What affects us affects cats
Viscount Monckton, a peer of the realm, sitting in the House of Lords, UK, has suggested that cat owners should muzzle their cats if they are allowed outside as his father suggested years ago. He said: “Muzzling cats will not hurt them. Many dogs are muzzled when they go out and about. Muzzling stops …
This sort of pet cat study about predation on wildlife in the UK is another example of pressure being placed on domestic cat owners to keep their pets inside 24/7. There is a shift towards this sort of cat ownership. As studies constantly highlight the high numbers of wild animals killed by domestic cats, …
NEWS AND COMMENT-SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: The first point to make is that although huntsman spiders use venom to immobilise prey and can reach up to 5 inches across, based upon my careful research they do not cause harm to domestic cats who kill them and perhaps sometimes devour them. If a cat devours a huntsman …
COMMENT AND NEWS-WALLDORF, SOUTHWESTERN, GERMANY: The environmental officers of this German town have banned domestic cats from roaming free in an effort to stop them preying upon and eating crested larks during their breeding season. They said that their order would remain in force until September. People in breaches of the order would face …
I’ve recently been doing research on whether owning a caracal is illegal in Australia (I shouldn’t have bothered). It was very hard research because the documentation provided by Australian administrations was poor. What I found was a continual reference to “pests” and “invasive species” or “alien species” or “non-native species”. To Australians non-native species …
Usually, the discussion about protecting wildlife from predation by domestic cats is binary: either you confine them to the home or you allow them to be free-roaming. A lot of people think domestic cat should be allowed to roam freely in the interests of their cat’s health. People generally prioritise their cat companion’s health …
There are 3 reasons why domestic cats apparently torture their prey by playing with them. I list and discuss them here. It is a form of feline behaviour which at best irritates their human caregiver and at worst disgusts them. It does, however, provide the cat’s owner with an opportunity to save the mouse. …
When a cat eats a bird, it will sometimes pluck the bird’s feathers beforehand. That, though, is a simplistic statement because it seems that it is more complicated than that. The same or very similar methods are employed by both domestic and wild cats. This is no surprise because a domestic cat behaves like …
