Pet Cats: Apex Predators

Many, many people discovered in 2013 thanks to a popular comic by The Oatmeal that despite being well-fed, allegedly domesticated cats are among the deadliest creatures on the planet. In 2013, household cats killed an estimated 100 million animals in the UK alone. Pet cats have now either contributed to or been the main reason for 63 animal extinctions. These are creatures that cats typically don't even try to eat—they merely kill them for the fun of killing.

However, there are alternatives to having all cat owners place their animals under strict house imprisonment. It wasn't the original official solution of attaching bells to cats, as cats were still able to hunt covertly enough to avoid hearing them ring, and it had no appreciable effect on kill counts. In large part, it involved adding actual meat to cat food that otherwise simply contained inexpensive kernels and the like.

Giving cats five to ten minutes of playtime that mimicked the excitement of a search for the pets and appeared to get it out of their systems was another option. Surprisingly, while playtime decreased the amount of domestic cats that murdered animals, it had no impact on how likely they were to kill birds. . Cats were 42% less likely to murder birds when genuine meat was present, but not less likely to kill mammals. We've all had pets who were picky eaters, but the concept of picky murderers is new.