Should Cats Be Required to Have a License?

Lois Garlick operated Raptor Roost Wild Bird Rehabilitation Center for over 30 years and is now retired. However, she still receives many emergency rehabilitation requests and is licensed to assist injured birds.

Cats, like dogs, are adored by their owners, and lost ones are taken in by the Humane Society and given room and board. However, because they don’t have a license their rate of successful return is not as great as that for dogs. Licensing would also give some means of popu-lation control. The fewer un-neutered cats allowed to roam freely, the fewer “wildcat litters” to contend with. The Humane Society would like to have the ability to identify the cats that have owners, but I don’t know what it would take to effect this action.

From the standpoint of damage to the bird population, cats are at the top of the list. In my experience with rehabilitating birds, I found that “cat mauls” were the most difficult to save because of the infections resulting from puncture wounds.

Sometimes a person would bring me a bird that their cat had caught and say, “I don’t think my cat hurt it very much.” However, a bird’s feathers can hide a myriad of little punctures. I used to tell them that if their cat is going to be allowed to pursue its predatory nature they might as well let it eat the prey because the chances of my saving it are slim.

Another misconception by cat owners is that “their cat wouldn’t catch birds: Its too lazy.” Don’t you believe it.

Here’s another tidbit I picked up from listening to bird fanciers. They get so exasperated with visiting cats capturing the progeny of birds that they have so lovingly attracted to their backyard havens that they resort to trapping the cats and disposing of them in a num-ber of ways.

In many cases, what seems to be a transient cat has a perfectly good home in the neighborhood—some owners let their pet go outside because they think a cat’s nature is to be outdoors. True, but cats are very adaptable to living in the confines of the home.

June and July are the peak season for young birds temporarily being “earth bound” due to premature flight attempts, nest destruction or other unforeseen occurrences. But some birds start fledging as early as May and some have second clutches as late as August. This is the time, too, when parent birds take greater chances at gathering food to take back to their nestlings.

It used to seem to me like not too much to ask for cat owners to keep their beloved pets confined to quarters for, at least, those few months. I know it would lessen the burden for rehabilitators even though there would still be birds hitting big reflective glass windows, colliding with cars and meeting a myriad of other humancreated obstacles for birds like uncovered drier vents and chimneys. There are enough natural hazards without us making more. §