We need to get cats on leashes. It’s best for you, cat and bird. Perhaps it was okay for Norwegian cats to run loose and kill whatever they wanted in 1970, when nature was more in charge. Now the government is traveling abroad and signing agreements to protect 30 percent of nature by 2030, and repair a further 30 percent. Extreme goals, if we take them seriously. The government does it anyway. It has become impossible to ignore that we are now destroying so much nature that it will cost us extremely dearly. If the government’s nature promises are to make sense, we must zoom in from declarations and global percentages to living Norwegian nature. That is, how things are with the individual species, what affects them and what we do about it. Among other things, we know that many Norwegian small bird populations are on the decline. More and more end up on the red list. They become vulnerable or directly threatened. The reasons are climate change, which changes the environment to which the birds are adapted. The way we shave away small and large parts of nature that different species depend on. Violent decline in insects that most small bird species need for food. Perhaps synthetic chemicals whose end effects we do not know. And cats. We’ve known that for a long time. New reports reinforce the knowledge of the cost to Norwegian nature that three quarters of a million domestic cats run loose and kill 7 million birds of well-known and beloved species. Totally unnecessary. Think about it: Aren’t the small birds one of the finest things you experience in Norwegian nature? You rarely see catfish and steelworms. Fish you need hook and net to see. But the little birds fly about in broad daylight. They are the Norwegian spring song itself, and the gentle background chirp at other times of the year. Many are beautiful and colorful. They do cool things when you follow them with your eyes. Is it okay that there are fewer and fewer of them? Or do you want to do something simple and effective to preserve them? It is demanding, as Prime Minister Støre says when something is very difficult, to stop climate change, reverse Norwegian land management, remove all environmental toxins and the like. We’re working on it anyway, but at the same time it’s probably a good idea to do what’s easy, especially when it can have a big effect? Keeping cats on a leash is not difficult. It’s silly. We do it with the dogs. It’s just a question of whether we want to. The loss of small birds is like the loss of all other nature. It’s so gradual that only nerds care. Nobody listens to old people who mumble that there were more birds before. In a while, people will be used to even smaller small birds. It is difficult to mobilize someone to stop crises they do not see. That is why proposals to pull on the emergency brake, to do something new and powerful, are always labeled as extreme. There will certainly be an uproar at asking for cats to be kept on a leash, simply because we don’t usually keep cats on a leash. But if we wait another 20 years to introduce leash restrictions, until we have even fewer small birds than now, then there will be just as much noise. ID marking of cats will help cats’ welfare and give more control over the cat population. But don’t prevent most cats from cooing 7 million birds a year. Is leashing a cat an unnecessary requirement? Regulatory mania? Impossible? A provocation? The cat is so independent. It has gone its own way since the dawn of time. Cats would probably like to keep it up if they get the right to vote. I have had stray cats myself and am just as guilty as other cat owners. It’s nice to have these self-willed individuals who come and go when they want, who keep their secrets and don’t care about the stupid control regime that the dog in the house has to obey. Then one can discuss how stupid it is in the deepest sense for a dog to live life in a house with a few walks on a leash per day. day. As a species, dogs have a much greater need than cats to run long distances, and an equally great need to hunt, kill and other types of stimulation. At the moment we have a small dog who will soon be big and very fit. Actually, she would probably prefer to let go of the leash and harness, run around the forest and take what she can get her hands on. But she can’t. We don’t want our dogs to kill animals, scare children and poop in the nursery’s sandbox. When we nevertheless let them loose, it is the owner’s full responsibility that they do not do anything we dislike. For exactly the same reason, all cats born after 2023 should be used to walking on a leash from an early age. There are lots of good reasons why people should enjoy cats. But take the same responsibility for cats as people do for dogs. If someone claims that it is worse for a cat to be on a leash than for a dog, I must state on professional grounds that, sorry, it is a spray. Get the cat used to walking on a leash from a young age, let it go and let it play under control. That you take responsibility is better for both the cat and you. And for 7 million small birds. They have a very reasonable claim to avoid being killed just because we don’t bother looking after our own cats.
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Put a leash on the cat – Speech
