Feeding your cat more meat and playing with them each day can reduce the number of wild animals they hunt and kill — over 2 billion birds and 12 billion mammals in the United States alone each year. This image shows a cat playing. Encouraging play is one way to help prevent cats from hunting wildlife. (Credit: Martina Ceccheti) (CN) — You love your cat. You also like to watch the birds flitting in your backyard trees. But these lovely creatures are part of an ancient food chain that pits one against the other. A new study published Thursday in the journal Current Biology has found ways to keep your cat happy while protecting the birds they like to hunt.