Killer cats and XL bullies: We need to rethink pet ownership

Often, I look at my beloved cat Bertie and wonder how it’s possible that he is a miniature predator. He’s a large black cat, a former stray who is blind in one eye after a few too many scraps on the streets. Now he lives a life of total leisure as an indoor cat, meowing all day for pets and food, snoring in his multitude of beds, and occasionally running headfirst into furniture.

And yet, he is a predator. If I were to let Bertie outside, he would join his brethren in killing thousands of species of birds, rodents and other miscellaneous small animals. It’s hard to believe – given the imploring look he gives me when he gets a claw stuck on the sofa – but a recent paper published in the Nature Communications journal labelled house cats “the most problematic invasive species of all time”. This is because felines take pleasure in killing just about anything smaller than them that moves, with no consideration for whether they are endangered animals.