If you love your cat but want to keep him from turning into a bird-killing machine, you may want to get him a special collar. Experts say that putting your feisty feline in big, bright, colorful collar covers can give birds a heads-up that a cat is nearby. Biologist Ken Otter says that birds have a vivid sense of color and that putting a bright ruffly-type collar on Mr. Whiskers can give foraging birds like robins and sparrows a warning that danger is near and to go look for food elsewhere.
How big of a deal is this? Domestic and feral cats are considered public enemy number one in Canada, where this study was conducted. It found that cats snatched between 100 million and 350 million per year. But before you gasp at that number, The World Animal Foundation claims that 2.4 billion birds are killed by cats in the U.S. each year. Meow!
Source: Times Colonist