Kill the cats to save the birds?

globalnation / Asia Asia Kill the cats to save the birds? Calls to cull stray cats spark bitter debate over human intervention on wild animal populations The Korea Herald/Asia News Network / 03:42 PM July 29, 2026 Share: (123rf) “Cats? We need to catch them.”

“The only way to control the population is to cull them.” When birdwatcher and YouTuber Kim Eo-jin made these remarks in a video, he touched one of the most contentious nerves in South Korea’s animal welfare community: What should be done about the country’s growing stray cat population? Article continues after this advertisement There is a widespread debate over how to deal with the stray cat population in Korea, with clashing views presented by those advocating for the humane management of cats and other animals.

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Article continues after this advertisement Some environmentalists, veterinarians and animal welfare advocates, however, argue that the debate places disproportionate blame on cats. They point to habitat destruction and other human activity as major threats to wild birds and question whether culling cats would provide an effective or scientifically justified solution. Korea’s stray cat issue A group of stray cats on Yongbongsan mountain (Hongseong County Council) Korean law defines stray cats as cats living naturally in urban areas that are subject to population-control measures such as trap–neuter–release (TNR) programs.

Article continues after this advertisement There is no official nationwide count of stray cats. But an analysis of Agriculture Ministry data estimated that some 680,000 to 690,000 were living in Seoul and six other major metropolitan cities as of 2022. The nature of the conflict surrounding stray cats has also changed.

READ: Animal pound in Cavite found starving cats to death According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, complaints in the past largely involved noise and cats tearing open garbage bags. More recently, disputes have increasingly centered on how the animals are cared for, including the sanitation, location and expansion of feeding stations. Are cats a threat to endangered birds?

A screenshot from Kim Eo-jin’s YouTube channel of a cat walking on Mara-do after successfully hunting a bird. (Screen Capture from YouTube: @KoreanBirder) At the heart of Kim’s argument is that cats have become somewhat sacred in South Korea’s discussion of animal welfare and ecological conservation — an animal whose impact on wildlife, he says, has become difficult to openly criticize. Kim describes stray cats as invasive predators and argues that, with few larger predators, their populations face little natural control while they pose a threat to native birds and other small animals.

One trait he particularly emphasizes is cats’ tendency to hunt even when they are not hungry. Kim says that there are fewer than 150 crested murrelets around Mara-do and that the cats on the island prey on endangered species and migratory birds, even after around 40 were relocated off the island. Kim traces what he sees as the root of the problem to human feeding.

Regular feeding by residents allows cats that might otherwise struggle to survive to live longer and reproduce, he argues, creating artificially high concentrations of predators in urban areas. READ: 150 cats headed for dinner tables rescued in China Kim also challenges the common perception that stray cats help control rat populations, arguing that cats do not necessarily hunt rodents in significant numbers. He is similarly critical of the government’s TNR program, calling it a “failed policy.”

Under TNR, stray cats are captured, sterilized and returned to the areas where they were found. Kim argues that such programs can substantially reduce populations only when roughly 70 to 90 percent of cats in a given area are sterilized within a relatively short period. With South Korea lacking even a nationwide estimate of its stray cat population, Kim argues that achieving such a sterilization rate is practically impossible.