Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 11 · column 1 of 7 · from the scan, no model involved
EARTH
TALK0
Questions & Answers About Our Environment
From the Editors at E/The
Dear EarthMc
Please help settle the debate about whether or not my cats should stay in or go out My neighborhood is relatively safe for cats, vis-a-vis car traffic, and I think it is more natural far them to be outside and not always inside. They do kill wildlife, including birds, but aren’t they Just taking the place of natural predators that once did the same ?
Most environmental advocates believe that keeping cats indoors is better for both the health of the felines themselves and for their prey. Semitists estimate that the typical freeroaming housecat kills same 100 small animals each year. This means that the 90 million domestic housecats living in the U-Si alone are killing hundreds of millions if not billions of birds, small mammals, reptiles and amphibians every year. And while housecats an the prowl may serve to replace the natural predators long ago extirpated by humans, their popularity as pets puts tbefr population density fer ahaad of thane that came before them.
“Cat predation is an added stress to wildlife populations already struggling to survive hahitat loss, pollution, pesticides and other human impacts,” says the American Bird Conservancy (ABC), which in 1997 launched its controversial Cats Indoors! campaign to educate animal lovers about the benefits of keeping Tabby inside. ABC also points out that free-roaming f»ta are exposed to injury dis
56.1%