[ThaVirus]

Originally Posted by Fish

I actually like cats, owned several over my lifetime. That’s how I know that cats are murderous, rampaging lunatics!

I know you grew up on farms so you probably had outdoor cats, which makes a bit more sense, but any of these ****ers living in the city who just let their cats roam outside won’t get any sympathy from me when their little Boots gets mauled by a coyote or dog.

Originally Posted by Hammock Parties

lmao wut? stupid post from a stupid person

With as much time as you spend online, I’d expect you to be more informed.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-42766-6

Since house cats (Felis catus) were domesticated over 9000 years ago, humans have introduced them across much of the world. Today, cats inhabit all continents, except Antarctica, and have been introduced to hundreds of islands, making them amongst the most widely distributed species on the planet. Because of this cosmopolitan distribution, cats have disrupted many ecosystems to which they have been introduced. Specifically, cats spread novel diseases to a range of species including humans, out-compete native felids and other mesopredators, threaten the genetic integrity of wild felids, prey on native fauna, and have driven many species to extinction. As a result, free-ranging cats (i.e., owned or unowned cats with access to the outdoor environment) are amongst the most problematic invasive species in the world.

…

Here we conduct a systematic review and quantitatively estimate mortality caused by cats in the United States. We estimate that free-ranging domestic cats kill 1.3–4.0 billion birds and 6.3–22.3 billion mammals annually. Un-owned cats, as opposed to owned pets, cause the majority of this mortality. Our findings suggest that free-ranging cats cause substantially greater wildlife mortality than previously thought and are likely the single greatest source of anthropogenic mortality for US birds and mammals

You’re probably going to spend 10 hours today online, trolling random message boards and cooking up some Star Wars video that no one will give a shit about. You could have taken 20 seconds to Google this and learned something new without needing to be spoon fed some solid knowledge. There’s even an entire Wiki on it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_pr...0the%20country.

Originally Posted by GeorgeZimZam

Indeed, stupid AF. Equates stray cats with human mauling and killing pit bulls. Probably got scratched by a cat and required a bandaid at one point in his life. Poor guy still traumatized!

You’re a dipshit, dude, and your reading comprehension is garbage.

Click one of the links I just posted and try to put some wrinkles in your brain.

Originally Posted by RealSNR

Lol insects? We’re worried about the ****ing insects now?

Insects were definitely a reach. I’m in Florida so cats typically impact the mammal, bird and reptile population here. I was trying to think of what types of animals a cat would kill in Missouri/Kansas and figured y’all probably don’t have reptiles like we do and decided to replace them with insects.

In general, though, yes, I think we should be a little worried about insects. Studies show that insect populations are declining 2% per year. Anyone who’s taken a biology course knows how important those organisms at the bottom of the food chain are.

But in regards to this conversation, you are right. Cats don’t really significantly impact the insect population and it was dumb of me to mention them.