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Says American Bird Conservancy’s campaign of misinformation detracts from the real threats to wildlife

For Immediate Release: August 8, 2012
Contact: CARLA DAVIS, cdavis@alleycat.org or (240) 482-3887; PATRICIA JONES, media@alleycat.org or (718) 651-7187

BETHESDA, MD— Alley Cat Allies, the only national advocacy organization dedicated to the protection and humane treatment of cats, today criticized the American Bird Conservancy for grossly misinterpreting new research being done at the University of Georgia and using it to support misleading claims that cats are one of the main reasons for bird species decline.

University researchers used “kitty cams” to follow 55 pet cats in suburban Athens, Georgia. In one week, the cats caught five birds. As the research team’s graduate student, Kerrie Anne Loyd, told Alley Cat Allies, “We studied pet cats, not stray cats and feral cats…We did not attempt to extrapolate wildlife captures beyond our study community.”

“The American Bird Conservancy’s propaganda is just more of the same—spreading fictions about outdoor cats and making wild ‘extrapolations’ about their imagined impact on other species,” said Becky Robinson, president of Alley Cat Allies. “They’ve used unpublished data to fuel their extremist agenda of killing cats. But there just isn’t evidence that shows cats have any negative impact on bird populations.

“What the evidence does point to is people—habitat loss, pollution, and urban sprawl are the top reasons that bird populations are declining.”

Robinson noted that the American Bird Conservancy’s campaign to eradicate cats is shortsighted and ineffective. “Killing one species to save another can never be the answer,” she said. “People are interested in humane approaches for cats, and it’s time that everyone in the animal-loving community acknowledges that.”

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