Our backyard bird feeder predates our cat, which has turned out to be quite a hunter. Once in a while he will kill or trap birds; he often brings them alive into the house and we have rescued quite a few. Is it inhumane to fill a birdfeeder when the possibility of attack may occur?
It is inhumane to use a feeder as a snackbar for cats, luring songbirds to their doom. John Bianchi, a spokesman for the Audubon Society in the US, notes that: “Domestic cats are not wild animals. They were bred to hunt and kill even when they are not hungry, to protect granaries.” He adds that “a cat will stay near the feeder all day and kill five or six birds”.
Bianchi advocates that all cats always be kept indoors, not just to protect birds, but for the cats’ own good: “Cats allowed outdoors live much shorter lives, and feral cats the shortest of all, only three years on average.”
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In England, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds takes a more moderate line. Its spokeswoman, Sarah Niemann, says: “Unless predation at a feeding station is high, then, with care, there is surely no reason not to feed the birds.”
Feeders should be positioned so that a cat cannot lie in wait, unseen by the birds, and should cats sometimes be kept indoors — “when the birds are most vulnerable, at least an hour before sunset and an hour after sunrise”, Niemann suggests.
The RSPB’s call for peaceful co-existence is reasonable and ethical, allowing you and the birds to enjoy your feeder without turning it into a tiny gladitorial arena for bird-cat combat, a blood-sport that tends to be awfully one-sided. One more step that you might take to assure avian tranquility: put a bell on the cat.
Can you suggest solutions to this ethical dilemma?
Or do you have dilemmas of your own? Write to: The Ethicist, Times Features, 1 Pennington Street, London E98 1TT. E-mail: ethicist@thetimes.co.uk.
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Readers’ solutions will be published on Friday.
The Ethicist originates from The New York Times Magazine.