Common lizards and cats.

Hi - sounds like you live in a lizard hotspot, which is not common for Oxfordshire.  So my first comment would be to let the Oxon ARG / BBOWT know about the presence of lizards and any other Record Centres, to make sure that the place where they are coming from is as safe from development as possible!  Although the threat to individual lizards from your cats is a real one, the threat from the bulldozers would be much greater...  Also if lizards are present are slowworms/grass snakes (assume not adder) there too?  Could be worth a closer look.

As far as the cats are concerned, apart from keeping them inside in lizard-friendly weather (which I guess will not be practical for you) there is little that can be done - bells may work to alert birds and mammals but I don't think lizards are particularly sensitive to bells and probably won't make the connection between a bell and the possibility of imminent death...

As the lizards aren't being killed outright (or so badly injured that they need to be euthanised) I would recommend putting them in a warm-ish and well ventilated box with some damp-ish moss for half an hour and then releasing them far away from the cats and in suitable cover in suitable weather conditions.

I guess what I am suggesting is that by helping to conserve the lizard habitat you will be reducing the deficit in the local lizard population which your cats are potentially causing.  A bit like carbon-offsetting but for cats instead...   I could advise you to enhance the habitat in your garden, but of course this is likely to result in more captures by the cats...

Cheers

Will

Sadly keeping free-roaming cats and caring about wildlife do not go easily hand in hand, as Will said, bells (and I believe you need to put two on each cats collar, as they can learn to muffle one) do not work at all for reptiles and amphibians. If you really can't stop your cats roaming, you could try cat bibs.

The free-roaming vs indoor cat may be a never ending debate, but in terms of safety for the cat and which type offers greater responsible care for wildlife, the indoor cat definitely wins. As to which cats are happier, I'm not sure, I don't have evidence to present for either side and I certainly wouldn't assume that a cat that isn't put out to roam the streets is unhappy

As an owner of any pet, you take on the responsibility for that animal, I know I want mine to be safe and I know I don't want them to kill wildlife, so I take measures to avoid that.

In many places people think it cruel to keep dogs on leads, or inside houses, dogs should be free to roam in groups. I've met many dog walkers here in the UK who think it wrong to try and stop their dogs chasing wildlife, it is after all in their nature to do so just the same as it is with cats.

In areas where there are deer or ground nesting birds, I keep my dogs on leads, I have also trained them not to chase fledgling birds or try to 'play' with frogs. I also keep them on leads near busy roads for safety, are these restrictions on them also wrong?

I'd definitely be with you on the shades of grey for many topics, I'm tiresome with how often I take the many sides point of debate. Sadly though, we assault our wildlife from so many angles now and there's just so many of us putting pressure on the life that is hanging on, that as a certain supermarket says 'every little helps'.

I sort of take less issue with the type of people whose dogs kill swans or deer, they all too often have the attitude of not caring about wildlife at all, it's unfortunate, but many people just don't see it as important. However I find it more strange with people who do care, yet still accept a certain amount of wildlife death from their pets as 'inevitable', especially as when know how much damage our pets can and do cause.

As a very fitting event to witness, today I heard a blackbird going crazy in our back garden. When I went out to have a look I watched our new neighbour's cat raiding the blackbirds nest in our other neighbour's garden. It is possible it may have also got to some other birds nests as a pair of dunnocks and a robin were all out there agitatedly bouncing up and down on the fence post watching it all for ages as well. I'd feel awful if I thought any of my pets killed bird chicks or wrecked nests.

Really feel for you with your wildlife garden Gemma. It never ceases to amaze me that as a society that is very protective over our own little plots of land, we have decided that it's acceptable for somebody else to have a pet that is allowed to enter in and often impact our own private patch.

We have also carefully turned our tiny central London garden into a wildlife friendly scrap of land and it's very unfair that a neighbour could buy a pet that could ruin it, you must feel quite gutted.

When the frogs in our pond hop over into our neighbours garden and their dog eats them, there's not a lot I can do about that, it is happening on their property, but were that same dog to be entering into my garden to attack the birds we attract, or the frogs & toads in our pond, then nobody would think me odd for taking umbrage. So far I've not noticed this new cat entering our garden and because of high fencing and a strategically placed holly bush, it may not be able to get in, I'll keep my fingers crossed it's not sneaking in at night.

Edited by Kogia - 14 May 2013 at 11:02am