Wednesday, May 21, 2008
cats
our neighbourgh-hood has many local cats but one has been taking birds from our garden. it has on previous occasions taken birds in mid air and this has ernt it deep hatred on our behalf. however a few days back my neighbourgh said it was trying to raid a blackbird nest box. today he has seen it catch a baby blackbird-can anything be done to stop this. we have poured water on it before but have failed on the later occasions.
10 comments:
Try petrol and a match.
Catapults are very good.
If you know the owners approach them with the situation and ask them if they,ll put a bell on the cats collar. Failing that resort back to nick carters idea.
Try one of those super soaker monster water pistol things. Their face is a picture if you hit them right, and they stay away for a while.
buy a cheap but very effective paint ball gun, they hurt like hell when they hit you and it will put a smile on your face especially if you buy multi coloured paint balls, go paint a masterpiece.
Less violent is lion manure or one of those electronic cat scarers.
I can not believe what I am reading, please tell me you are all joking. For people who claim to be animal lovers to suggest such ideas to a 13 year old is appauling behaviour, I suggest you all retract your thoughtless comments. Yes cats do take birds but compared to the destruction caused by man thier impact is minute.
I personally stand firmly by my comment about steering cats away from nests with chicks in using a water pistol. I read recently that there are an estimated 2 million stray cats in East Anglia. Conservatively, that's 20 million strays in the UK (not counting domestic pets). If each stray takes just one bird a week, that's over a thousand million birds lost. Hardly 'minute'. No-one would disagree that man is a main culprit, but that's not the issue here.
Of course I wasn't seriously suggesting Dishfish should set fire to a cat! we have a stray of our own (although I must admit one I would rather not have!)but it is neutered and carries a loud bell. Having said that Matt's comment is a valid one, an uncontrolled population of an alien predator in such numbers must have an adverse effect on bird populations, certainly more than "minute" even when compared to man's catastrophic efforts
Worthwhile checking out the RSPB advice at http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/gardening/
unwantedvisitors/cats/index.asp
Many years ago when I was into rough shooting for rabbits and wood pigeons I worked unpaid for a keeper on an estate to get some free shooting. The only animal he classed as a serious predator of his preserved game and the only one he killed were feral cats. He left foxes, weasels, stoats and other so called "vermin" alone figuring that nature would even out over a year. But cats gone native were a differant matter and every single one he saw on the estate was shot on sight, even if wearing a collar.
It not the cats fault its only doing what comes natural but they take such huge numbers of small mammals and birds every year that they are a serious threat to any small native wildlife despite Nick Dawtreys comments.
I do realise that some comments are not meant to be taken seriousy but we should be careful in a public forum. We do have an ongoing problem in Calderdale with the wilful shooting of pet cats and dogs by idiots with Air Rifles. Lets not be seen to be encouraging such activity even jokingly.
Pepper scattered in various places in the garden works well without doing any serious harm. We have a cat that appears from the neighbours garden in ours occasionaly after mice in the compost bin and frogs in my pond. Sue rushes into the garden everytime it appears and chases it away. It now comes less frequently and it only has to hear the door opening and its away like lighting. No harm to the cat, the wildlife is safe and the neighbours still speak to us....though having seeing an enraged Sue screaming abuse at the cat I don't think they dare be anything other than polite :-))
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