My cats are killing everything!

[bernhund]

What can I do to minimise the slaughter? Even though my cats wear collars with bells, they are killing everything that breathes! Seriously, everyday there are animal parts on my doorstep. Usually just the kidneys!
Yesterday I came home to 2 new born chicks, a mouse and a shrew. The chicks must have been taken from the nest. The day before one of the cats was looking through a window with a rabbit in his mouth and the same again happened a couple of days before that. As for mice..I'm surprised there are any left around here.
I should point out this is a rural location, but nonetheless, it's all a bit sad. So what can we do? My wife says we should feed the cats up as much as possible, but I think they just want to kill all day long.

[bernhund]

R8VXF said:

KrazyIvan said:

Feed them less, that way they'll eat what there killing, you won't see it and save money. Win win.

Seriously though you live in the country and have cats, There is little you can do to stop them short of keeping then in all the time.

what he said.

Seriously, you have pets that are notoriously efficient hunters yet don't like the fact that they are doing what they do best.

Have you tried playing with the cats with a laser pointer, this may tire them out and satisfy the hunting urge. You do need to remember to give them a reward afterwards else they will feel frustrated. Our cats have the Zebedee catnip mice which they love to play with.

Yes, it's a fact they are very good at what they do and we do appreciate it keeps the mouse population down etc. These are just so much better at it than other cats we've had! We're used to one or two corpses per week, but this is like a slaughter house. They do have toys in the house, but we've not tried them with the catnip mice.
Maybe we'll get them bigger, louder bells. So heavy they struggle to move!!

[bernhund]

Well it's all part of the circle I suppose. Nature doing its thing. But if you've ever heard a rabbit screaming, it really is disturbing!
I'm getting a bit cheesed off with the blood stains on the doorstep. Admittedly, these moggies do generally eat what they catch. But kidneys are left strewn everywhere! Interestingly, the new born birds were not eaten yesterday.

[bernhund]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

This is interesting. My wife says keep them in at night, but our road see's a lot more traffic at day than night, so surely there's an increased risk of one of them being flattened?
The fact is the horrors must and will continue. I just thought I might be able to reduce it a little!

By the way, the farmer wouldn't buy my cats. They're his fields in which their catching the doomed!

[bernhund]

As usual, a simple post looking for simple suggestions, degenerates into the moral dilemmas of animal ownership!

[bernhund]

menguin said:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/cats_actually_kill

I like that, very good. And, if the facts are true, I needn't bother even feeding our moggies!

[bernhund]

NinjaPower said:

KFC said:

NinjaPower said:

This is the first cat I've had (and I didn't get it on purpose) as I usually have dogs. I don't really think of cats as 'pets' or domestic animals, more like wild animals that simply share my home. What they do In their spare time is completely up to them, not me.

So if they're wild animals then you wouldn't object to someone doing some pest control on them in their own garden I assume?

If someone came to my house carrying my dead cat and said:

"Your cat kept crapping in my kids sandpit, I was worried about my kids health, I couldn't get the cat to stop so I shot it dead".

I would fully understand.

The cat doesn't take orders from anyone and goes where it pleases. With this comes the risk that it may get run over, killed by a dog, or shot. The same as any other animal that prowls around trespassing wherever it likes.

It's the same as the other thread where someone's dog was shot by a farmer. If your pet is somewhere it shouldn't be then you can reasonably expect it to be killed for one reason or another.

I think there's a lot of truth in this. But it doesn't make it any easier to accept someone killing your pet, simply because there's no point in ownership if you don't want to get attached to it. Perhaps it's an emotional issue rather than a moral one?

[bernhund]

NinjaPower said:

bernhund said:

I think there's a lot of truth in this. But it doesn't make it any easier to accept someone killing your pet, simply because there's no point in ownership if you don't want to get attached to it. Perhaps it's an emotional issue rather than a moral one?

Don't get me wrong, I would be very upset. Naturally people get attached to their pets.

But I would understand and accept the reason for killing the animal if it was trespassing and causing someone else a problem.

I live in a rural area, own guns and shoot living things myself so maybe I have a different view.

If your pet does wrong, it, and you, have to face the consequences. So it's up to the owners to limit the potential if they really don't want that to happen.
My first Bull Terrier, when he was about 9 months old, chased a couple of sheep on the Ashdown Forest. He caught them up and one sheep rolled over, he bounced up and down on it like a trampoline! No damage and no aggression, he just bounced. We dragged him away and I honestly thought he'd have been shot if caught. So, never off the lead again when out of our garden because I know the score.
If a neighbour poisoned my cats, I'd be having words, but ultimately I'd have to take it on the chin.

[bernhund]

Prof Prolapse said:

Actually this is all getting a bit heavy. I'm actually a nice bloke, I just love my pets and I'm very protective of them.

I shouldn't have been so aggressive in tone, it's just an emotive subject.

As I said earlier...it's an emotional issue rather than a moral one. I'd be extremely upset by someone killing my pets!