New-York tribune., 1908-03-01
UOULD OUTLAW CATS.
Enemies Cite Their Killing Of Pest
Destroying Birds.

Oh cats you must go, crusade is de-
clared against you. Congress will be asked to
make you outlaws at least compel your
owners 20 pay a tax in the District of Columbia.
They would put you on a level with the dog
and make you run about with tag your col
lar The game commission of Pennsylvania
wants you to BE- treated like wild animal and
a bounty to be paid for your pelt. Once upon
time laws passed in your favor, but now it
seems that wave of deadly animOsity to you
approaches Cat hospitals and homes were es-
tablished by charity. and the limited amount Of
"caticide" was done in kindness and with the
use Of chloroform by official persons. Now it is
purposed to hunt you out and exterminate you
by all means forbidden in civilized warfare
1t is net because you yowl on the fence in the
back yard or because your tuneful voice rises to
the moon from the roof of the kitchen extension.
You might deserve the promised doom for this,
but your enemies have a subtler indictment. 1t
is not because you convey germs in your furry
garb. 'Tis not because you monopoze the af
fections Of spinsters who might otherwise
spond To the proposals of amorous youths. You
are not charged with scratching little Tommy
when n twea<s your tail It isn't that you have
Kittens too often and father hates the job of
browning en-.
Your crime Oh. cats, is that you kill the birds
yhch gohbie the caterpillars which eat the leaves
NhlCh belong 10 the fOOd crops winch man con-
sunes 1t sounds like a wanton accusation. yet
st seems to be supported by portentous figures.
Suppose you eat fifty robins and other birds in
a year. That's what E. H. Forbush, of the
NIassa chUsetts Agricultural Board, gives as a
conservative estimate for a cats bag in good
hunting grounds. He tells it in his book called
Useful Birds and Their Protection" man in
Maine testified that his cat killed about fifty
birds year. and being asked why he didn't
get . good cat he replied that the good ones
were like the Indians-good only when dead.
One A c. Dixie writes Of a cat that was brought
up like member of the family and yet slaugh-
tered ffty-eight birds including the young in
five nests Although cat lovers allege that each
pussy Stays on the average not more than ten
birds a year. instances are given where Tom or
Tabby destroyed more than that number in a
day.
The number Of birds killed by cats in Massa-
chusetts is appalling.' says the author of
useful Birds" etc. IF we assume that the
average cat the farm kills only birds a
year, and that there is one cat each farm in
Massachusetts con one farm there are thirteen,
on another sixteen) have in round numbers
10000 cats Killing 100000 birds annually"
Applying these figures to each state in the
Union il would appear that the annual carnage
by the teeth and claws of puss amounts to 32-
2G0,CNQ birds, John Burroughs says that the
cat which prowIs around at night during the
nesting season plunderng birds nests, a splen |
did climber. good stalker and a strong leaper,
probably stroys more birds than all other ami
mails combined
Now. oh. cats birds keep down insects. which |
are supposed to eat up grain and fruit worth |
S195,CGG,0@0 in the United States every year But
If you eat the birds, how can the birds eat the |
insects? Consider those caterDillars which eat |
in a day twice their weight in leaves which is |
as if d COW chcwed up three-quarters of ton !
OF hay in a day. consider a larva which con- /
suraes hundred times its original weight be- |
tween night and day, which is if u human in
fant the first day of existence devoured !
one thousand five hundred pounds of breakfast |
food. Some caterpillars grow up in month and ,
increase their bulk ten thousand times which is