Editor:
I agree with Fran Vandenberg (“Not all cats housebound,” Letters, June 29) that domestic cats are natural predators. That is why, wildlife conservators argue, they should be kept at home. We cannot leave it to “Nature” to “regulate” the loss of wildlife because humans and their domesticated animals have such a disproportionate impact on the earth’s ecology. According to the World Wildlife Fund, experts estimate the current rate of species loss as between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than the rate it would be if humans did not exist.
The main study on the bird situation in Canada is by Peter Blancher (2013), “Estimated number of birds killed by house cats (Felis catus) in Canada,” in the scientific journal Avian Conservation and Ecology (www.ace-eco.org/vol8/iss2/art3). Cats also predate on other wildlife. The Stewardship Centre for BC tells us that cats kill approximately 1.43.7 billion birds and 6.9 to 20.7 billion small mammals in the U.S. each year. Although cats do catch house mice, says this organization, they also kill hundreds of millions of native wildlife, including shrews, voles, rabbits and bats. Some B.C. bird species impacted by cat predation include common songbirds like the spotted towhee and dark-eyed junco, long-distance migrants such as the lazuli bunting and western tanager, and rare and threatened species like the band-tailed pigeon, yellow-breasted chat and western screech owl. Cats are an especial danger to birds that nest on the ground, like the song sparrow.
When Sechelt turned down a cat bylaw in January 2018, Coun. Alice Lutes commented, “I think if we look at education, we might have more luck than with bylaws or enforcement of bylaws.”
Thanks to Coast Reporter for providing a forum here for us to educate ourselves on this important and ongoing subject.
Christine Pawley, Sechelt
