There's been quite a few cats wandering High River recently, and quite a few dead birds too.

While cats are one of the most lovable creatures on this planet, did you know they have a huge negative impact on the environment?

Erin Bayne, professor in the department of biological sciences at the University Of Alberta says it's important to remember cats are not a native species to Canada, and don't have many natural predators.

"Cats, when out in the environment are predators obviously and they can kill a large number of animals every year. In fact 2.4 billion birds in the US every year are killed by cats, and about 12 billion small mammals. So these (cats) are actually the number one source of human linked mortality in most small mammals and birds in the United States."

Bayne says that on the farm it makes sense for cats to roam free as rodent hunters, but in urban environments it's best to keep them indoors, or contained in an outdoor "catio" (A catio is an outdoor enclosure for cats). He says these two things would have great benefits for the environment.

"If we could control our cats both the feral cat population and pet cats, we would save millions to potentially billions of birds and small mammals lives every year. Which would presumably benefit the populations of those species. At the same time we would reduce the disease transmission, it's not something I talked about earlier, but cats do carry a variety of diseases that are influential on wildlife, cats, and even humans."

Bayne says many municipalities have cat bylaws, but enforcement of them is often scarce, in comparison to the enforcement dogs get.

Bayne says cats are partly responsible for the extinction of over sixty species of reptiles and small mammals.

"A more recent paper evaluated them (cats) not so much as the cat killed the last one or anything like that, but cats were a contributing factor. (the extinction toll) Is actually at sixty-three species and some people put that at anywhere from about 30-40% of all reptile, bird, and mammal extinctions that have occurred in the last hundred years have had some link to cats."

The Town of High River only has restrictions on dogs, and has no specific bylaw regarding cats, there is however a general bylaw for all animals that states "The Owner of an Animal shall ensure that such Animal is not Running at Large.". Whether or not this bylaw is enforced properly is up for debate.