Sir David Attenborough recently warned cat owners that, along with the frozen ground of winter, their pets represent the biggest danger to garden birds struggling to find food and survive the cold.  He went on to say that the solution, insofar as cats are concerned, is for their owners to fit them with bell collars so that birds will literally be able to fly for their lives as danger approaches.

In my experience, many cat owners need some convincing and indeed take the attitude that, as their fat spoiled moggies slaughter and rip apart yet another half-starved robin or blue tit, they can’t do anything about it. They shrug their shoulders and offer the explanation that “It’s only nature” and that their cats are only doing what comes naturally to them.

I’m sure they are right, it certainly is in a cat’s nature to stalk, capture, torture, torment and wipe out every creature smaller than they are. However, it can clearly be prevented by human intervention and the fitting of bell collars seems to me to be an eminently sensible idea.

If all else fails perhaps those of us concerned by the plight of our birds could purchase and install in our gardens a larger, more threatening bird to even things up a bit. Something like, oh I don’t know, how about a condor or a golden eagle? A bird whose primal urge is to hunt, kill and devour small mammals – mammals the size of your average cat.

As the distraught owners watch their beloved little moggies being carried away no doubt they will be comforted by the reply “Never mind, it’s only nature”!