Yes it is true...cats like to hunt

NYT:  That Cuddly Kitty Is Deadlier Than You Think
" In a report that scaled up local surveys and pilot studies to national dimensions, scientists from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that domestic cats in the United States — both the pet Fluffies that spend part of the day outdoors and the unnamed strays and ferals that never leave it — kill a median of 2.4 billion birds and 12.3 billion mammals a year, most of them native mammals like shrews, chipmunks and voles rather than introduced pests like the Norway rat...The estimated kill rates are two to four times higher than mortality figures previously bandied about,..Peter Marra of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and an author of the report, said the mortality figures that emerge from the new model “are shockingly high.” "

Am I shocked?  No.  Am I shocked that someone finds this result shocking?  Yes.  They are cats!  Cats are hunters...extremely effective hunters.   Here is more

"All concur that pet cats should not be allowed to prowl around the neighborhood at will, any more than should a pet dog, horse or potbellied pig, and that cat owners who insist their felines “deserve” a bit of freedom are being irresponsible and ultimately not very cat friendly."

Not being cat friendly?   Does the author have some unique insight into the utility function of a cat?  If you asked a cat if s/he would rather live 15 years going outdoors at will or live 16 years staying inside only - which one do you think it would choose?  If a cats utility function looks something like this $U_t=(\frac {1}{1-\beta})* \sum\limits_{s=0}^{\infty} \beta ^s u(hunting_{t+s}, eating_{t+s}, sleeping_{t+s}, snuggling_{t+s})$  I strongly suspect that $\beta$ is very small.   It is people who value the future not cats.  And no... cats are not the same as dogs and horses and potbellied pigs.