Domestic and feral cats kill between 1.3-4 billion birds annually in the US, making cat predation one of the leading causes of human-linked bird mortality and welfare harm.
Cat predation on birds represents a massive source of wildlife welfare harm at the intersection of companion animal management and wildlife conservation. Predated birds suffer the welfare harm of predation. Cat advocates and bird conservationists sometimes frame this as a conflict, but it is more accurately a shared challenge: both cat welfare and bird welfare are improved by management practices that protect cats from outdoor hazards while reducing their predatory impact. Indoor keeping, supervised outdoor access, and predation-reduction devices on outdoor cats represent interventions that serve multiple welfare goals simultaneously.