We want our chickens free-range but not our cats.

Last week the Internet was buzzing about cats (more so than usual) when a study was published in the journal Nature that said cats are assassins. Cats are responsible for killing an estimated 1.4 to 3.7 billion birds and between 6.9 and 20.7 billion mammals annually.  The study said beloved house cats are not to be held completely responsible for the killings.

Not everyone is happy about the data presented in the paper called: “The impact of free-ranging domestic cats on wildlife of the United States.”

"This study is part of a continuing propaganda campaign to vilify cats," said Becky Robinson, the president and co-founder of Alley Cat Allies, a national advocacy organization based in Maryland that is dedicated to the protection and humane treatment of cats. The statement called the study “biased” and a “a veiled promotion by bird advocates to ramp up the mass killing of outdoor cats.”

Did you know there was a campaign to vilify cats? I thought we all loved cats. Nyan Cat, Keyboard Cat, Monorail Cat, Grumpy Cat-the list goes on forever. Didn’t the cat-hating end with the rise of the word cheezburger?

Robinson went on to say: “It seems as if the authors landed on a conclusion first and then cherry-picked through studies to support it. Some of the research they cite is more than a half-century old. They even cite discredited researcher Nico Dauphine, who was convicted by a D.C. jury for trying to poison cats and then fired from her job at the Smithsonian. The researcher convicted of trying to poison cats worked for Marra, one of the authors of this study."

Robinson is referring to Peter P. Marra who currently works at the Migratory Bird Center at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. He once worked with Dauphine who called the battle between cats and birds “one-sided slaughter” and was found guilty in 2011.

I know what I am about to say here is incredibly simplistic and dumb but birds have wings and in most cases they can fly away from a cat. As for mice or other small mammals cats like to kill I feel bad but I’m not concerned for the rodent population.

Another recent cat vs.bird study looked at the population of “clumsy” Yelkouan Shearwater seabirds on the French island of Le Levant. The birds are being picked off by cats and conservationists are concerned but here in the United States I don’t know if we have a serious feline problem yet when urbanization and cars are responsible for the deaths of birds too.

When I moved to Ohio from California I left my cat behind with my family because she was old and not accustomed to traveling. My cat wore a bell around her neck at all times for various reasons but mostly it was for the smaller creatures she would be tempted to hunt.

Yes, I irresponsibly let my cat roam free but I tried to do my part to protect wildlife by giving them a warning bell. Besides I didn’t want my cat bringing dead mice into the house as “presents.” Can the mice and birds hear the bell? I have no idea but the bell sure is cute.