I heard someone on the radio today say that house cats are the second leading cause of species extinction today. I’ve been trying to find some confirmation of this “fact” on the Internet with little success. Most sites I’ve found list the main cause of species extinction as habitat modification. They also list introduction of harmful species as a cause of extinction. This is the closest statement I’ve found (second article titled Alien invasion spotlight):

In places which had no mammalian predators, like New Zealand and Mauritius, wild domestic cats have exterminated native species and continue to reduce the numbers of others.

In places like Australia, which had no native cats, wild domestic cats are the probable cause of extinction of a number of native species.

On larger continents, like the Americas, wild domestic cats prey on a range of native species which are too small to be of interest to the larger native cats.

Furthermore, human habitations may provide shelter, food, water and breeding places for cats within areas which are otherwise uninhabited by cats or have low numbers of cats. In this way cats are able to prey on naïve native species in habitats which they would not normally reach.

Everywhere that domestic cats exist outside their native range they have a detrimental impact on the native fauna.

I’ve often thought how odd it was that we are taught on the one hand Darwinian evolution is a fact, and on the other that we ought to care about the current extinction of animals. Even if humans are the cause of the extinction of these animals, from an evolutionary perspective, why should we care? These animals that are dying are not fit to live. If they were fit, they would survive. That’s evolution. Adapt or die. Survival of the fittest. End of discussion.

Our radio friend counseled us to keep our house cats inside the house so they would not do damage to the local environment by killing the birds and small animals. But the cats are obviously more fit to live than the animals they kill, for they survive and the other animals die.

If evolution is true, “nature” will take care of it all. And the fact that humans are giving the house cat an advantage by feeding and caring for them while they go on their rampage killing other creatures and driving them to extinction makes no difference. The cats have adapted to live with humans, furthering their survival. Rats and birds did not. Rats and birds die. Cats live. Survival of the fittest rules.

The only way we can and should care about the extinction of species is if we understand that humans bear a responsibility for the animals in our world. We are not in competition with them, but rather we are to care for them. The Biblical view of creation tells us that God created all things, including humans, and God gave to mankind the responsibility to care for the creation.

Genesis 1:27-28

27 So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

If we are different than the rest of the animals and are given by God the responsible for the creation around us, then we must be concerned about the impact of our house cats on the other animals in the world.

But if evolution is true, we shouldn’t care at all if our cats eat every last bird. Bon appétit, Sylvester. Enjoy your Tweety sandwich.