Bell the cat, Amsterdam says

THE city authorities in  Amsterdam plan to ask cat-owners to add a bell to their pet’s collar .

When outside, this would warn birds and other wildlife that they were around, explained officials keen to ensure that the city is completely animal-friendly.

Cats, the officials said, are one of the few animals allowed to roam without supervision and they kill around 18 million birds each year in the Netherlands.

The Huiskat Thuiskat foundation launched legal proceedings in 2021 to persuade the government to take action against owners who allowed their cats to roam freely outdoors.

While applauding the proposal to introduce bells, the organisation said that research has shown that these reduce a cat’s victims by only between 33 and 50 per cent.

Meanwhile, a 2019 paper by Environmental Law professors Arie Trouwborst and Han Somsen maintained that the domestic cat “poses a serious threat” to around 370 species in the Netherlands.

They also pointed out that under the EU’s Bird and Habitat Directives, member countries are legally obliged to protect wildlife, and allowing cats to roam and kill was breaking the law.

Amsterdam will also campaign to ensure all of the city’s domestic cats are chipped and registered, allowing lost animals to be reunited with their owners more quickly.  This would also help to solve problems caused by the feral population, officials said, adding that feral cats would no longer be released into “ecologically vulnerable” areas after they were trapped and sterilised.