SUN JOURNAL • December 9, 2022
Cats kill about 2.4 billion birds every year. Birds are prolific reproducers, but they are struggling to keep up, and they are losing the race overall. You can’t blame cats. They do what comes naturally, and they have very well-developed reflexes for catching birds. There are almost 100 million cats in the U.S., living in about 60 million homes. About 70% of cats are not permitted outdoors. That leaves about 30 million cats that live outdoors some of the time. With that kill rate of about 2.4 billion birds per year, that’s 80 birds per cat per year. An average outdoor cat kills about one bird every four days. Civilization is driving some animals to extinction. The poor birds have enough to contend with. I ask people to keep their cat indoors, like the other 70% of Americans — especially if they love birds. ~ Ben Lounsbury, Auburn