It also suggests that up to >20 billion mammals are killed by those cats each year. Quick Google search says that there are fewer than 60 million domestic pet cats in the US, and about the same number of feral cats. So on average domestic cats kill up to >150 mammals a day? And since not all of them are allowed outdoors, those supposed killer outdoor cats would practically kill an animal every few seconds. Looking at the lower estimates the numbers still look crazy. Even if we round up all the estimates for our number of cats to 200 million total and use the lowest values for the estimates, it implies that the average kill count for a domestic cat (including indoor cats) is 6.5 birds and 31.5 mammals(!) a day! And the estimate range is pretty large, so the average is much higher! Umm...
Sorry but I don't believe this at all. I've seen this paper posted several times around the Internet and it contradicts my experience completely.
Finally, the paper does mention that the majority of those estimated deaths are attributed to unowned (i.e. feral) cats. I thought I should point that out since you're obviously implying that cat owners letting their pets roam outside are causing this.
> It also suggests that up to >20 billion mammals are killed by those cats each year. Quick Google search says that there are fewer than 60 million domestic pet cats in the US, and about the same number of feral cats. So on average domestic cats kill up to >150 mammals a day?
Sorry, but I'm a bit confused by your maths.
20 billion mammals / 60 million cats = 333.33 animals per cat per year, or around 0.91 animals per day. That seems entirely reasonable. How do you get >150/day?
You're right, I got the scale wrong, my bad. I'll blame the late hour ;)
It's still too high for pet cats (>1 mammal killed a week supposedly based on the average estimate and the same overestimation of 200 million cats, indoor included) but might make more sense if you consider that ferals have a disproportionate impact. I know people want an easy solution that absolves them from blame but it certainly doesn't seem to justify regurgitating this paper ad nauseam and demonizing people letting their pets outside. Overall I doubt that cats move the needle outside of urban areas with high feral cat populations that area already poor habitats for birds.
> It's still obviously too high for pet cats (>1 mammal killed a week supposedly based on the average estimate and the same overestimation of 200 million cats, indoor included) but might make more sense if you consider that ferals have a disproportionate impact.
I don't know why it's obvious to you that >1 mammal/week is too high for pet cats. I've seen cats bring rodent "gifts" every 2-3 days, and I'm reasonably sure that those were not all their kills.
You said it yourself - domestic vs unowned. People aren’t counting unowned cats en masse, and domestication is the root cause of those feral cats. Also, their range is lower bound 3* your numbers, so there’s no need to cherry pick the highest end of all ranges here.
Whether they’re right or not, it’s plausible and probable that cats are a problem. Biggest problem? Who knows
With 60m cats and a mid range 15b animals killed, that’s 250 deaths per cat a year, less than one a day. According to the study. Idk where you’re getting your numbers from dude but it’s not TFA. You’re blowing things out of proportion by several orders of magnitude.
Is it plausible that they’re a problem by killing some number of animals?
Sorry but I don't believe this at all. I've seen this paper posted several times around the Internet and it contradicts my experience completely.
Finally, the paper does mention that the majority of those estimated deaths are attributed to unowned (i.e. feral) cats. I thought I should point that out since you're obviously implying that cat owners letting their pets roam outside are causing this.