48 THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA 



OUR GREATEST FOOD LOSS— SHALL WE HAVE 

 CATS OR BIRDS? 



Margaret M. Nice, 1917. 

 (Abstract) 



One billion dollars worth of our crops are thrown away every 

 year, for that amount is eaten by insects. Birds are the chief 

 enemies of insects. Cats do far more harm to birds than people 

 can do good. F. M. Chapman estimates there are at least 25,000,- 

 OOO cats in the United States. If only one third of these are fed 

 milk, they wou!d consume 2,000,000 quarts a day, which at the 

 rate of 8 cents a quart brings the maintenance of our cat popula- 

 tion to $160,000 a day or $58,400,000 a year. Let us estimate the 

 worth of their services in killing mice and rats at $2,800,000 and 

 that leaves the annual net cost at $55,600,000. 



The estimate of 31,000,000 birds a year slaughtered by cats 

 in this country is based on the assumption that only one quarter 

 of our cat population kills birds and that those cats kill only five 

 birds a year. This estimate is exceedingly conservative. A bob- 

 white eats 75,000 insects a year ; if the average bird killed by cats 

 eats 50,000 insects, cats save each year one trillion, five hundred 

 and fifty billion insects. 



Let us try to estimate the money value of these birds to man. 

 A toad has been valued at $19.88 by Kirkland and at "$5.00 or 

 less" by Miller. The latter found by extended study that a toad 

 eats 3,200 insects a year or 1-23 of the number a bobwhite con- 

 sumes. If a toad is worth $5.00, a bobwhite is worth $115.00; if 

 a toad is worth $1.00,- a bowhite is worth $23.00. As both these 

 estimates seem beyond the limits of probability, let us in orde^ 

 to be perfectly safe, reduce the value of a bobwhite to $5.00 and 

 the average bird killed by cats to $3.00, although this will make 

 the toad worth only 26 cents. Then the value of the 31,000,000 

 birds killed by cats would be $93,000,000.00. Adding the $55,600,- 

 000.00 for milk makes the cats of this country cost us $148,600- 

 OGOOO everv vear. 



