How To Motivate a Birder

     Long ago a timeless classic was created called The Andy Griffith Show. In a memorable episode titled "Opie the Birdman" Barney gives Opie a slingshot. Andy soon comes upon a bird Opie has killed. Andy wonders aloud in sad amazement that the neighbor's cat has killed one of Aunt Bea's song birds. He tells himself he'll have to tell the neighbor to keep their cat indoors. Opie raises the nestlings & all is well in Mayberry. In wonderful Mayberry fledglings are hardy & no cats run loose. Even by the 60's, Sheldon Leonard and his writers knew cats were a likely supect in any bird death. We all know that cats running loose equal dead birds. These days the millions of free roaming feral and domestic cats kill hundreds of millions birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and other species in the U.S. each & every day.
         As a nation we must now take stock of the fact that cats are a growing menace to our environment. Habitat depletion is the #1 reason for all new extinctions with cats a close 2nd. Cats follow development and decimate the environment since they will kill anything. Cats eat for one reason and kill for another. Cats are the number one killer in the world bar none. It is estimated by the American Bird Conservancy (abcbirds.org) the U.S. may have as many as 200 million cats. If we do not have that many cats now, we soon will. ABC estimates 120 million cats are feral & the other 80 million are owned or semi-owned. The semi-owned cat is usually not vaccinated or neutered. They often go unfed & lack clean water. Cats are simple animals with about half the chromosomes of dogs and a small frontal cortex. About 60% of all companion pet owners have cats. About 60% have multiple cats. Only one out of three owners keep their cat indoors. One breeding pair and their offspring can make 450K cats in ten years. Indoor cats live far longer. Almost no cat owner register their cats. Many animal control ordinances do not mention cats. Many county and city animal control departments will not pick up a trapped cat. Free roaming cats in an isolated area such as an island or fragmented habitats often exterminate local species. This is the viscous circle of cat predation. They denude an area of whatever species is likely and more of whatever they kill moves in to be killed. A circle of death. So having said all this, what does it take to motivate birders & naturalists at the grassroots level to contact their elected offcials and demand cats to be restricted by law, policy and practice? 
       Sheriff Andy Taylor would be weep to see the state of our bird decline in America. Birders of America should band together to protect the 800 plus song bird species in decline. Birders need to write their elected officials and demand  great sweeping changes for avian protection. We must demand bird friendly laws be enacted and enforced. Policy should support the laws that require restrictions for free roaming cats. Our other companion animals will benefit and many species will be protected when we break the paradigm that allows free roaming cats as the rule rather than the exception in our society. So remember the words of our favorite sherrif while keeping your cat indoors and pushing the appropriate people to protect our birds. I bet that's what Andy would do.