Cat Wars: The Devastating Consequences of a Cuddly Killer

by Peter P. Marra, Chris Santella

Overview

Why our cats are a danger to species diversity and human health

In 1894, a lighthouse keeper named David Lyall arrived on Stephens Island off New Zealand with a cat named Tibbles. In just over a year, the Stephens Island Wren, a rare bird endemic to the island, was rendered extinct. Mounting scientific evidence confirms what many conservationists have suspected for some time—that in the United States alone, free-ranging cats are killing birds and other animals by the billions. Equally alarming are the little-known but potentially devastating public health consequences of rabies and parasitic Toxoplasma passing from cats to humans at rising rates. Cat Wars tells the story of the threats free-ranging cats pose to biodiversity and public health throughout the world, and sheds new light on the controversies surrounding the management of the explosion of these cat populations.

This compelling book traces the historical and cultural ties between humans and cats from early domestication to the current boom in pet ownership, along the way accessibly explaining the science of extinction, population modeling, and feline diseases. It charts the developments that have led to our present impasse—from Stan Temple's breakthrough studies on cat predation in Wisconsin to cat-eradication programs underway in Australia today. It describes how a small but vocal minority of cat advocates has campaigned successfully for no action in much the same way that special interest groups have stymied attempts to curtail smoking and climate change.

Cat Wars paints a revealing picture of a complex global problem—and proposes solutions that foresee a time when wildlife and humans are no longer vulnerable to the impacts of free-ranging cats.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691167411
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	09/20/2016
Pages:	216
Sales rank:	1,012,558
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Peter P. Marra has written more than 175 scientific publications, is the coeditor of Birds of Two Worlds, and directs the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. Chris Santella is the author of many books, including the Fifty Places travel and outdoor series and The Tug Is the Drug. His writing has appeared in such publications as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New Yorker, and Trout.

Table of Contents

1 The Obituary of the Stephens Island Wren 1

2 America’s Dairy Land and Its Killing Fields 10

3 The Rise of Bird Lovers and Cat Lovers: The Perfect Storm 29

4 The Science of Decline 49

5 The Zombie Maker: Cats as Agents of Disease 75

6 Taking Aim at the Problem 95

7 Trap-Neuter-Return: A Palatable Solution That Is No Solution At All 121

8 A Landscape with Fewer Free-Ranging Cats: Better for Cats, Better for Birds, Better for People 144

9 What Kind of Nature Awaits? 168

Acknowledgments 179

Notes 181

References 185

Index 201

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Very few people enjoy thinking about the calamitous problem of free-roaming cats and biodiversity, and even fewer dare to talk about it openly. Marra and Santella's book is therefore doubly welcome. It's not only important reading for anyone who cares about nature. With its engaging storytelling, its calmly scientific approach, and its compassionate handling of a highly fraught issue, this is also a book that a person might actually read for pleasure."—Jonathan Franzen

"Cats, most of them unowned free-ranging cats, kill as many as four billion birds in the United States each year. What, if anything, should be done about it? Cat Wars tackles this difficult dilemma. If you are a cat lover, a bird lover, a philosopher, an ethicist, or just anyone interested in gut-wrenching dilemmas, you will find this a gripping book."—Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel

"Here, at last, is what native-ecosystem advocates have been waiting for—a complete, dispassionate examination of America's free-ranging cat debacle. It's all here—from the horrendous bird mortality to the cat-borne pathogens blighting wildlife and humans to the cruelty and futility of Trap-Neuter-Return. Everyone gets to speak—including the feral-cat lobby."—Ted Williams, environmental journalist

"The level-tempered approach of Cat Wars will win many advocates. Anyone interested in the broader topics of a healthy environment and healthy human society will benefit from reading this book. It's as powerful as TV ads featuring the ‘crying Indian' in the antilittering campaign of the early 1970s."—Bill Thompson III, editor of Bird Watcher's Digest

"In Cat Wars, Peter Marra and Chris Santella lay out the extraordinary (and extraordinarily devastating) toll that America's favorite pet inflicts on America's favorite birds. At a time when native bird populations are in desperate trouble, and the number of free-ranging cats has never been higher, the authors bring clear-eyed science and commonsense solutions to one of the most polarizing issues in avian conservation. This is an important book, even if the message is not a comfortable one."—Scott Weidensaul, author of Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds

"A great overview of a complex and often emotional challenge. Cat Wars unravels yet another layer of the global decline in biodiversity and frames the potentially drastic consequences of inaction."—Grant Sizemore, American Bird Conservancy

"Cat Wars is a brave, engaging, and careful accounting of the cats we love and the devastation they inflict on birds and other wildlife."—John M. Marzluff, author of Welcome to Subirdia: Sharing Our Neighborhoods with Wrens, Robins, Woodpeckers, and Other Wildlife

Editorial Reviews

09/12/2016
Marra, director of Smithsonian’s Migratory Bird Center, and travel writer Santella (author of the Fifty Places travel guides) thoughtfully examine the severe ecological damage caused by feral cats and outdoor pet cats. Their highly readable explanations show how cats became an invasive species in fragile ecosystems such as New Zealand and the Revillagigedo Islands and discuss the damage caused by diseases that cats can spread to humans and other animals. Cat lovers are presented in a sympathetic light throughout, making the book worth reading no matter a reader’s position on free-ranging cats. The authors suggest reasonable solutions—backed by scientific studies—to end feral cats’ devastation of birds and mammals while sparing thousands of unwanted cats from suffering short and difficult lives. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"Marra and Santella make an impassioned plea for action in this compelling report on an often overlooked threat."

Scientific American

"Cat Wars, a brilliantly crafted book, describes numerous scientific studies that link bird disappearance to free-ranging feral domestic cats."

NSTA Recommends

"TNR advocates and birders with outdoor cats are encouraged to read this book."

Birdwatcher's Digest

"Cat Wars is a work of commanding reasonableness, with plenty of facts and figures and the testimonies of experts to support its unpalatable conclusions. There are some fascinating digressions, too, including sympathetic profiles of activists on both sides of the debate in the U.S."

The Australian

"This deeply researched overview by conservation scientist Peter Marra and writer Chris Santella interlaces discussions of feline domestication and avian conservation with the science of decline and of feline spillover diseases."

Nature

"Cat Wars is valuable that it calls to attention a huge problem (set of problems, really) of which many people have, hitherto, been unaware—or ignored."

000 Birds Blog 10

One of Forbes.com’s 10 Best Conservation and Environment Books of 2016

From the Publisher

"This deeply researched overview by conservation scientist Peter Marra and writer Chris Santella interlaces discussions of feline domestication and avian conservation with the science of decline and of feline spillover diseases."

Nature Lib

"Cat Wars is valuable that it calls to attention a huge problem (set of problems, really) of which many people have, hitherto, been unaware—or ignored."

10000 Birds Blog

09/01/2016
In 2013, Marra (director, Smithsonian Migratory Bird Ctr.) authored a headline-grabbing predation study estimating that 60 to 100 million outdoor cats (any cat outside, whether owned or stray) kill around a billion birds and mammals a year. Marra and coauthor Santella (The Tug Is the Drug) cite this statistic as the primary reason that free-ranging cats should be eradicated by any means necessary, including large-scale euthanasia, shooting, and poisoning. In addition, the authors claim that cats pose an imminent public health threat (because of rabies, plague, and toxoplasmosis) and could be the final blow to species already on the brink of extinction. To a great extent, Mara and Santella exaggerate the "looming" public health and extinction threats posed by free-ranging cats in this country. By repeatedly referring to the domestic cat as a plague and an invasive species, they make mass eradication seem an appropriate punishment for bird-killing cats, but no animal welfare organization endorses such action. They also fail to disclose that Marra is one of the authors of the 2013 cat predation study. VERDICT This book is not recommended on its own merits, but the pitting of cat lovers against bird lovers is the kind of polarizing approach that draws media attention, so there may be demand for it among those interested in the topic.—Cynthia Lee Knight, Hunterdon Cty. Historical Soc., Flemington, NJ

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