Toward the end of Jonathan Franzen's Freedom, obsessed bird-lover Walter Berglund wages a campaign against the neighborhood cat population, whom he suspects of killing the migratory birds nesting on his property. Berglund estimates that every year a million songbirds are killed by cats, and describes them as "the sociopaths of the pet world, a species domesticated as an evil necessary for the control of rodents and subsequently fetishized the way unhappy countries fetishize their militaries." The novel failed to turn the tide against this furry menace, but a new study [pdf] in The Journal of Ornithology picks up where Franzen left off.
According to a study of mortality rates of gray catbirds in three DC suburbs, cats were responsible for 47% of the post-fledgling bird deaths in two of the sites, and the American Bird Conservancy says 500 million birds are killed each year by cats. Though the report's authors didn't personally witness all the kills they ascribe to cats, they note, "We are unaware of any other native or non-native predator that regularly decapitates birds while leaving the body uneaten." Yep, that's your Toonces: a natural born killer. The study found that squirrels and rats also did their share of catbird killing, but cats are shouldering a lot of the blame because they don't belong here.
Household cats were introduced in North America by European colonists, and they are regarded as an invasive species that serves no real purpose—unless you count a billion-dollar contribution to the entertainment industry, which relies on them for their amusing antics. "They are like gypsy moths and kudzu — they cause major ecological disruption,” Dr. Peter Marra, one of the authors of the study, tells the Times. Like Walter Berglund, Dr. Marra would like people to keep their cats indoors (or at least dress them in neoprene bibs before letting them out). Have it your way, Dr. Marra, but next time you get in trouble with a bear, don't expect Whiskers to come to your rescue.
Meanwhile, on Long Island, one man appears to have taken the war against cats into his own hands. Edward Foy, 57, faces a year in prison after confessing to trapping two of his neighbors' cats because they left pet hair on his outdoor furniture. The Post reports that he then released them into the woods at Sunken Meadow State Park, and they were never seen again.
