• Lodespawn@aussie.zone
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        17 小时前

        In Australia there is an expectation that people keep their cats inside because those little murder machine are able to decimate a significant amount of our native fauna. I was shocked when I moved to the UK for a few years to find out that a typical requirement for getting a cat there through legitimate sources included committing to letting them roam outside.

        • jaybone@lemmy.zip
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          12 小时前

          In Australia, I’m surprised the local fauna doesn’t decimate the cats.

          In some densely populated cities, cats help control the rat population.

        • Asetru@feddit.org
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          16 小时前

          “Humans are destroying the planet and drive a lot of the fauna towards extinction. Let’s blame…” spins wheel… “Cats.”

          • Bademantel@lemmy.world
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            16 小时前

            Plot twist: They are there because of us! There are many reasons why biodiversity is rapidly declining. That doesn’t mean that cats are not wreaking havoc on the local bird population:

            • VonReposti@feddit.dk
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              15 小时前

              Why are US numbers way off the chart for cats and windows? Is the US overrun with cats and murderous windows? How do you make sure the windows stay friendly towards humans? Do you export bad windows to Russia?

              There are so many questions…

                • VonReposti@feddit.dk
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                  15 小时前

                  Adjusting for population the numbers should only be 10 times higher, 1.96 billion for cats and 250 million for windows. Cats are close to equal but I’m still concerned about your windows.

                  • zikzak025@lemmy.world
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                    7 小时前

                    US has more regions with warm climates that birds live in year round. A lot of bird species only live in Canada half the year and then migrate south for winter.

          • Lodespawn@aussie.zone
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            15 小时前

            Yeah well cats aren’t native to Australia, humans brought them here so that’s on us, the common house cat is an apex predator here, cat owners need to take some responsibility for their murder machines or we end up with more 20 kg feral cats that can take out a kangaroo

            • Soggy@lemmy.world
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              5 小时前

              Nitpick, but cats aren’t an “apex” predator in any environment. They are hunted by pretty much every carnivore at least as big as a coyote, including large birds of prey.

              • zikzak025@lemmy.world
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                3 小时前

                They are in New Zealand, where the problem is worse than in Australia. New Zealand has zero native land predators. There are some birds of prey that can hunt invasive stoats and rats, but cats are effectively uncontested (with the exception of humans performing population control).

      • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
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        17 小时前

        Guy who used to let his cat out here, the medical costs became too much for us at one point, so we no longer let that orange bastard out. He lost like 4-5 of his 9 lives to cars.

    • halcyoncmdr@piefed.social
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      18 小时前

      Don’t know this specific situation, but there are animals in captivity because they’re unable to be released back into the wild for various reasons. Things like animals being actively rehabilitated. Or ones that are now animal ambassadors used to teach people about the species or parts of human society that negatively affect wildlife. Maybe because they are unable to fly anymore, or they imprinted on humans, are unable to forage or hunt properly, etc.

      • Skunk [any]@lemmy.zip
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        17 小时前

        For sure. That’s a small minority of the animals that have to live in captivity for our “entertainment” though.

          • Soggy@lemmy.world
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            5 小时前

            No some people are too small-minded to understand the layera of long term benefits provided by good zoos.

        • halcyoncmdr@piefed.social
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          16 小时前

          It really depends on the facility. Some are better than others. They vary wildly and it’s hard for you as a consumer to know which ones are good and which are bad. Some large zoos have extensive conservation programs and focus around education, and some are just animals in jail for entertainment. From the outside it’s hard to tell the difference a lot of the time.

          It’s one of the reasons I support Alveus Sanctuary and their recent expansions and future plans. Their facilities and programs are based around video streaming and chat interaction, instead of in person exhibits. They have collaborative events with streamers, etc. in person to help further their reach to new people and educate viewers that otherwise may never interact at all with that type of content. Otherwise all of the animals have limited human interaction only with the employees. Those in person collaborations are always about educating the viewers about the animals and various societal links related to them. Things like pesticide use on bugs and how that propagates up the food chain, selective breeding and trade of exotic animals, amphibians and environmental pollution, etc.

          • Skunk [any]@lemmy.zip
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            14 小时前

            If they keep animals confined without a clear purpose for the benefit of that animal then I don’t care. “Oh we keep some childern locked up to fund our kindergarden with the revenue we get from people being able to see them” kinda logic.

            The reason a lot of zoos have conservation programs is because they need to replace the captive animals I’d wager…

            • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              8 小时前

              “Oh we keep some childern locked up to fund our kindergarden with the revenue we get from people being able to see them” kinda logic.

              There’s something wrong with your brain if you can’t (refuse to) understand the difference.