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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There's been a HUGE surge in Lyme disease concurrent with the push to reduce the outdoor cat population.

Lyme disease's primary reservoir is white-footed mice and other small rodents (chipmunks, etc) NOT deer (deer are the end-stage blood meal, and can't pass on Lyme disease, only small rodents have the bacteria at high enough concentrations in their blood to infect ticks and then those ticks infect humans).

Cats control small rodents much better than poison and traps. It's not a coincidence that we're seeing this dramatic surge in illness now that cats are mostly kept indoors. I'd rather see a few dead mice on my lawn than worry about my kids having permanent neurological symptoms from missing an infected tick during our daily tick checks. [/quote]

Citation?[/quote]

Both in popular press and peer-reviewed journals:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3812887
http://entomologytoday.org/2014/03/24/white-footed-mice-not-harmed-by-ticks-or-lyme-disease/

“Our findings underscore the importance of mice as reservoirs for tick-borne pathogens,” said co-author Shannon LaDeau. “From a human health perspective, the indifference that white-footed mice have to blacklegged ticks is bad news. It signals a positive feedback loop that favors the proliferation of parasites.”

http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resbot/repr/add/domesticcat_driscoll2007.pdf
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/21/nyregion/21cats.html
http://www.livescience.com/18294-cats-world-died.html
https://books.google.com/books?id=RSEzBbNRXzAC&pg=RA1-PA107&lpg=RA1-PA107

"A study in New Zealand in 1979 found that, when cats were nearly eradicated from a small island, the local rat population quickly quadrupled."

[/quote]

Rationalize all you want. These links do nothing to prove that owned, roaming cats will effectively keep Lyme disease and other illnesses for which rodents are vectors in check. It is, however, proven beyond doubt that free-roaming cats -- a non-native, invasive species -- kill literally millions and millions of birds in this country every year. Including insectivorous birds that would otherwise help keep mosquito populations in check.

Lyme disease is a problem way bigger than allowing cats outside can solve.[/quote]

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