I'm about to move and a really promising location in a new city and it's surrounded by a large forest and bird sanctuary. That's great to me, but to my cat I suspect it will mean the beginning of his reign as a genocidal maniac against the local birds. On the one hand, regardless of where I move it seems this cat will be a bane on wildlife. On the other hand, given that this is a bird sanctuary, it feels particularly wrong to move there with this cat and just let it do its thing.
TL;DR skipping details on bottom: 3 year old Cat is very active and violent, otherwise a good cat to us humans. Never able to keep a collar or even harnesses on him. We rescued him off the streets and he's only semi-domesticated, keeping him indoors seems like barely an option.
With all that in mind, what can we do regarding this move and this cat to minimize disturbance to the bird sanctuary? Is it a no go, either we don't move there or we give away the cat? Is there any training or equipment we can use to minimize him disturbing the bird sanctuary? We could try to force him to be an indoor cat but I don't think he'll handle that well, it seems very against his nature. We could just let him do his thing, but we care a lot about the forest and know that cats can wreak havoc on its wildlife.
Some background on the cat: my partner and I met this cat as it meowed from under a porch as we were discussing getting a cat, an idea that we'd been considering for a few weeks. It was mid-February in a northern climate and very cold and snowy. We meowed at the cat for a bit and pretty fast he came and met us. We inspected the cat, picking him up and checking his fur and body out. He was pretty clean, no fleas we could see, seemed to be in good health. His paws and teeth indicated that this cat had been leaving outdoors for at least a few months, and he was mature but <1 year old from what the vet said.
We've had this cat for a few years now. He was a real terror at first in terms of violence; he was mostly playful and not that aggressive but he was strong and intense in playing, would attack our feet and attack us at night if he had the chance. Over time and being neutered he's gotten better in some ways but is still an aggressive, big and tough cat. He used to go outside and disappear for days at a time when we first got him, but he'd keep coming back, even after we moved with him to new rentals locally a few times. Now he'll only go out for a few hours or a day at most, but he still begs to go out, tries to sneak out, and will even start attacking us more often if we refuse to let him out for a few days.
This cat in some ways good and maybe even trainable - extremely food motivated, will walk on a leash, never had any problems using a litter box, minimal scratching of furniture. At the same time, he can be a monster, half-killing chipmunks and leaving dead mice at our door regularly. We've tried collars and even two harnesses and he escaped all of them within days, though we do have him RFID chipped (unless he got rid of that too!)
I've seen my cat with 2 sparrows he's brought home dead in the past, he does 'cat chattering' when watching birds out the window, and I saw him try to climb into a bush to catch a bird once which he probably would've succeeded had I not chased him away. He's also killed and maimed many other animals not just birds.