Dissonance.

[serafaery]

The native songbirds, robins, and chickadees (whose numbers have noticably dwindled in the 30 years I've lived in NE Portland, giving way to the ugly European starlings) are out.

So beautiful. So precious. So shy. So rare.

Finding food after the freeze is finally over, and things are thawing.

And the neighbor's overfed, bored housecat is out hunting them.

:(

We think we're so in touch with the world, cooing to songbirds sweetly and secretly hoping that they understand we find them beautiful and we care about them.

But we're the most destructive, viral, disgusting force on this earth. Their worst enemy, by far. Exterminating them with our carelessness with our pets. Driving over their habitat with our cars.

Awful.

Sigh.

...

Preston asked what I was doing and I explained what I saw and started sobbing.

I don't know what to do. Should I offer my neighbors the Audobon Society brochure about how devastating, far more than any other factor, outdoor cats are to the native bird population? About how domestic cats are the only animal that hunts when it's fully fed? About how there is a 16% survival rate for any bird injured by a cat, because of the nature of their claws and teeth to cause infection?

Or should I just suck it up and realize that nobody gives a shit and never will, unless they decide to educate themselves? And stop crying into my potatoes.

Fuck.

Comments

[ghost-nymph.livejournal.com]

that's so sad. I'd try to talk to them about their cat... but like you said, it's hard to convince people who are apathetic to care. :(

[coccinellidae.livejournal.com]

I'd say it depends on how responsive you think they would be. Are they simply not educated, or is it that they just aren't interested in fixing anything? Ultimately, whether you decide to tell others or not, the best you can do is do your very best to do what you can to make things better and hope that enough other people will do the same. And you do your best. You educate yourself and you take actions based on that knowledge.
So maybe tell them. And yes, stop sobbing into your potatoes because you are a wonderful person who really, really tries, and you should feel good about that and not sad that other people, whom you have no ability to control don't care as much as you do.

[posiefairy.livejournal.com]

i dont know dear....i see your point. however, it is a cat and thats what cats do...

[serafaery.livejournal.com]

Cats are perfectly content, and live much longer, happier, safer lives when raised and kept indoors. It's not at all "what cats do". It's what ignorant humans allow to happen, through negligence and carelessness and lack of consideration for the living creatures they share this planet with.

[posiefairy.livejournal.com]

ok

[desultorie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I kinda wanted to punch some of the responses on your FB status. I think it's just ignorance & irresponsibility.