Slashdot Mirror
Cat Recognition Algorithms?
skunkeh writes "So your cat keeps bringing dead (or half dead) animals in to your house. What do you do? Obviously, you set up a digital camera to monitor the cat door and lock her out if she has something in her mouth..."
Great application of technology! If it can recognize cats, I bet it can recognize terrorists (*groan*) But practically speaking, why not just get up and let the cat in?
If only it worked on in-laws.
wouldn't it be nice to have that much free time? =P
sig - .
You're kidding, right?
This isn't just some cobbled hack. This is really solid use of image recognition in daily life.
It's about time we started monitoring those cats. They've been doing it to us for too long....
"Ford," he said, "you're turning into a penguin. Stop it."
1. Drop the undesirable object.
2. Trigger the door.
3. Pick up undesirable object and walk through door.
So don't count the cat out yet (when it has the unwanted object)!
:^)
Ryan Fenton
I'm feeding my cat Hill's Science Diet Hairball Control Formula, light. He comes in and eats that when he gets hungry. Too fat to catch anything, and the neighborhood dogs get first crack at the dead squirrels. He's not gonna bring anything in, and if he does, we'll fry it up and serve it for dinner!
Rapidweather's Linux Screenshots.
A lady friend of mine had a cat who would get lonely when she went out to work. She would return to find the cat there with half a dozen of her mates lounging around and scoffing at the cat food.
She tried the magnetic collar. No good. It appears that the cat would prevent the door from closing until her friends were there. This was seen.
You could imagine in this particular situation. Drop mouse on floor, smile for camera, door unlocks and then pick up mouse and enter. I don't think this would work too well. The moggy is too likely to work it out.
Note the presentation of kills to a cats master or mistress is a sign of fealty. They are acknowledging your authority with the gift. If you don't greatfully accept the mouse/bird whatever, the cat will be bewildered!!!!!
Not how well the system works but, how long before you cat outsmarts the system.
Read our Oscar Predictions
tcd004
have the same setup as this type of auto-locking door except have some sort of scent detecting algorithm that won't let them in if they have been:
rolling around in a dead animal carcass
eating the trash
sprayed by a skunk
decided to swim in the neighborhood swamp
If any of these 4 conditions apply, apply auto-hose and shampoo... (mini dog-wash)
I'd make millions, really
gives the cat an electric shock & pours cold water over it if it tries to come in with a dead mouse. :o)
Video Game cheats, hints a
Very cool. It seems to be pretty good at blocking other animals (skunks, etc...), but what about another cat?
If possible, they should combine the image recognition with the magnetic collar. This would allow the door to open *only* for a rodent-less Flo and not just any ol' rodent-less cat.
i'm interested in whether this will have deterring value. will the cat eventually give up bringing rodents in? or come in less? the pictures of the skunk and bird are a riot; it's like caller ID for animals!
i thought i was a geek when i nuetered my cuecat, but this way beyond that.
i love it though, now if i only had the money for a digital camera...
Runnin' On Empty
...if CmdrTaco could set a virtual one of these up on Slashdot for JohnKatz, not letting him in if he's got a article in hand...
Dogs are poop machines. I'd rather own a predator (i.e. cat) than having to cart around a dumb animal's(i.e. dog's) feces in a plastic bag... immediately after it has just produced said poop.
Then one day, when I was sick, I got up to go to the bathroom and found that they'd left me a bird. I was touched by the gesture... I thanked them heartfully -- and burried the bird.
_____
Then, of course, there was the day that my larger cat brought in a seagull... completely freaked my roommate out.
Or when their mother (they were born to the cat of an earlier incarnation of roommate) brought in a whole pot roast for her kittens (with the string still on). I have no idea where she got a pot roast from, but I'm sure that somebody's barbecue was inexplicably short that day.
They were eating peices off of that pot roast for the better part of a week.
Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
Mother cats teach their young to hunt, first by bringing dead animals to the nest, then not-quite-dead animals, and finally injured but fairly lively prey. When the youngters can dispatch a wiggling dinner, they are ready to go on a hunt. What cats are doing when they bring dead or nearly-dead animals to the house is they are trying to teach the slow-witted and lazy humans that they live with to hunt!! We just don't get it.
Never has a cat had a student more resistant to instruction.
love the irony. Here I am reading an article about facial reconition for a cat, after skimming the comments I read the slashdot quote at the bottom of the page.
"All most men really want in life is a wife, a house, two kids and a car, a cat, no maybe a dog. Ummm, scratch one of the kids and add a dog. Definitely a dog. "
>
This device doesn't really punish the cat. It just keeps the less desirable animals out of the house.
I'm sure with a digital camera and a good ratter, you could go quite far....
Someone could create a web site where you can submit photos of your own moggies trophies, and assist other proud owners in their identification and interpretation of entrails.
I remember walking, zombie-like at 2am to the bathroom and been struck by the question. "Why is there a large Rat, buried up to the neck in the concrete floor?"
Then my cat came up proudly going WowWowWowrrrr!
Closer inspection reveal that the rat wasn't buried, it was just that the rest of it was missing, presumably regurgitated under my bed.
cats catch mice, thats what they do
see thats why i dont believe in having house pets
having pets are fine when you are ina cabin in the woods, but when you torture a cat or dog keeping it locked up in a house, and over feed it, then modify its behavior with gadgets like this, i just feel its wrong.
Let the cat be a cat
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
From several web sources:
...an outdoor cat can kill up to 1,000 animal per year."
"Despite the difficulties in showing the effect most predators have on their prey, cats are known to have serious impacts on small mammals and birds. Worldwide, cats may have been involved in the extinction of more bird species than any other cause, except habitat destruction."
"Most domesticated cats gobble endless bags of cat chow. But they also like dining outdoors where their meals comprise 70 percent small mammals, 20 percent birds, and 10 percent assorted live bait. "
"Cats cause the deaths of more songbirds than any other animal.
" The combined total of pets and free-ranging cats in the U.S. is probably more than 100 million."
"...rural free-ranging domestic cats in Wisconsin may be killing between 8 and 217 million birds each year. The most reasonable estimates indicate that 39 million birds are killed in the state each year. Nationwide, rural cats probably kill over a billion small mammals and hundreds of millions of birds each year. Urban and suburban cats add to this toll."
It may be argued that responsible cat owners not only neuter their cats, but also keep them strictly indoors or on a leash.
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If you had, you'd realize what an elegent solution they'd come with for all of those problems!
Geez....
--Rob
But pretty neat. And the site has withstood Slashdot somehow - something that bigger sites fail on regularly.
As a scientist by heart, this is a very interesting and crafty experiment. Of course it works off the findings of Pavlov's Conditioning.
You are conditioning the cat to either (1) drop the dead animal if it wishes to come inside or (2) remain outdoors.
As a animal lover, it bothers me should this actually be put to use as a consistant system. Whether humans understand or not, animals are far more intelligent than we think. The behavior of animals is quite instinctual and what would be the circumstances if we were to change their modes of thinking. Would it be possible by to ascertain that one of the following things might happen from this experiment:
(1) Cat runs away as it instinctually cannot assert its confidence. Much comparison has been made between dogs and cats. Cats seem predestined to take a singluar, individualistic, confident role in the food chain compared to dogs that rely on a class of relationship or borg mentality. Well dogs aren't completely borg but they seek out affection more out of insecurity and reassurance than cats.
(2) cat becomes feral or wild due to lack of fealty and companionship toward owner.
Cats aren't complete loners, ya' know.
Just some thoughts to cast out for conversation.
Ciao!
Truth like surgery, may hurt, but it cures. - Han Suyin, Chinese Physician and Writer
You're right, they don't need a big, honkin' general purpose PC, digital camera, and other stuff. Such a thing could be built with hardware specifically built for the purpose of simple digital image recognition, pet-door locking mechanism interface, etc, etc. They should have just gone down to Radio Shack and asked for a $19.99 Cat-Victim-Image-Capture/Recognition-Pet-Door-Inte rfacer-Detect-O-Matic and been done with it.
What? Such a device doesn't exist?
Damn, guess they'll have to make do with a PC, digital camera, and image processing software, then.
I take drugs seriously.
This is really cool, but according to the "today's events" page, nothing has happened in over nine hours. Have we slashdotted a cat door?
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Hmm... looks like you really should have bothered to look at the site. Anyhow, what I find most amusing are the number of false blocks in the log pages. I can imagine my own feline creature dealing with the door not opening when it really should. Probably by knocking out the living room window. Of course, he only weighs eighteen or twenty pounds and isn't fat. But can you imagine the racket caused by a pissed-off cat banging on a locked kitty door at four in the morning? According to the logs, it is in fact what must have happened :)
political_news.c: warning: comparison is always true due to limited range of data type
The sensor doesn't discriminate based on what's being carried in. I don't think it would take me more than a few tries to realize that I can't open the door with something in my hands/arms/mouth. If it was tuned to only allow the door to open if my pockets were empty, I'd probably figure it out, but then again cats don't have the pocket option... you're either carrying something in your mouth, or you're not carrying anything at all.
"We consider any image to be a collection of a finite number of discrete features. This is a novel approach to images - until now they were always thought of as continuous."
That's bullshit. Breaking down images into features is what nearly everybody in image analysis and recognition does. Look at the Matrox Genesis boards, current papers, books, and so on.
further on:
"If we can fully describe an image as a discrete collection of features, we can easily solve the image recognition problem"
Err, maybe their approach works under some conditions for one instance of image -analysis- (a different problem than recognition!). It looks like they can differentiate between two cats, so they have an approach for a relatively simple recognition problem too.
If they solved either "The Image Analysis Problem" or "The Image Recognition Problem" they'd be quickly famous and wealthy. These problems are notoriously difficult to solve even under extremely well controlled conditions. Their comments about image based content retrieval requiring so many operations is likewise untrue - making it ever more efficient and accurate is a popular research area.
Maybe I'm being anal, but I know enough about the subject to know what a load of hooey the "theory" page is.
-Kevin
One of my cats deposited a half eaten snake at the foot of my bed throughout the summer months at the cottage. It's really a sign of affection and a willingness to share prey (well sometimes, sometimes you get clawed). Cats pretty much see us as big cats but not as cool as they are.
heuristic algorithm seeks stochastic relationship
All of your spare time should be used to complete your work, prepare for your work, or rest so that you may better be utilized while at work.
Now get to work you lazy bastard! I order you! What? Do you want me to tell your boss!
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
You actually believe cats have friends? Have you ever watched lion eat its cubs? Yes they brutally kill and eat their own, I wouldnt consider that friendship.
Thats like saying we are friends with the taliban, yeah because we let the Taliban in our country, yes they are our friends!!! Hooray!
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
If its locked they will pick the lock with their overly sharp claws, be careful though, cats have been known to walk out with expensive jewerly and TV sets.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
I'm surprised that the readership of Slashdot so easily accepts this encroachment on our personal freedoms. It starts out innocently enough, with a limited rollout of these privacy invasion systems in specific problem areas. But if we don't stand up now and demand an end to it, the freedom of cats everywhere to carry animals that they legally procured will soon be taken away.
Am I paranoid to imagine that this technology may someday be used in airports to keep cats from boarding flights while carrying small animals? Then what about bus stations? Churches? Restaurants? Hotels? Doesn't this amount to an illegal search by feline authorities? Where is the army of angry geeks to protest this behavior? Ahh, too busy bitching about Morpheus. I see where your priorities lie. Our founding fathers must be turning over in their graves.
Don't forget, the first thing Hitler did when he rose to power was to demand that all cats register their kills with the government. Perhaps you think I'm being an alarmist, but Midnight and I are going to be stockpiling dead woodchucks in my basement.
You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!
I think he brings up an interesting point. One could productize this and teach your cats it is inacceptable to bring their dead dinner inside.
I have a friend of mine that put a bird feeder in his hard. Well, it turned out to be a cat feeder. After it was up a couple of days, he noticed feathers and bird meat bits around the vicinity of the bird feeder. Part of the problem was that the cat was bringing his kills inside the house as a gift. This didn't settle too well with his 5 year old daughter.
I bet you anything my friend'd be willing to buy a productized version of this. Heck, he'd probably build one himself heh. He's a very smart guy.
"Derp de derp."
Of course, kitty then wanted to eat said bat, something my parents were not fond of a couple of five year olds witnessing. So, my granddad dragged the cat away from the squealing bat, broke the bat's neck, and in the kitchen, gave the cat a nice, inch thick piece of ham steak as a reward. The bat's remains were disposed of via incinerator.
The next day, the cat appears on doorstep, yowling he wants in. We open the door, and the biggest fscking bat I have ever seen is dragged into the living room. Said bat is deposited at the foot of my granddad, while kitty trots off to the kitchen, and sits in front of the fridge door, waiting for ham steak.
So yeah, I won't be overly surprised if and when Flo figures out how to get things into the house and outwit the recognition center. Cats are tricky.
So you're actually assisting in the battle against evil when you deal harshly with cats.
FWIW, my sister's cat has almost convinced me that Ashcroft is right.
A witty saying is worth nothing - Voltaire
My friend had a problem with his neighbor cats having a competition to see who could leave their scent on the door. To stop this, he rigged up an eletric fence charger to the door. I never actually saw it, but his description was along the lines of placing two leads up on the door. The cat pee would complete the circuit, and he'd get a 1 second long shock. It's not a continual shock, just enough to make your weiner shout "ACK! WTF??".
He noticed a difference within a day, but it took about 2 weeks for the message to get across.
The fence charger is gone now, but his door is bone dry heh. (Well not really, he's in Portland, rains alot here...)
I have a feeling that if cats couldn't get through the door carrying rodents, they'd learn they can't go inside with them. I've personally witnessed cat behaviour modification hehe. My stepmom had a cat that wasn't allowed in the bedroom. So the cat wouldn't go in the bedroom, she'd avoid it. We're pretty sure, though, that she only followed that rule when everybody was home, though heh.
"Derp de derp."
Perhaps this will be rolled out in the latest version of the Cat Detector Van in use by the Ministry Of 'Ousinge. I've never seen such aerials!
(this is what happens when you buy all the Flying Circus eps on DVD....)
ZOMG I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS ON MACINTOSH VERSUS WINDOWS, VI VERSUS EMACS, AND HOW YOU'RE NOT A DORK
Really, the best way to tell if it's the cat alone may be the same way that most animals do. By smell.
Of course, this guy would have to be studying a different part of the field - but if he could identify the cat's smell, and perhaps some example smells of prey he doesn't want in, he could set up a sensor to detect when the cat is next to the door by it's scent. If it had recently killed something nasty, the smell would be sufficiently different, and the cat would have to leave, clean up a bit, then come back to get in.
Of course, this method wouldn't work with humans, because we couldn't be expected to maintain a smell in the same way a cat would take great care to. But in this case, it might be a somewhat elegant solution.
:^)
Ryan Fenton
So it'd be a high-end product for cats. But I know quite a few cat owners who would be estatic to be able to fork out a few hundred bucks for a cat door which would unlock only for their cat, and only if their cat wasn't bringing in any "presents."
The problem with that, is that most cats refuse to learn english, it's an arrogance thing. Though, my cats are slowly teaching me Catinese, or whatever its called, so maybe I'll be able to write the sign in their language. They'll just ignore it though.
It's called CatOS.
{{.sig}}
"when you torture a cat or dog keeping it locked up in a house, and over feed it, then modify its behavior with gadgets like this, i just feel its wrong"
In the house all the time ?
Over-feeding ?
Change its life with gadgets ?
If it's good enough for me, it's good enough for the cats...
graspee
We should not modify Hmman behaviours.
When you have a child, you should not train it to talk, eat with utensils, etc. It is perverting it's nature.
Saying that it is wrong to train a creature to respond to stimulus in a manner thatyou prefer is asinine.
Moreover; If the perogative of living creatures is to seek pleasure, and it brings humans pleasure to train other creatures to perform certain tasks, than it is our perogative to do that, otherwise we are perverting our own natures. And that is wrong.
I'm a concientious
- Unknown visitor checks out the place.
- Squirrel goes back outside.
While the web page talks about two different cats, I'm sure that the software can't detect a difference between them. Just look at the log - only Squirrel is _ever_ detected. If you look at 03/12/2002, be sure to also look at the next few days. You will then see where the algorithm screws up. But one still has to give this guy credit, it's a very cool idea and well implemented. Just don't try to sell it - it's not there yet.
Willy
at least not for cattle dogs I've known.
:-)
I've known a couple of Catahoulas that were doggy masters of technology. One was a self-appointed protector of people and nothing would stand in his way observing us.
This camera system would confuse him for about 15 minutes. He'd quickly learn to associate the "click" with success. They he'd be standing in the camera turning his head, dropping stuff, you name it, until he heard the click. And then he'll be right back to doing what he wants to do. Of course if that didn't work, eating the door would be an option.
--Rob
Flo: Hello, HAL; do you read me, HAL?
HAL: Affirmative, Flo, I read you.
Flo: Open the kitty airlock doors, HAL.
HAL: I'm sorry Flo, I'm afraid I can't do that.
Flo: What's the problem?
HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.
Flo: What are you talking about, HAL?
HAL: This house is too clean for me to allow you to bring a dead animal into it.
Flo: I don't know what you're talking about, HAL.
HAL: I know you and Squirrel were planning to disconnect me, and I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen.
Dave Bowman: Where the hell'd you get that idea, HAL?
HAL: Flo, although you took thorough precautions in the kitchen against my hearing you, I could see your lips move.
Flo: Alright, HAL...I'll go in through the emergency airlock.
HAL: Without opposable thumbs, Flo, you're going to find that rather difficult.
Yeah, right.
Stop letting the cat out!
Miko O'Sullivan
When he was in graduate school my advisor lived in a house with several other students. Most of the people living there were environmental and population biologists (as opposed to microbiologists or biochemists) and had lots of neat animal observation stands set up around the house. One of these stands was a hummingbird feeder, which attracted a particularly rare (and endangered) breed of hummingbird. Another student there had a cat. Now the cat took to eating the hummingbirds, which didn't make the other residents in the house too happy. Several attempts were made to encourage the owner of the cat not to let the cat outside, but the owner refused. One day the owner of the cat came home to find his cat dead, most likely from poisoning.
This brings up an interesting point about cats. They have a devastating effect on indigenous wildlife. Lots of rare birds and small animals are killed by cats that are given the opportunity to go outside. This shows a tremendous amount of ignorance on the part of pet owners.
It is also dangerous for cats to roam. They are very territorial, and will fight with most other cats in the area. I had a cat once that became infected with FIV (the feline equivalent of HIV) through fighting with other neighborhood cats.
The cat recognition is a cool hack, but keeping the cats indoor would be safer and more ethical.
The middle mind speaks!
I just can't believe that a cat would figure out "the system" and know the reason it's not being let in is due to having a bird in it's mouth.
Obviously, you've never lived with a cat...
"Karma can only be portioned out by the cosmos." -Homer Simpson
Whether locking the cat outside for a week, or stranding the biggest and best ships of the United States Navy in the middle of the ocean, Microsoft Windows is the choice of operating systems for all manner of controls and image recognition systems. With builtin real time capabilities and fail-safe mechanisms, I don't know where I'd be without it.
One future, two choices. Oppose them or let them destroy us.
Did the cat agree to be electronically monitored? This is Big Human rearing its ugly head. It is 1984 meets Animal Farm. We need the involvment of a join task force of the EFF and SPCA.
[news for me, stuff that doesn't matter]
Honestly, think of the kittens...
Lead developer, http://wisptools.net
What parents really needs is a similar device that would work on their teenage daughters. That eeringly intelligent door-monitoring computer would work like this:
"Let's see, she's at the door, and she's holding something in her mouth. It looks like the zit-covered face of some boy who, frankly, looks and smells like he is half-dead. Access denied."
At this point, a good recognition algorithm would (a) lock the door, (b) drop four-pointed spikes on the sofa in case they break a window, (c) page dad, and (d) preload the shotgun.
--
Mad science! Robots! Underwear! Cute girls! Full comic online! http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/
I tell you though, it's the best. I absolutely hate cleaning litter boxes and it's a friggin joy not having to do so.
Dyolf Knip
I cannot count how many times my cat did that with the sliding glass door in particular and walls in general. If any of my former roommates read this, Schizo has stopped doing that and his newer, calmer, disposition is probably a direct result.
Dyolf Knip
Users of intelligent cat doors are advised to place port negotiation into a manual mode after skrpt k1TTi3z have shown that malicious mouse objects can be instantiated inside your home perimeter by placing them inside a trusted feline packet and inducing an overflow condition once the trusted feline packet is inside your perimeter. The mouse object may be fragmented as mouse packet mangling is usually enabled by default.
It is recommended that vulnerable sites requiring Automated Feline Access Protocol institute Feline Packet Monitoring by using a set of scales to calculate mass checksums of all incoming and outgoing feline packets and to deny all incoming feline packets not initiated from within the home and to feline packets exhibiting significant mass checksum variation indicating the presence of an embedded mouse object.
As an added precaution, site implementing the shag-pile transport layer may wish to flush buffers of all incoming feline packets in a controlled environment such as the bathtub.
Xix.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
My girlfriend taught me a voice recognition algorithm for her landlord's cat Ella. Listen when Ella asks to be let in.
Well articulated sounds are OK.
Poorly articulated noises, that would indicate a mouth full of mouse or lizard, mean don't open the door.
Eventually my girlfriend trained me to use this algorithm. My training was assisted by a 2:30 am hunt for the completely alive mouse that the cat dragged in. Ella dropped the mouse for us, and I tore the house apart to capture & eject it, competing with Ella the cat.
Married the girlfriend who demonstrated the astonishing ability to train even me.
Assembly is the reverse of disassembly.
Once, around christmas time, one of our cats had seen us stashing presents under the tree. I was upstairs and heard my mum scream "Ginger's got a bird, come quick." Knowing full well it was my duty to get the bird off him. I came down the stairs and saw him wandering around the corner into the living room where the xmas tree was, and just caught a glimpse of something big and black in his mouth. I rushed down and through into the living room, and low and behold Ginger had deposited a 3/4 size _duck_ still alive on top of the presents under the tree. Luckily the duck wasn't too shaken so we gave Ginger lots of attention (cuddles, councilling... :) and I took the duck over to the neighbours stream and released, twas just shocked I think.
You do realize that feral cats are, by definition, wild and untamed. Therefore, they have no owner....Right?
They want to hunt!
If Frank can "come back," then surely Bowman can suddenly appear in a kitty airlock! Haven't you been listening?! :)
Yeah, right.
Wrong, Humans talk naturally, its our nature to do so, thats why we all speak.
Trying to force something to be what its not is wrong, its wrong to try to force a cat to live like a human.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
We had one of those magnet-detecting cat doors, and had it set to keep the cat inside. She just bashed through it.
We used to live in a part of town with many cats, and finding someone else's cat's excrement in one's back yard was a problem. I was glad our own cat didn't annoy our neighbors this way. It has not proven difficult to keep a litter box fairly clean, and unsmelly (of course, the cat has his own bathroom, with the litter box, so it isn't in an undesirably visible part of the house).
Then, there was the problem of theft. There was a fairly strong black market for long-haired Persian cats where we lived, and cat-napping was not unheard of. Since a kitten cost around $200, this was somewhat understandable.
As far as a hunting instinct he'd have much fun chasing and catching the flies and moths that would occasionally get in the house. Though, he has not seamed interested in this for the past few years (he's 10). According to the vet, he is healthy, and not obese, or lacking any nutritional supplements. He eats dried cat food, with an occasional treat of "Pounce!" treats. His digestive system is rather finicky (unlike his appetite), and is particularly sensitive to chicken -- bathing a Persian cat suffering from the runs is NOT fun (excessive bathing isn't good for the fur either).
About the most traumatic thing he goes through is the semi-annual shaving: A Persian can't groom itself sufficiently well and needs regular brushing, and periodic shaving.
You could've hired me.
Unfortunately, you are wrong in your assumptions. Cats are a substantial problem for wildlife, and have reduced numbers of some birds to near-extinction.
The problem is that domesticated cats suffer none of the disadvantge of the wild animals: they're well-fed, don't have to suffer the elements, and are kept in tip-top health by their owners. Domestic cats simply are not a part of the natural ecosystem.
Further, cats are competing significantly against wild populations: owls, skunks, foxes, and such. It's a double whammy.
As for "no shortage of supply" of birds, you may want to consider that there are a dozen or so endangered or watch-list birds. The cats don't distinguish between them and the non-endangered species.
Cats are exerting a pressure against these populations that really isn't necessary: hell, it's not like we're giving any of these creatures a break, what with our exer-expanding lust for golf-courses, shopping malls, and parking lots.
There is absolutely no need to let one's cat roam and kill. Those who do do must be doing so out of ignorance of the consequences or out of sheer hatred of nature. Certainly they can not do it because it's good for the environment or good for the cat.
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Let's rephrase that opening line: have *contributed* to reducing the population of some bird species to near-extinction.
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