National Keep Your Cats Indoors Day

Washington
Crossing
Audubon
Society

	National Keep Your Cats Indoors Day
	Hannah Suthers

National
Keep Your Cats
Indoors Day

Hannah Suthers

May 13, 2000 is an important day for wild birds. Not only is this day of the Washington Crossing Audubon Society's Birdathon, but also the New Jersey Audubon Society's World Series of Birding¹, the International Migratory Bird Day², and the American Bird Conservancy³ second National Keep Your Cats Indoors Day. Across the continent millions of migratory birds will be counted on this day. By keeping cats indoors on just this one day, hundreds of thousands of bird lives can be saved. If cats were kept indoors year-round, hundreds of millions of bird lives across the nation would be spared. And the cats themselves would be spared injury from cars, animal attacks, pesticides, rodenticides, abscesses, worms, fleas, ticks and fatal feline diseases.

Now that kitty is accustomed to being indoors because of winter weather, it is an ideal time to make the permanent switch; just don't revert to letting kitty out, especially not unsupervised. Pet shops have the figure-eight harnesses and lead lines for taking kitty walking, and the American Bird Conservancy has tips on how to help kitty adjust to being happy indoors.

To help promote National Keep Your Cats Indoors Day, and to draw attention to the outdoor cat problem, Wild Bird Centers of America⁴ is sponsoring a poster contest for children ages 6-7, 8-9, and 10-12. The poster, to be on heavy white paper no larger than 18 by 14 inches, should show a happy, safe indoor cat. Mail the artwork in a mailing tube to arrive by May 1st at American Bird Conservancy, 1250 24th Street NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20037. There will be age category prizes. The overall winner will receive a $250 gift certificate at Wild Bird Centers, and another $250 gift certificate will go to the school, nature center or institution with which the child is associated. Wild Bird Centers will also assist the school or institution in establishing a schoolyard habitat for birds. So on May 13th, raise your glasses to the birds, get out the art materials for the children, and please keep kitty indoors!

1 World Series of Birding www.worldseriesofbirding.org
2 International Migratory Bird Day www.americanbirding.org/imbdgen.htm
3 American Bird Conservancy www.abcbirds.org , Linda Winter, (202) 778-9666
4 Wild Bird Centers of America www.wildbirdcenter.com , Kim Hope, (301) 229-9585 or the local franchise store.

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Last revision: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 - 08:47 PM