back to article Deadly pussies kill more often than owners think

Housecats should be kept inside more often to keep them from their daily killing sprees, a study shows. KittyCam spots an injured bird KittyCam at the scene of the crime. Pic credit: National Geographic & University of Georgia Those cute kittens whose faces are peer from endless posts on Pinterest are actually predators, …

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  1. phear46

    i hate cats...

    Ours brings back all sorts, mostly mice, some dead some not. Small birds are a favourite, as are pidgeons,rabbits and anything else it finds...

    It wouldn't be so bad but its pretty much every night and I'd say 50% of the time the unfortunate creature isn't dead.

    If that's only 23% then our cat is responsible for mass kidnap/genocide.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: i hate cats...

      I hate cats too. The only reason we have one is because my wanted one - if you have daughters you know what I mean.

      A hessian sack and some bricks are the best thing for cats.

      1. Semaj
        Trollface

        Re: i hate cats...

        "A hessian sack and some bricks are the best thing for cats"

        Many would feel the same way about your spawn.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: i hate cats...

          @semaj

          Ah you must be one of those people that think the Internet's sole purpose is to send mindless pictures of cats to people who couldn't give a shit

        2. phear46

          Re: i hate cats...

          I would never kill a cat, unless is was the best thing to do, but on the other hand I don't go mouthing off about people's kids.

          Be cool man, chill out!

  2. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

    I, for one,

    Wholeheartedly support the feline mammalian domination of the shit-bombing, food-stealing, down-dropping feathered dinosaur descendants.

    1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

      Re: I, for one,

      I'd rather have the dinosaurs pooing on my lawn than cats.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I, for one,

        you need to speak to Sarah Palin then...

      2. Joe User

        Re: I, for one,

        "I'd rather have the dinosaurs pooing on my lawn than cats."

        We'll send a brachiosaurus round at 2. Please have a bulldozer and dump truck on hand.

  3. This post has been deleted by its author

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Mine brings back fleas

    Frontline, Advantage, Indorex... you name it I've tried it....I've spent a fortune on these products in the last week :(

    It's a nightmare!

    It is true however that we no longer have a mouse problem.

    1. Rob

      Re: Mine brings back fleas

      You have my sympathies, we had an outbreak last year, a dose of frontline, washing all bedding and clothes and a large can of spray I bought of the internet to fumigate the house and furniture, took a whole day to do but definitely killed all the buggers off.

      (Let me know if you want the name of the spray, very effective).

    2. Peter Storm
      Alert

      Re: Mine brings back fleas

      Try Advocate for cats. Works great on ours. Frontline just doesn't work any more. It's crap.

      Just try googling "frontline doesn't work any more".

      1. mark 63 Silver badge

        Re: frontline dosent work

        I agree , its meant to last a month - maybe it'll work for a few days , and then you cant reapply it till the months up.

        So I recently tried Doc Marten's equivalent - pretty much the same

        Although I have been a bit lazy on the vacuuming every day that you're supposed to do at same time.

        will try advocate next

        as for the killing spree - I've recently had to finish a couple of birds off to put them out of their misery.

      2. Number6

        Re: Mine brings back fleas

        We're finding more fleas this year and have just switched from Frontline. On the plus side, one of the cats was curled up on a hard surface and I noticed several fleas staggering round in circles close to him, so presumably the new flea-juice has worked.

        If anything we've had less carnage in the garden this year, the number of rodent carcasses is much reduced over previous years so either they're eating more or catching less. If the latter then perhaps I'm feeding them too much and they don't feel the need to top-up.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Mine brings back fleas

          Try diatomaceous (sp?) earth - the kind used for gardening, not for pool filters. We dust the yard and carpets with it - only concern is that you don't want to breathe in a lot when you put it down.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Mine brings back fleas

        Frontline still works over here (Denmark) as it haven't been over used yet so the little buggers aren't resistant yet.

    3. Marcelo Rodrigues
      Happy

      Re: Mine brings back fleas

      Have You tried the injected one? There is one that cuts the flea cycle: it drops eggs - but these never hatch. On application is good for 6 months.

      I got a flea infestation - and this one did the trick. Capstar, I think. The flea needs to bite the cat just once. After this, its eggs will not hatch. :D

      1. Jediben
        Joke

        Re: Mine brings back fleas

        I'm impressed you can find a vein to inject it - does the pack come wiht tweezers and a magnifying glass?

      2. Swift1
        Pint

        Re: Mine brings back fleas

        The product you are looking for is called Program. It is injected under the skin of the scruff. Has worked a treat with our four cats over the last 7-8 years. Yes, they will still get fleas but as previously mentioned, they cannot reproduce.

    4. Amorous Cowherder

      Re: Mine brings back fleas

      The first outbreak with our cat, she's only 9 months old so Frontline is actually working on her. She's clean as a whistle, it's the rest of the bloody house that's a pain in the arse to disinfect! Thank Christ for wooden floors, less place for the little sods to escape the hoover and sprays!

      Buy a flea collar, not for the cat but put it in your hoover "bag", it kills the little sods when you suck them up so they can't escape again!

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Boffin

      Re: Mine brings back fleas

      a few suble hints but you will need to search to find them. the 'bay (worldwide) is your friend.

      1.fendona (alpha cypromethrin)

      2.ficam W (bendiocarb)

      3. Nylar (pyriproxyfen)

      Mix 1 with 3 or 2 with 3, DO NOT mix 1 and 2.

      That will get rid of ANY insect infestation, flea or otherwise.

      However, only treating the house will *never* clear up a bad flea job.

      Cats = fleas, there is no debate....

      PS, allegedly.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    What A Load Of Homo Sapiens Bullcrap !

    Yes, Cats Are Predators. That is how God/Nature/Thor/Allah made them ! It is Good To See that their biology is still intact.

    Can we just stop to impose our romantic shitty ideals onto perfectly well-working creatures ?? Can we stop to incarcerate cats into the small cage of a household ? If you don't like your cat to have freedom, to roam vast areas in successful search of prey - then please don't have a cat. Please don't have kids, either, as you are a Certified Idiot.

    1. Oliver Mayes

      Re: What A Load Of Homo Sapiens Bullcrap !

      The argument is that the ever increasing number of cats bred in captivity is unsustainable as it's adversely affecting wild animals.

      1. Peter Storm

        Re: What A Load Of Homo Sapiens Bullcrap !

        I think it's more likely that the ever increasing numbers of homo sapiens bred in captivity are having a greater effect on the wildlife population.

      2. Tom 13

        Re: What A Load Of Homo Sapiens Bullcrap !

        That argument is the full of crap bit. In these parts you can't rescue a cat from a shelter and still have it reproduce after you get it home. So it's only the feral ones or the pure breads that are breeding.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What A Load Of Homo Sapiens Bullcrap !

      The issue as I see it is not the number of cats per se but that fact we keep the cosseted little f*ckers all nice and safe indoors so they don't get predated upon by whatever Nature would use to keep their numbers down. Where I live if they couldn't come into the indoor safety cell they would naturally get taken out by foxes.

      1. Pete the not so great
        Happy

        Re: What A Load Of Homo Sapiens Bullcrap !

        Or the 42 bus

      2. Ken Hagan Gold badge

        Re: whatever Nature would use to keep their numbers down

        I think Nature would use starvation rather than predation. Aren't cats at the top of the pyramid in most case? Anyway, it hardly matters because...

        It is surely a no-brainer that the cat population is unnaturally large for *exactly* the same reason that the human population is unnaturally large. Both have access to sophisticated medical treatment and an industrialised factory farming system that produces and distributes "ecologically infinite" amounts of food.

        1. HandleOfGod

          Re: whatever Nature would use to keep their numbers down

          Indeed. Although a big cat fan myself I can easily see that the vast numbers of them that exist are down to us and that by virtue of those vast numbers they can indeed inflict significant damage on wildlife.

          Of course, less well known but no less bad for the environment is the fact that dogs, being generally much bigger and more active and requiring much more food, are actually less environmentally friendly than owning a 4x4 due to the huge amounts of land, water and energy which go into producing the food they need.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Thumb Up

            Re: whatever Nature would use to keep their numbers down

            So, you saw that episode of Q.I as well!!!

            1. This post has been deleted by its author

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: What A Load Of Homo Sapiens Bullcrap !

        In North America coyotes do the job, if given the chance.

      4. keith_w
        Childcatcher

        Re: What A Load Of Homo Sapiens Bullcrap !

        Around here they taken out by coyotes (Oakville, Ontario, Canada). Although there are foxes around, I haven't heard of any pets being lost to them.

      5. Nuke
        Thumb Down

        @AC 11:54 Re: What A Load Of Homo Sapiens Bullcrap !

        Wrote :-

        "The issue as I see it is [the] fact we keep the cosseted little f*ckers all nice and safe indoors so they don't get predated upon by whatever Nature would use to keep their numbers down."

        Most cats are not "cosseted". They can go in and out as they like (see references to cat flaps here). Even most domestic ones are semi-feral. Cats of any size do not really have any predators in nature : like ourselves they are top of a food chain.

        Having said that, urban people in the USA, where this report comes from, tend to keep their cats indoors and are a bit horrified by Europeans letting them go out. This report seems to be from that culture.

        It has always been common knowledge in the UK that cats slaughter wildlife.

    3. CABVolunteer
      Unhappy

      Re: What A Load Of Homo Sapiens Bullcrap !

      I totally agree with your suggestion "..then please don't have a cat". But what about the neighbours' feline predators?

      1. Pedigree-Pete
        Meh

        Re: What A Load Of Homo Sapiens Bullcrap !

        Neighbours cat, simples! get a DOG!

    4. ItsNotMe
      Mushroom

      Re: What A Load Of Homo Sapiens Bullcrap !

      Not too mention a COMPLETE waste of money on the "research".

    5. Mike Flugennock

      Re: What A Load Of Homo Sapiens Bullcrap !

      A lot of it, I think, depends on the environment. I live in the middle of a large city, and I wouldn't think of letting my cat out. There's just too much danger from cars, dogs, disease, sadistic children, weather. If you raise your cat as an indoor cat from the beginning, as a kitten, it works out quite well, though the wife and I would never have dreamed of declawing her, as there's the mouse population to deal with. So, we make sure to give her plenty of options for places to work her claws and plenty of positive reinforcement when she uses them; our sofas are remarkably unclawed, although the top of one of the sofa backs has a large permanent indentation as it's one of her favorite napping spots in the house.

      When I was a young teenager, our family lived in a far suburb -- "exurbia", as it's called -- far enough from the city that it was borderline rural, and so there was plenty of space for cats to range without having to go anywhere near a highway. We had a nice, big yard that bordered on a small meadow between our neighbors' back yards, and that was the local cat hangout, as well as the source of the field mice that showed up in our garages. Our cat never had to go near a busy street or highway as he could do all his socializing and hunting in our backyard (plenty of mice and moles) and in the little meadow (many a half-eaten rabbit turned up on our back patio in the early morning). We collared and tagged him in case he got lost -- he never did, in sixteen years -- and he got on great.

      In the city, it's way different. We have some neighbors who let their cats out -- I recognize some of the "locals" and know where they live -- and they seem to do OK, but the wife and I were not very comfortable with the idea, and so we raised Minnie as strictly a house cat. It's a pretty big house, though -- an old three-story townhouse -- so she has plenty of room to hang out, and good hunting in the winter when the mice start sneaking in.

    6. Fibbles
      Facepalm

      Re: What A Load Of Homo Sapiens Bullcrap !

      A lot of people here seem to be suggesting that the cat population we have now is somehow natural. They're bread like dogs but we allow them infinitely more freedom to go wreak havoc on the local wildlife. I can only assume this mass blindness to fairly simple logic is caused by the brain parasites most cats bestow upon their owners.

      1. Galidron

        @Fibbles

        Only the owners who eat their cat's poo. Most cases come from eating undercooked meat, and it's pretty rare (pun intended).

        1. Fibbles

          Re: @Fibbles

          10% of people have the parasite which is a fair chunk of the 25-30% of the population who own cats. It's passed onto humans via their excrement but you don't have to go around eating mouth fulls of the stuff. Cats, like most animals, are not clean by human standards. They bury their crap with their paws, lick their paws and groom the rest of themselves with their tongue. You only need to come into contact with a cat to get toxoplasma gondii and the more you're around cats the higher the chances are that you'll get the parasite.

    7. Primus Secundus Tertius

      Re: What A Load Of Homo Sapiens Bullcrap !

      Agreed. If cats obeyed laws and paid taxes they would not be wildlife.

      But perhaps if there was more TV worth watching thay would not go out so much.

  6. AndrueC Silver badge
    Flame

    I'm going to risk a few down votes and suggest that a better answer would be a cull or 24/7 curfew. I'm fed up of various neighbour's cats coming into my garden to dig up plants and crap on the lawn. There should be harsher penalties for dog owners that don't clear up after their pets as well.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      From wikipedia: Vermin is a term applied to various animal species regarded as pests or nuisances and especially to those associated with the carrying of disease.

      Pests and nuisances - invading and damaging private property, i.e. digging up and killing plants and grasses

      Disease - carrying diseases and bugs that can be fatal to unborn babies and rendering privately planted and tended crops inedible due to fowling with urine and faeces.

      By these very simple definitions, cat = vermin.

      However the blinkered cat attendants (staff) will still complain that "it's in their nature" yet don't appreciate the generous offer that I'll personally undertake similar actions in their gardens - as in happily digging, urinating and defacating everywhere.

      For some reason, exterminating this particular variety of vermin is frowned upon, forcing me to spend my time and money preventing somebody else's vermin from invading and damaging my property. Still seriously considering the 220v AC mains electric fence just to see how high cats fly... :)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Vermin

        I am currently using a SuperSoaker, but it doesn't seem to be much of a deterrent judging by all the cat shit that appears in our garden over night. Before I try the electric fence has anyone tried the sonic deterrents? Do they work? How about a Rasberry Pi linked to a PIR sensor, a few motors and a BB gun?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Vermin

          Sonic Deterrent are utterly useless and a waste of money, the only success you could get from these is if you could physically beat a cat with it.

          Serving invoices for cat deterrents to blinkered cat attendants doesn't seem to work either...

          1. h4rm0ny

            Re: Vermin

            Sonic deterrants are not only completely useless against animals, they are also extremely annoying to those of us humans who can hear them.

            1. IDoNotThinkSo

              Re: Vermin

              I have a PIR linked up to a solenoid valve and a sprinkler. Cats soon get the idea and avoid the area - so the area changes regularly...

              Suprising how fast they can move and how high they can jump.

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Re: Vermin

                Scaring off cats without killing or maiming them? You must be gay

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