CAT CONTROL.

Forest and Bird, Issue 28, 1 October 1932, Page 12

CAT CONTROL.

New Zealand might well take a hint from the International Cat Society of New York as some such organisation is much needed here. "Cats which are well cared for by their owners make splendid pets,” the Society states, “but the stray cat, a victim of human heartlessness, having been turned out of his home by its owner, is a menace to the community in the way of spreading disease and is one of the worst enemies of our bird and small game life.” The programme of the Society calls for the licensing of cats just as dogs are licensed throughout the entire civilised world. At its first meeting the Society voted overwhelmingly for cat license laws as the best way of solving the problem of the stray cat from a humanitarian point of view. Literature issued by the Society states that there are .120,000,000 cats in the United States, sixty per cent, of them strays. Outside of the cities, it states, these stray cats live in the forests and their food consists of birds and small game. Noted ornithologists, the Society declares, have studied the question of cats and birds. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that the damage done to trees and farm produce in one year by insects amounts to more than two billion dollars. Birds destroy these insects and wherever insectivorous birds are plentiful the damage to crops and trees by insect life is small. The ordinary person going into the woods finds it difficult to be convinced stray cats do much hunting, Dr. Forbush points out. This is because the cat does most of its hunting at night and in the mating season when its destruction of young birds in their nests is tremendous.”