This is regarding “Bad news in bird land” (Editorial, Feb. 11). Your exhortation for people to think well of birds is as timely as it is kind.
The city has made an effort, too, in asking high-risers to turn off lights during migration season, soon upon us.
But you, and the city as well, might do more.
Part of my job as a Chicago police officer is to cite those who let their animals run loose. One Memorial Day weekend, when I wrote up a cat owner, I got a tongue-lashing for “ruining the holiday weekend” for the owner. I tried to educate this person about the low life span of cats let out and the possible diseases, as well as the need to save birds, but the person’s closed mind heard none of it.
In addition to habitat depletion, the primary cause of a bird dearth is cats. Supposedly proactive measures adopted before letting them roam do little, for cats learn to stalk silently despite belled collars, and can still pounce, bite and kill, or box a bird to death.
Their eating of birds and harassing them to an untimely end disrupts the web of nature that could and should be. They steal from native predators.
Felines not only chase off the birds we try to encourage and would prefer to see, they leave their stink and excrement behind in the gardens we try to maintain for birds and ourselves.
Birds should expend their energy in collecting food and nesting material and in rearing their young, but too often their energy is drained avoiding cats. Cat owners believe their kitties need to go out, but in allowing them to do so they cause unnecessary avian stress, maimings and fatalities.
