Soft, whiskered, and purring, your cat may not look like a ruthless killing machine. But a study from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute indicates that more birds and small mammals die via Fluffy's claws than via cars, pesticides, poisons, colliding with windows, or any other human cause. The study found that cats kill between 1.4 and 3.7 billion birds each year, along with 6.9 to 20.7 billion mammals. While feral cats are responsible for the vast majority of the carnage, even well-fed house cats kill an average of 2.1 animals every week they are outside. Worst of all, cats seem to prefer killing native species over icky invaders like the Norway rat.
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