Do you let your cat roam free outside?
If you answered yes, you are one of the millions of cat owners in the U.S. who is persuaded by his or her feline friends to let them roam outdoors. Outside, they can wreak havoc on wildlife and put their own precious little lives in grave danger.
One cat that won the argument impacted my life forever.
I was coming home one day and could hear the high-pitched screaming of some small animal. I looked around, trying to locate the source of the sound, and noticed a collared cat, mid-tree, with a baby squirrel in its mouth.
This is one of the many reasons why letting your cat outdoors causes problems. In terms of ecological and environmental reasons, there is a wide consensus that outdoor and feral cats are a huge problem to native wildlife populations.
It is known that well-fed cats prey upon songbirds, certain small game birds, small mammals, lizards, snakes, amphibians and insects.
In Florida, it is believed that cats prey upon rare and endangered species such as the piping plover and the Florida scrub jay.
Research on domestic cats has shown that their hunting instinct is very different from their eating behaviors: A well-fed cat will still hunt.
Darin Schroeder, the vice president of conservation advocacy for the American Bird Conservancy, noted that about 500 million birds alone are killed by outdoor cats per year in the United States.
One study found outdoor cats were the cause of a large portion ofgray catbird deaths. Of the 42 deaths of the study's radio-tagged gray catbirds, 80 percent of mortality was caused by predation.
Other problems associated with outdoor cats include their role as vectors for disease transmission. It has been found that free-roaming cats are a risk for the transfer of salmonella, among other diseases, to humans.
There are many humanistic and moralistic reasons to keep your feline friends indoors.
The main reason, however, is that you would significantly increase your pet's life expectancy. Studies have shown indoor cats live an average of 15 years while outdoor cats rarely live more than five years.
By keeping your cat indoors, you would be avoiding violent interactions between your pet and traffic and violent encounters between dogs, raccoons, coyotes and other animals.
By keeping your pet inside, you would be decreasing their risk of exposure to many diseases like rabies, feline leukemia and distemper, while simultaneously preventing the spread of parasites like worms, ticks, mites and fleas into your home.
There are important lifestyle changes to consider when solving the ecological problems associated with cats.
First, you can humanly trap feral or untagged cats and bring them to the local animal shelter.
Second, you can systematically place bird feeders or baths in open areas with no cat hiding places.
Third, if you insist on subjecting your pet to the dangers of outside, make sure your pet has some kind of noise-making device to alert wildlife of its presence.
Fourth, try to keep your cat indoors, at least at night, due to the increased vulnerability of wildlife.
Finally, support legislation for cat registration, control and protection plans.
For more information please visit the following websites: myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/nonnatives/mammals/feral-cats/ and www.abcbirds.org/index.html.
Sarah Lane is a wildlife ecology and conservation senior at UF.
