Mammals such as rats and mice... which can carry many diseases including hantavirus, leptospirosis, lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCMV), Tularemia and Salmonella...
It sounds like the implication here is that it's acceptable to use an invasive species to deal with pest problems. There are alternatives to dealing with pests that don't involve decimating bird populations.
In many many places domestic cats aren’t much of an invasive species. In north and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa there are similar cat species of similar size that take up a similar niche which were recently extinct (at least locally) many of which are closely enough related to housecats that they can interbreed.
One of the reasons to worry about domestic cats in some areas of the British isles is not to protect birds and the like, but to protect the closely related extant cat species that is getting its genetics replaced too much with housecat genetics. This wild cat used to have very broad ranges which disappeared.
Islands with no cat species don’t have this consideration of course.
Bird populations in places that should have and used to have catlike predators are and should be fine for the most part. Predators tend to help the population dynamics and health of prey species. Some people are just really uncomfortable with predation.
I don't know the specific numbers, and I've only just seen one or two studies (would appreciate an alternative numbers) - but if a three 3 billion bird reduction is almost a third of the total population in birds in North America since 1970s, and cats are killing at least 1.3 billion per year... I guess that's "fine for the most part"?
The predation of cats is also unnaturally controlled as they are domesticated; people view them as pets primarily and thus prevent them from being killed (their predators are also heavily controlled - wolves, coyotes, etc). I don't see how you could compare that niche to previously extinct, naturally local species.
One or two studies is more than the “zero” amount of data that’s been provided by anyone else at this point. I look forward to you sharing more specific numbers that counter the numbers I’ve provided.
The other way around: the domestication of the cat helped deal with pest problems.
Here's a question: suppose next year we mandate all cats are indoors unless they work on farms, and all cats allowed outdoors are sterilized. What happens to the small bird and mammal populations ten years later?
It’s even more the other way around, the native cat species basically domesticated itself finding hanging around humans for our density of vermin to prey on to be more advantageous than living in the wild. We didn’t go stealing cute kitties from the wild because they looked nice, we started taking care of the vermin eaters that migrated into our cities, especially the ones that had adapted themselves to be cuter and nicer to us.
We are not separate from the evolutionary process and several species have effectively domesticated us in order to survive better. Our civilization has created new habitats and we don’t need to pretend that it doesn’t exist.
You want to help your local bird populations? Plant oak trees.
Advice applies to anywhere which has native oak species.
Oak trees serve as host to a particularly large number of species, many of them feed on the tree and serve as food for others year round along with acorns as food and species that feed on acorns as food. Oaks are keystone species as they have a particularly large positive impact on the local ecosystem.
Lots of birds eat mostly insects and only sometimes seeds, oak trees provide year round supplies of insects for birds to eat, in a wider variety and number than most other trees.
