Spring 2001 Table of Contents

Take your cat problem to community

So you've got your own cats living indoors to give those backyard birds some peace, but your neighbors won't listen and their cats still roam free?

Consider taking your cat problem up with your local community.

The American Bird Conservancy (ABC) and its four-year-old "Cats Indoors!" Campaign encourages you to approach your city council, county commission, or other local governing body about strengthening cat control ordinances, including bans on feeding feral cats.

Contact your local animal control authority about offering more free or low cost spay/neuter clinics to encourage cat owners to at least control their numbers.

Or gather several fellow BWS managers and start your own publicity campaign by acquiring supplies of Keeping Cats Indoors Isn't Just For The Birds posters and brochures from ABC and distributing them at local businesses.

If you're not a cat owner or are one of the rare BWS managers who doesn't have a problem with cats, consider these numbers:

• Wildlife rehabilitators across Washington report that at least 17 percent of all injuries they deal with are caused by cats

• Studies show that every free-ranging cat kills at least one wild animal a month

• At least 30 percent of urban households and 60 percent of rural ones have cats, with a total of more than 60 million cats in the U.S.; some Seattle neighborhoods average at least 30 cats per block

• About 35,000 domestic cats are born every day in the U.S.- more than three times the human birthrate

• Only 35 percent of cat owners keep cats indoors all the time, even though the Humane Society reports that indoor cats live three times as long as free-roaming cats

• About 64 percent of cat owners still mistakenly believe that putting bells on cats keeps them from killing birds or other wildlife

'If you want help developing a local community campaign to save both backyard wildlife and cats, please contact Linda Winter, Director of Cats Indoors! Campaign, American Bird Conservancy, 1250 24th Street, NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20037, phone (202) 452- 1535, fax (202)452-1534, lwinter@abcbirds.org, or visit http://www.abcbirds.org/cats/catsindoors.htm.

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