Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cat policies [Was Suggestion for outdoor cats]

[Wayne Tyson (landrest]

CoHo:

There have been studies showing the importance of coyotes as top predators. 
In short, they help keep the fox populations down which are the main 
predator on birds in some ecosystems. When the coyotes were eliminated, fox 
populations soared along with wandering domestic and feral cats, and certain 
locally endemic bird populations were entirely wiped out. Both foxes and 
cats eat animals other than birds, but their populations did not soar when 
the coyotes were present; the coyotes merely kept the fox and cat 
populations from depressing the bird populations to the point of extinction.

Ecosystems are all about things eating other things. Many humans operate in 
a state of denial about this, and many are obsessed with controlling or 
destroying ecosystems. Keeping dogs and cats isolated from ecosystems is 
probably the best idea, but controlling them is better than nothing. Dogs 
can be discouraged from molesting wildlife; cats cannot. Any dog's problem 
is more a function of its owner's way of managing the dog than the dog's 
instincts; still free-roaming dogs can cause some serious problems; they 
tend to fit into the coyote's role, and will kill foxes, cats, rats, mice, 
and other wild and feral critters. Dogs are fairly easy to capture; cat's 
much less so. Cats fit, more or less, into the fox's niche; one effect, 
causing the foxes to shift their diet to species other than those killed by 
cats.

It starts getting complicated from there, and specific conditions, such as 
leaving pet food, garbage, or food for wild animals outdoors can have a huge 
impact upon local ecosystems. Artificially boosting wild populations 
(raccoons are notorious examples) increase, not decrease, predation in 
ecosystems. Things like bird food, wood piles, and other habitat "enhancing" 
elements can cause significant population booms and busts which degrade 
ecosystems and populations, not to mention the misery to all animals in the 
system, including humans.

Keeping cats indoors or in cat enclosures, feeding them, and interacting 
with them such that they become members of the family not only protects the 
wildlife, it protects the cats and the families too. Dogs are especially 
easy to integrate into the family, but they must not be allowed to dominate 
the humans. Books like the ones about "dog-whisperer" training are good.

WT

PS: My last dog would always prick up her ears and even start to chase cats 
sometimes. All I had to do was to quietly say, "No, no, Elka, leave the 
kitty alone," and she would stop. Off leash. On-leash she was much easier to 
control, because I was the Alpha member of the pack.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jessie Kome" <jehako [at] mac.com>
To: "Cohousing-L" <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2011 6:04 AM
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Cat policies [Was Suggestion for outdoor cats]


> Hi-
>
> This is in response to Sharon's comment that no predator stepped into the 
> ecosystem when cats were pulled back. Actually - Eastern Village is in 
> Maryland, on the boundary with the District of Columbia, and we apparently 
> have some coyotes coming up from a nearby regional park.  They eat both 
> rodents and cats.  So the animal control folks tell us to keep our cats 
> close to home.
>
> -Jessie Handforth Kome
> Eastern Village Cohousing
> Silver Spring, Maryland
> "Where we have happy indoor cats and (mostly) leashed dogs."