this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2023
623 points (97.7% liked)

Interesting Global News

2253 readers
135 users here now

What is global news?

Something that happened or was uncovered recently anywhere in the world. It doesn't have to have global implications. Just has to be informative in some way.


Post guidelines

Title formatPost title should mirror the news source title.
URL formatPost URL should be the original link to the article (even if paywalled) and archived copies left in the body. It allows avoiding duplicate posts when cross-posting.
[Opinion] prefixOpinion (op-ed) articles must use [Opinion] prefix before the title.


Rules

1. English onlyTitle and associated content has to be in English.
2. No social media postsAvoid all social media posts. Try searching for a source that has a written article or transcription on the subject.
3. Respectful communicationAll communication has to be respectful of differing opinions, viewpoints, and experiences.
4. InclusivityEveryone is welcome here regardless of age, body size, visible or invisible disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression, education, socio-economic status, nationality, personal appearance, race, caste, color, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.
5. Ad hominem attacksAny kind of personal attacks are expressly forbidden. If you can't argue your position without attacking a person's character, you already lost the argument.
6. Off-topic tangentsStay on topic. Keep it relevant.
7. Instance rules may applyIf something is not covered by community rules, but are against lemmy.zip instance rules, they will be enforced.


Companion communities

Icon attribution | Banner attribution

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 30 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Domestic cats have been in the UK for ~2000 years, and wildcats for >~8000 years.

Their only real predators in the UK are cars and dogs, and most British bird species are well acquainted with cats, and on the whole aren't at high risk. Recommendations say an outdoor cat is a healthy, happy cat.

The RSPB (bird conservation charity) doesn't find them a major problem here, but do recommend:

  1. Neuter them
  2. Keep them in at dawn, dusk & night
  3. If they ever kill a bird, put a bell or beeper on the collar

Which seems a reasonable set of recommendations.

On the other hand, the USA and Australia don't have the thousands of years of history of cats as part of the ecosystem, and they have all these wild dog-type-things and snappy reptile things etc, so the cats are in more danger, and the native bird species are at higher risk. Recommendations say an outdoor cat is a bird-murdering machine that's about to get run over by a giant SUV and then eaten by drop-bears.

My Eastern European neighbours think it's weird that we let the cats inside at all. They think they should live entirely outside.

So I guess "different countries, different rules".

[–] Snoopey 9 points 10 months ago

Finally some sense in these cat posts

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Doesn't the US have wild felines of some kind?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Of the mountain lion and bobcat variety, yes. Not of the small cat variety.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

They've definitely got big cats (which seem to be named after Mac OS versions), though I'm not sure if they have smaller wildcats which occupy the same ecological position as domestic cats.

[–] captainlezbian 3 points 10 months ago

More than countries, different ecosystems different rules. Mainland USA and Hawaii have different ecological rules for good reason.