Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 07:21:55 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Parke H John Subject: Re: Keeping Cats Indoors MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I totally disagree. In fact, I consider cats to be in direct competition with accipiters. Accipiters are a natural part of our ecosystem and domestic cats are not. If we want to have any vestige of a natural system with an abundance of biodiversity curtailing feral animals and not introducing exotic species is a great start. Sure, it's not the whole answer and in fact its a small gesture, but it does benefit our native species of birds and other wildlife. Parke. Frank Boyle Sent by: Maryland Birds & Birding 02/20/2003 02:57 AM Please respond to Maryland Birds & Birding To: MDOSPREY@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM cc: Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Keeping Cats Indoors Keeping cats indoors? Oh please!! I do believe that a little effort in placement of feeders can go a long way towards minimizing the impact of outdoor housecats on backyard birds - the argument has also been made (somewhat equally ridiculous) that sharpies and other predators feeding on backyard birds is something not to be desired. Personally, I love to observe the age-old dance between predator and prey, and if that means a few feeder birds become lunchie for a sharpie, Cooper's Hawk, or even a housecat, then so be it. Do we really think that passerines are going to become an endangered species because of housecats? I can think of many other immediate concerns i.e. habitat destruction, disease, etc. that have a far greater toll on birds than my cats. They will continue to roam their neighborhood territories, sitting under the feeders in hope of a tasty morsel. ******************* Frank Boyle Laurel, MD ******************* ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================