Just had to chase the neighbors cat away from a juvenile kookaburra that was on the ground in our yard. The cat has been on the other side of the fence waiting for its chance to finish the job.

We put the bird in a cardboard box to take to the local vet tomorrow.

Can anyone give me any good reason why cats are still allowed to roam free without consequence in this country?

Update: We were woken by cat noises again this morning. After a safe and quiet night in a box the fledgling kookaburra was released where it was found and after several attempts it managed to fly up onto a roof where it will at least be safe from ground based predators today. Multiple adults birds in the area this morning and some amazing bird calls.

  • tetris11@feddit.ukEnglish
    2·
    4 months ago

    I didn’t realise it was a fierce debate, I thought we were all (quite amicably) trading anecdotes.

    Alright so there’s this 2021 paper cited > 100 times that cites a few studies in the intro, claiming that many cats just don’t get the proper indoor stimulation even when the owners are trying:

    https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7909512/

    Whilst owners may instead aim to meet their cat’s behavioural needs indoors, studies suggest many cat owners may not provide adequate levels of enrichment to ensure high welfare for their cat [31,32,33]. Insufficient levels of enrichment and the inability to avoid stressful human–social environments indoors [34,35] may contribute towards the comparatively higher levels of undesirable and sickness behaviours observed in indoor-only cats, compared to indoor-outdoor cats [5,8,36,37,38].

    (I don’t list the studies themselves, but their number are at least somewhat indicative of prevailing evidence)