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Cats and Bird Flu
"Cats Can Catch and Spread Bird Flu, Study Says"
Stefan Lovgren
for National Geographic News
September 2, 2004
A bird flu virus killed 26 people in Asia and led to the vast slaughter of poultry several months ago. Now a new study says the flu can also infect cats, and that cats can spread the flu to other cats. The finding raises the possibility that they may eventually spread the flu to other mammals, including humans.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com
"Cats may carry the bird flu virus"
The bird flu virus that can kill humans has the potential to be spread by cats, scientists have found.
http://news.bbc.co.uk
Cat infection by bird flu detected in Indonesia
A case of cat infection by the H5N1 strain of bird flu has been detected in Indonesia, a World Health Organization medical officer in Jakarta said Monday.
http://www.thanhniennews.com/
The consensus seems to be unanimous. Cats can catch the bird flu and might be able to spread it to humans.
This is very bad news for the millions of cat owners around the world. What does this mean? Do we have to start killing our pets? Do we keep them indoors?
Does your cat hunt birds?
CatAlert is an electronic sonic collar that beeps every 7 seconds to alert birds to the presence of stalking cats. The Mark II can be switched on and off by its owner e.g. so that the collar can be silent when the cat is indoors. The collar has a light sensor and can also be switched so that it automatically stops beeping in the dark. Alternatively it can be switched so that it beeps both night and day. The CR 2032 battery that drives CatAlert II lasts about 2 years and very few cats object to the collar or the beeping.
Worldwide, cats may have been involved in the extinction of more bird species than any other cause except habitat degradation and are contributing to the endangerment of populations of other rare small mammals. In Britain alone, domestic cats, now numbering 8 million, are said to kill at least 75 million birds annually. The EU contains a further 50 million domestic cats. In Australia, a recent report suggested that the country's 21 million feral and domestic cats were killing 3 million animals per year including 67 native bird species. The 73 million pet cats living in US households are estimated to kill more than 1.4 billion birds each year.
The issue of domestic cats killing wildlife has always been controversial, with cat owners becoming defensive about their pet's habits or going into denial. The subject regularly generates fierce arguments between cat lovers and those who favour birds. One of the main reasons cat owners are reluctant to take action is because it would mean confining their pet indoors, thus depriving the animal of it's traditional entitlement to freedom of movement. Willana Lifesciences has designed "CatAlert" a collar based device that will allow the cat to continue moving freely, while eliminating most of the risk to wild birds.
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Chances are if your cat goes outdoors, it kills birds. All
cats do. It's an instinctive behavior that's never been bred out of them.
Until now there was little that could be done, other than keeping your pet indoors or declawing. And while many vets recommend that cats be kept indoors, there are lots of owners who let their cats roam freely outside. We've always let our cat come and go as she pleases and frankly, she's a killing machine. It's a rare week that we don't find half eaten carcasses of birds or rodents in our basement.
We've given thought to having her declawed, but that would be taking her defenses away, and there are just too many other cats and dogs in our neighborhood that would pose a danger.
We tried a bell on her collar for awhile, but it didn't do anything. Have you ever seen a cat stock a bird? They barely move. Certainly not enough to ring the bell.
At last -- a solution that works
So it was with great pleasure when we stumbled across the CatAlert Collar.
Wearing the electronic collar, our cat now finds it impossible to sneak up on birds. It emits a clear beep every 7 seconds which alerts the birds to her presence. We still find the occasional rodent carcass in the basement because we turn it off at night, but at least there's no more feathers.
This device has taken a huge load off our minds because it's only a matter of time before H5N1 lands in North America. Our cat has been coming and going on her own ever since she was a kitten and we thought it would be too cruel to confine her to the house. The CatAlert Collar is the solution we've been looking for.
For CatAlert FAQS, Click Here
Click below to order your own CatAlert Collar
Price: US$35.00
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