Category

Cat

Often living as our beloved companions, cats are also hard-wired to hunt with the DNA of a lethal predator, inflicting severe harm on bird and other wildlife populations. Efforts to manage free-roaming cats and curtail their impacts have been politically charged and scientifically challenging.

Interviews

Narrator: Jim StevensonTitle: Feral CatDuration: 00:02:34Date: August 24, 2022Jim Stevenson, a Galveston-based ornithologist, writes, publishes, and leads bird tours about the natural world. In 2006, he shot and killed a feral cat who was devouring a piping plover, an endangered species. The case raised attention to the serious threat that feral cats pose to birds, as well as lizards, frogs, and other wild animals. In addition, Mr. Stevenson brings up powerful ethical questions about the hardships that we expose domestic animals to when we release them to the wild - from disease, injury, and starvation.Narrator: Bill SwansonTitle: SterilizationDuration: 00:03:13Date: March 24, 2022Bill Swanson is a veterinarian and animal science researcher at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, where he has worked for years in the reproductive medicine field. One of his efforts has focused on finding a cheap, effective and safe sterilization technique for free-roaming cats that can be administered by laypeople. The hope is both to alleviate the cats' suffering that goes with a dangerous life on the streets, and also to reduce their lethal hunting impacts on birds and other wildlife.