LAST YEAR BROUGHT A LOT OF TALK ABOUT CATS and their threat to wild birds. There are ethical questions of just how far one should go protecting birds from cats.

Many in the birding community are aware of the Cats Indoors! movement but it is a new and foreign concept to the public.

Ornithologist Jim Stevenson helped bring the issue to the forefront when in November 2006 he shot and killed what he felt was a feral cat about to attack a federally endangered species (a Piping Plover).

At the time of the shooting, the Texas law was not clear about killing feral cats. When Stevenson shot the cat, a nearby bridge worker by the name of John Newland claimed he had been caring for a population of cats, including the one shot. Newland considered the cats his pets, even though he never took them indoors or to a vet.

The trial was in the news and blogosphere throughout 2007 as people argued for the rights of cats and wild birds. A mistrial was declared because the jury could not decide if the cat was feral or if Stevenson knew the cats were feral.

Even though the trial is over, the conversation is still going. Customers who may never have heard of keeping cats indoors are asking bird store employees about their thoughts on the subject.

How do you handle this hot-button issue in your store? Not all wild bird specialty store customers advocate keeping cats indoors. Some let their pets roam wild.

Some customers are genuinely searching for answers and want to do their part to help. Some customers are fishing for an answer they would like to hear such as, “Cats should be kept indoors, except for your cat, even though it’s killing two birds a week.” Some customers are just searching for an argument.

You never know what the customer is looking for until the conversation is well underway.