My cat is good at killing birds, chipmunks, bunnies, and mice. I doubt she could deal with a rat - probably too big.
Cats as a species kill an emotionally large sum of birds and small mammals, but they don't radically transform ecosystems. It's human industry and habitat expansion that devastates ecologies, not their garden prowlers plucking the occasional bird or chipmunk.
I'd never bell the lad.
[1] https://theconversation.com/australian-shelters-and-pounds-k...
In western cities I see rats but no cats.
I suppose we’ve made our choice.
The cats tear through the local bird population, rather than the rats
Some individuals might be the size of adult rabbits of smaller species, certainly of juveniles.