Feral Cats

Hunter1

Has our big debate about feral cats made the national news? There is a proposal under consideration to have an 'open season' on feral (wild) cats. People could shoot cats if they're out in the wild without a collar or tags on. The 'pros' say that the cats kill lots of songbirds (maybe small rabbits, too), spread disease, etc, and the 'cons' say you just can't kill poor little kitty. I would say "only in Wisconsin", where the visually impaired can receive a hunting license, but apparently there are a couple of other states that allow this practice. What say you, cat lovers???

Shadowfax

Well, I am a cat lover - we have always had a cat - and am not a hunter, but do not mind others hunting. However, all of our cats have been indoor cats, they have even traveled all over the country with us in the RV. I have never understood cat lover's argument that their animals should somehow be immune to the general manners we require of all of our other property: keep it under your control. When the neighbors cat marauds the bird feeder, harasses our cat who is serenely looking out her window, or fouls my garden, I think that cats rights, and for sure my neighbor's rights in that cat, end. I know I know, 'it's the nature of cats etc etc...' bullroar! We have totally curtailed the 'nature of dogs' and everyone is thankful. Well, it's time to do the same with cats. Now, I have not yet shot my neighbor's cat, but if the neighbor doesn't control it, I may be agreeable to taking out a license to shoot the neighbor.

deniseE

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 04-12-05 AT 09:54AM (CST)[/font][br][br]I am concerned about the shooting in what, I can only imagine will be, close proximity to homes, children playing, other pets...

Feral cats can be quite a problem. Here we have a few organizations that trap and spay/neuter...it doesn't solve the immediate problem but reduces the kitten population...

edit...I should probably note that I am also a cat owner.... : )

Parabeaglex2

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 04-12-05 AT 10:13AM (CST)[/font][br][br]Several years ago we remodeled our city's old, dilapidated baseball stadium. In the process, they found dozens and dozens of feral cats living in every nook and cranny of the stadium. Rather than capture and kill the cats, they were captured, examined for disease, fixed, given shots and re-released back into the stadium to keep the rat population in check while the stadium was being renovated.

Don't know what happened to 'em after the stadium was fixed up.

Don D

'Splain to me how a 'wild' cat could have a collar or tag on.

I am seriously considering shooting a black cat that hangs out in my back yard trying to pounce on the birds I feed at the feeder. I've found assorted bundles of feathers in the past year and it really pisses me off. I don't know who owns these animals and don't care. I'm a good shot, so the neighbors are not at risk unless one of them is with the cat.

HRCalico

I'd also like to know how easy it is to see a collar through a rifle scope! Those things are good, but . . . well, I'd keep my kitties indoors.

I have one indoor cat, and several in the barn and quonset that run around the farm, keeping the mice and rabbit populations to a minumum. Catch of the day this morning was a robin, though.

Feral cats are a huge problem - even I, as a cat lover, admit that. It doesn't outrage me that they'd have a hunting season on them, it just saddens me. I'm sure glad we aren't following suit in Nebraska. The downsite is that they fight, spread disease to each other, multiply like crazy - it just isn't good for the cats or the communities.

I'm impressed over Beag's story of treating, fixing, and releasing - that's great, but potentially expensive. I just plunked down a significant chunk of change to get all my barn kittens fixed and vaccinated, and am looking at spaying one or two of my three remaining mama cats.

Parabeaglex2

"...treating, fixing, and releasing - that's great, but potentially expensive."

VERY expensive... the tab was picked up by the City (read: taxpayers). Your tax dollars at work, I guess. x:-)

szemcumo

And once treated, fixed and released what then Lucy. They have to eat, where do they find the food, how long are the shots good for? I don't see how that fixes the problem of all of these cats running around without owners to take care of them. I too am a cat lover, but cats need owners to take care of them. Hundreds/thousands running around without a home is a problem.

Parabeaglex2

Good question. As I said in my earlier post, I don't know what they did with them after the stadium was finished. Maybe they were released in the woods or something.

Whatever

Probably tested the cats for steroids. When they tested positive, the cats claimed they had never used hormones and they didn't know what was in the mice they ate. The rest is history. Some of the cats went to Washington, but the really big stars were sent to the major league parks around the country.

Gillian3

I believe they were sent to Wisconsin.

Whirlwind

Don, you've got it backwards; spare the cat and shoot the owners.

Rockie

>Don, you've got it backwards; spare the cat and
>shoot the owners.

Amen Whirlwind! It's the fault of irresponsible owners, not the cats that have allowed this to happen. I'm more of a DOG person, but love all animals. I can't see punishing them for the stupidity of humans!

JudyT929

I think domestic pets should be kept indoors and/or in a confined area. If they are out running around I have no problem with animal control doing whatever they want to do with them. I had a cat for 16 years and she was always a house cat, my next door neighbor has 2 cats one that would occassionally wakes me up in the middle of the night with loud noises. I let my neighbor know that I didn't appreciate this so the cat now stays indoors. I'd worry about the 'average citizen' being allowed to hunt down the cats cause ya know that's what all those serial killers start out doing, killing cats...

TN HR

My only issue with this proposal is that in my home state of Tennessee it would probably be considered an exotic trophy sport and you would have half the population in Cannon and Coffee counties discharging high-powered firearms from their back porch in residential areas.

Not to mention the possibility that this would be done while perhaps under the influence of Meth and Jack Daniels.

Why not just trap the damn things and humanely destroy them?

Don D

What's humane? I've read that they let them sit in urine filled cages and boxes for a couple of weeks and then gas them in a room full of screaming animals. I wouldn't use the high powered rifle. That tends to draw the attention of the city constabulary. Rat-shot is much quieter and a 22 is much swifter than gas.I wouldn't shoot an animal with a collar on. Normally I would never shoot a dog or cat, or one of the horses and cows out back either, and most of the neighbors have a pass, but this one black cat has done his best to piss me off. x}>

TN HR

I suggest mechanical separation as an alternative to firearms or gas. We could then export the by-product to some 3rd world country for use in their version of our Slim Jim. x}>

System

Gene, that's downright disgusting. Where's the 'hurl' icon?

HRinFL

Do you think any of those shooting off their back porches would have the cats mounted? x}>

I can here the stories now, "I had seen cat tracks in this particular neighborhood for about a week. I knew by the size of the paw print, it had to be a monster. So I got up early on Saturday, and set up in the neighbor's treehouse. I sat there for what seemed like an eternity and a day, when I spotted the cat coming across the yard from my left. My heart rate jumped and I could hardly get a bead on the cat due to the sweat running into my eyes. He stopped about 20 yards in front of me and BLAM! He never knew what hit him!"

TN HR

>I can here the stories now, "I had seen cat
>tracks in this particular neighborhood for about
>a week. I knew by the size of the paw print, it
>had to be a monster. So I got up early on
>Saturday, and set up in the neighbor's
>treehouse. I sat there for what seemed like an
>eternity and a day, when I spotted the cat
>coming across the yard from my left. My heart
>rate jumped and I could hardly get a bead on the
>cat due to the sweat running into my eyes. He
>stopped about 20 yards in front of me and BLAM!
>He never knew what hit him!"

Too Funny. I wonder if they will ever make a mounting kit that will allow a gun rack to be installed in the back glass of an '84 Camaro?

dchr9203

I would vote against a Johnny Q Redneck open season on the poor things, but would vote for licensed animal or game control personnel to be allowed to hunt and shoot. Pet owners should keep them confined if they are domestic; its arrogant and rude to allow them to roam and crap in everyone else's yard and flower beds but their own. The only exception I would say would be for farmers who live in rural areas; they should be allowed to maintain animal control on their property. I grew up on a dairy farm in KY and once every couple of years my dad had to destroy several cats, some feral, some not. Did you know domesicated city folks believe that rural farms are the drop off point for their unwanted pets? We usually allowed them to run the barns and keep the rats away, but cats especially are very fertile and once they start inbreeding they start getting weird and there is no way to afford spaying/neutering every stray that comes along.

JudyT929

Inbreeding?!?! is what makes them weird? x:o

Ok then how do you explain all the other ones?

National Guard

Did anyone see the Discovery Channel show on predatory animals? They said the house cat was the #1 predator. Because the common house cat is the only animal in the world that can kill another animal (birds, etc.) and still come inside and curl up next to you!

Don D

Actually the most humane method of all is to trap the cats and deliver them to the back door of a local Chinese restaurant or tamale shack. You have never seen one roaming around one of the above places.

(I can give you the names of several people who would kill other people and then go curl up with their mate)

Hunter1

This is all too funny. I especially appreciated HRinFL's description of the 'big hunt'. Sounds way too much like some descriptions of deer hunting that I've heard in camp. Just as an update, the vote of our Conservation Congress which is an advisory group to our Department of Natural Resources which controls things like hunting and every other aspect of human life in the state, was in favor of the cat hunting proposal. We'll see where it goes from here. We decided a couple of years ago, after heated debate, to hunt mourning doves, the symbol of peace, so who knows?

Don - Good tips on hunting methodology, I agree that the small caliber rifle is more adapted to this type of game. As one of my co-workers said, 'the big caliber guns would really make the fur fly'.

TN HR

>I agree that the small caliber rifle is more >adapted to this type of game. As one of my >co-workers said, 'the big caliber guns would really >make the fur fly'.

I would love to see one one nailed with a .308 to see what exactly happens.

Don D

If you use a .308, the sound is like nothing you've ever heard, IF you first get the cat to eat a whole cardboard cup of those remein noodles with milk. They puff up about twice their normal size, effectively doubling the target and there's something about that calibre matched up with those noodles and the taught target and the brief shriek. x}> Next to a brick wall, it makes a sort of an Andy Warhol painting.

TN HR

>Actually the most humane method of all is to
>trap the cats and deliver them to the back door
>of a local Chinese restaurant or tamale shack.
>You have never seen one roaming around one of
>the above places.

I will post my Meow-Meow Teriyaki recipe later....

Don D

I've gotten a couple of nasty mails about these posts. It's all in good humor, or rather twisted humor. I know I know. To clear the record, I have never shot a cat nor do I know anyone who has. I don't have a clue what it would sound like and probably never will. But, there's a chance. Never say never. x:-(

Whatever

Not even a liberal cat? xhugs

Gillian3

No, liberal cats wouldn't put themselves in that position. They aren't into the taking over and rebuilding the litterboxes of other cats nor enhancing the well-being of wealthy cats at the expense of those who live from meal to meal.