[kungtotte]

Common housecats that are allowed outside are some of the bloodthirstiest predators on the planet.

They can kill up to 200 animals per year, despite being well fed and cared for. They're doing it for sport essentially.

They will hunt and kill common shrew for example despite not eating them. They'll eat mice and birds, but shrews they kill just for the hell of it.

[jbotz]

> some of the bloodthirstiest predators on the planet

Present company excluded, of course. A typical human "sports hunter" can easily kill a lot more than 200 animals. And if you count all the animals that die to feed us or are simply accidental casualties of our infrastructure and resource extraction... well, the mind boggles.

[kungtotte]

Animals who die to feed us aren't really relevant, are they? These 200-ish animals killed by housecats are on top of the food they're already receiving at home, which is made from slaughtered animals.

A sports hunter who doesn't eat their kills but only hunts for fun is an apt comparison, but do they really kill 200 animals per year? That's more than one every two days. Typically that would be a weekend hobby and even if they went hunting 52 weeks of the year that's almost 4 kills per hunting weekend. You really think that's plausible (or even legal, given restrictions on hunting)?

[philwelch]

Plus, hunters tend to eat their quarry.

The main exception is probably people who hunt feral pigs in Texas, but those are just an ecological menace to be exterminated.

[FeepingCreature]

Isn't this what we wanted from cats historically?

[kungtotte]

Yeah, but this behaviour is not really bred into cats the way we've bred behaviour into dogs. Cats and humans is more of a mutually beneficial arrangement where we get pest control and they get shelter and a steady food supply.

They kind of just moved in with us several thousand years ago and stuck around because it worked out well for them.