To protect the crested lark, which is threatened with extinction, the Rhine-Neckar district of the city of Walldorf in northern Baden-Württemberg has taken drastic measures – at least that’s how many owners feel: During the breeding season between April and August, house cats actually have to be house cats become and stay in the house. Violations are to be punished, reports the “Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung”.
Of course, the waves of indignation boil up in comment columns and social media. And of course there are questions about how such a curfew should be monitored at all. And whether it makes sense at all to make such an effort because of the remaining three pairs of crested larks in the municipal area. After all, you can’t just ban free-roaming cats into your home overnight. Mayor Matthias Renschler also fears damage to residential property if the animals are deprived of their freedom, as he stated in an interview with the newspaper.
In fact, it is questionable whether the action will really save the endangered crested larks on the spot: after all, they breed on undeveloped, fallow building land that could soon be used. And she certainly didn’t make many new friends with the cat lockdown either. However, it is actually time to discuss whether we want to grant unlimited freedom to domestic cats forever: No other domestic animal is allowed to regularly run around on someone else’s property in such large numbers, to defecate in the vegetable patch, to poach or, on occasion, other domestic animals to kill.
According to statistics, around 17 million domestic cats were living in German households in 2021; in addition there are at least two million feral strays. And they make fat prey: in addition to mice, millions of birds and reptiles are killed by cats every year. To make matters worse, many owners do not want to accept this hunting pressure or even ignore it