How can I stop my cat hunting wildlife?

Here are different ways to limit the kill rate of your cat. A recent figure from the Mammal Society estimates that cats in the UK catch up to 27 millions birds each year, and 275 million prey items overall per year.

By Jo Price

Published: Monday, 15 May 2023 at 12:00 am

Conservationists have different opinions as to whether domestic, non-feral cats are a cause of population decline for wild animals.

Some argue that with many wildlife species in decline, every effort should be made to reduce any factors that could contribute to their decline, including predation from non-native mammals such as domestic cats.

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A domestic cat playing with its dead prey – a common treecreeper. © Laurent Geslin/Nature Picture Library/Getty Images

For feral, domestic cats, there is evidence that in certain locations, they can devastate populations of species. In Australia at Mandurah’s bird sanctuary, one feral cat drove off a colony of fairy terns after killing 6 adults and 40 chicks. The remaining birds abandoned the sanctuary.

In the Turks and Caicos Islands, a UK Overseas Territory, conservationists are working to remove invasive species including rodents and feral cats from Iguana Island to create an invasive-predator-free habitat for the endemic Critically Endangered rock iguanas.

A study published in the Journal of Environmental Law in November 2019 examined whether allowing domestic cats to roam freely outdoors is in contravention of the European Union Birds and Habitats Directives (Nature Directives).