villages are being ravaged (thank God I kept my automatic watering system within my village home this winter).

Firearms are not normally allowed here, but again the "Law" here is a joke.
Would you opt for 9mm or 10mm revolvers for anti-pig use?
I 'm saying revolvers, for minimum maintenance and training.
 
We 've got a serious wildboar problem in most of Greece, caused by irresponsible and illiterate "hunters' associations", illegally "introducing" shit tons of them in the wild.
Now, they 've come to city centers (thankfully, the pigs; the "hunters" are much worse and they were here anyway), causing serious danger in the countryside for B-roads traffic too, while properties in villages are being ravaged (thank God I kept my automatic watering system within my village home this winter).

Firearms are not normally allowed here, but again the "Law" here is a joke.
Would you opt for 9mm or 10mm revolvers for anti-pig use?
I 'm saying revolvers, for minimum maintenance and training.
Don’t see a ton of revolvers in those calibers around here. Usually .357 or .44 rimmed cartridges are ideal because you don’t need to use moon clips like you do for 9mm or 10mm.

I don’t hunt personally, but if I did I’d for sure opt for rifle over revolver for a variety of reasons. Better aim, more power, etc. pistol rounds are really suboptimal for hunting. Any bolt action would work, but if I had my druthers I’d get. .223 or 7.62 *.39 semi auto.
 
I don't hunt either (at all) and I 'm generally against it happening outside designated hunting grounds; it would just be self-defence against pigs in my country home's yard, with the meat as a possible extra (cooked in wine sauce and onions) :) .
Most easy-to-get and perfectly legal firearm here is the "hunting carbine" (I guess "shotgun" is the American equivalent term) with a single heavy ball coming as projectile out of the cartridge, instead of a multitude of tiny balls meant for poor birds as targets.
 
Once you start releasing one species to take out another, inivitably another species will need to be introduced to take out that one. Wherever you start in the animal hierarchy, the end result is ALWAYS dingos.

Lesson: let nature figure it out on its own, unless you want dingos eating all your babies.
freakin' dingos..

 

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