Fang Ye said: "Under normal circumstances, a healthy ecosystem will form a network-like relationship, in which the number of various species increases and decreases, but they are all maintained within a certain range, so that the ecosystem maintains a dynamic balance.

But when cats that don't belong to them join in, they prey on birds, weakening the ecosystem's ability to restrain insects and starving birds of prey and medium-sized mammals, which also feed on small animals.

Ecosystems are formed through long-term evolution, and the species in the system have undergone hundreds of thousands of years of competition, exclusion, adaptation, and mutual benefit, and have formed the close relationship that is now interdependent and mutually restrictive.

When an alien species is introduced, it may be excluded from the system because it cannot adapt to the new environment; If there are no competing or constraining organisms in the new environment, they will become real invaders, upsetting the balance, changing or destroying the local ecological environment and seriously damaging biodiversity.

The most famous example of the ecological catastrophe caused by cats is that of a cat named Tibbs, who killed all the endemic birds on Stephen Island in the space of a year.

However, it is a closed island environment, and no animal can deal with the perfect predator like cats, and in China, in the wild, there are predators of the same ecological niche such as leopard cats and red foxes to restrain them, and stray cats cannot make waves.

But in cities, stray cats that should have been eliminated by nature can eat kitchen waste and even be fed by humans, allowing them to reproduce in large numbers and reach population densities that are impossible for small carnivores in nature.

The number is abnormal, and they are animals that are full of food and idle and bored to hunt because of play, so in the city, stray cats are a big problem.

Not only the impact on birds and other animals, but also infectious diseases such as toxoplasmosis and rabies, which pose hidden dangers to public health safety. ”

Some netizens who like cats and have even fed them can't help but feel a little ashamed after listening to Fang Ye's explanation.

When I fed them before, I didn't know about them, but I just felt that I was loving and kind.

It turns out that random feeding is not a good thing, and it is the same type of operation as random release.

Netizens couldn't help asking: "So what should be done?" ”

Fang Ye said: "First of all, at the root, don't let cats become stray cats.

Raising a pet is a thing that costs money and energy, but many people only think about the fun brought by pets before raising pets, and they don't think about the trouble brought by pets, and they don't want to raise them, so they abandon them at will, which is very irresponsible.

For example, in college, if you want to keep pets, the school doesn't allow you to keep them, so you keep them outside, and you won't take them away after graduation, so there are more and more stray cats on campus.

Someone has a free-range cat, or a cat sneaks out of the window by itself, and can't find it when it is lost. It is a fact that cats that have been kept at home are also healthy and long-lived, and there is no need to think about letting them go outside, and if they go out, they may harm a few small birds.

For stray cats, control yourself and don't feed them.

The standard of living of stray cats is certainly not as good as that of domestic cats, they will be hit by cars, they will be thrown stones, they will starve and turn over garbage to eat, and other stray cats will grab land and bite and fight, and they will freeze into popsicles in winter, and you will only temporarily improve its survival by feeding, and so on, and when the offspring are reproduced, there is a group of poor little stray cats in the city who want to be frozen and turn over the garbage.

While saying how pitiful stray cats are and how hateful the people who abandon them are, while feeding them, this is not becoming a person you hate.

The other is neutering!

Some people are disgusted with neutering cats, feeling that the experience of castrating a part of their lives after neutering deprives them of the right to give birth, and cats are unhappy.

In fact, this kind of thinking is completely from the perspective of human beings.

Animal mating is only instinctive, and most of them are not happy or even extremely painful experiences during mating, and the cat's tintin is barbed.

After neutering, cats will not suffer from estrus mating and will be healthier, what's so bad?

If you insist on thinking that the child is not a cat, you know the joy of cats, how do you know that cats are unhappy to mate, or you want to let cats mate at least once, give birth to offspring, and then sterilize cats after being born - this idea is also based on human perspectives, cats do not have the concept of 'I want to have a child', they are only driven by genetic instinct.

You can calculate how many offspring a cat can give birth to if it continues to reproduce without limit.

Female cats can give birth to up to 12 in a litter, at least 2, generally 3-6, and cats with good physical strength can give birth 2 times a year.

A pair of non-neutered cats, in an ideal state, can breed 2 million cats in 8 years.

Do you want to keep its reproductive rights, and the reproductive rights of its children? What about the child's child? Are these offspring capable of raising and caring for them? If you can't take care of it, abandon it or give it to someone else? Not everyone has the ability to raise a good cat, just stuff it to others, and others raise it for a while and abandon it, doesn't this become a source of stray cats? ”

Fang Ye paused and continued, "Capturing, neutering, and repatriation, or TNR for short, is a more humane way to reduce the number of stray cats.

After the volunteers capture the cats in a safe way, they are sterilized and immunized by a qualified veterinarian, and the cats are released back to their original living range, and their ears are cut with a notch to prevent secondary surgery. Individual friendly cats can help them find adoptive families.

If you want to get a cat, I recommend adopting instead of buying.

TNR is respected by many people, but it is not a panacea, it is necessary to block the source of stray cats, achieve a sterilization rate of 71% to 94%, and carry out centralized feeding management, so that it can be effective, and the requirements are very strict. The most important thing is not to feed it at will and not to abandon it.

In fact, there is no problem with three or five neutered stray cats in a community, nothing to do, the happiness of the residents of the community can be improved, and the children can cultivate love, which can be regarded as close to nature.

Conservation work often begins with such simple kindness.

But hundreds of thousands of stray cats in a city far exceed the carrying capacity of the ecosystem.

As for hunting, the problem of stray cats is not simply an ecological problem, but also a social problem.

Although simple and rough hunting can effectively reduce the number of stray cats, it will arouse the disgust of many people, and the gains outweigh the losses.

It will only be used when the ecological environment is seriously threatened, to protect endangered wild animals, or to control virulent infectious diseases.

In fact, euthanasia is also a good way, but it is also a matter of acceptance, which requires us to continue to popularize science. ”