The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute's Peter Marra estimates that outdoor cats in the United States, counting both pets and feral animals, kill up to 3.7 billion birds each year-along with up to 20 billion other small mammals. Researchers estimate that roughly 114 million cats live in the contiguous U.S., 84 million of them pets and the rest feral-and that as many as 70 percent of pet cats spend some time roaming outside and hunting. "Cats are a nonnative species," reminds Marra, adding that they often target native species and can transform places that would normally harbor many young birds into "sinks that drain birds from neighboring populations." As a result of this ongoing...
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