Comic: Fluffy’s Day Out
Should cats stay indoors?
Because I care about birds and the environment, I often ask myself, “How can my art be used to raise awareness and contribute to the protection and conservation of birds?”
I recently gave a talk for the Willamette Valley Bird Symposium on this topic. A while back, I shared how I created their logo:
My speech was mostly aimed at encouraging collaboration between biologists, birders, and artists with the hope that together, we can foster a better understanding of conservation science. As an example of how artists can partner with scientists, I brought up a hot topic in avian ecology: the effects of house cats on bird populations.
There’s no doubt that cats kill birds; we’ve probably all witnessed this. Some biologists estimate that large numbers of birds and other small creatures are killed by house cats every year. When I say large numbers, I mean very large like possibly billions. So cats may be a significant source of mortality for birds and small animals.
Could art be used to convince someone that keeping their cat indoors might be a good idea?
I came up with the idea of drawing a comic. Comics are great because they are an approachable art form that communicates ideas quickly. They’re a great vehicle for telling stories.
For this comic, I wanted to stimulate an emotional response in the viewer so I used the story of a parent bird being killed by a cat. I didn’t want to make the cat owner or the cat into villains only to call attention to one of the consequences of cat predation on birds that perhaps cat owners haven’t considered.
I used the predation of the parent bird to provoke a sense of sadness and loss for the reader. And I used the cat owner’s reaction to seeing the dead bird — her distress — as an invitation to empathy for her. Granted, the cat owner doesn’t know about the baby birds but it’s clear that she’s upset by her cat bringing “another” dead bird; this is not the first time this has happened. For a cat owner, this might motivate them to see their own pet’s behavior in a new light and look into keeping their cat indoors.
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