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Toronto city leaders are considering important changes to the city’s bylaws that, if passed, would protect cats and wildlife. These include requiring that cats be microchipped and kept safe from the dangers posed to them when they roam outdoors without supervision—a protection currently afforded to dogs but that all cats also deserve. Please contact city council members today and urge them to support these lifesaving bylaw changes.
Society has a bizarre double standard when it comes to cats and dogs. Someone who would never dream of letting a dog roam the neighborhood often thinks nothing of allowing a cat to do the same. But cats are domesticated animals who can’t fend for themselves alone outdoors, where they can be attacked by other animals; hit by cars; exposed to diseases, parasites, and increasingly dangerous weather extremes; and harmed or killed by cruel humans. PETA receives calls every single day about free-roaming cats who have been shot, drowned, poisoned, beaten, set on fire, or abused in other ways.
Roaming cats also threaten native wildlife—animals desperately struggling to survive in the face of unrelenting, destructive human activity. Canadian wildlife groups warn that roaming cats kill an estimated 200 million birds each year. A study published by Environment Canada scientists in 2013 listed cats as the number one killer of birds in Canada and found that some bird species in the country have decreased by over 95%.
Also, requiring that cats be microchipped can help quickly reunite lost animals with their guardians as well as hold accountable those who abandon, neglect, or abuse animals.
The proposed changes would protect both cats and wildlife. Please send an e-mail asking the Toronto City Council to support bylaw amendments to protect animals.