# Duck Season! Wabbit Season! Putty Tat Season! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 12, 2005, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-season-wabbit-season-putty-tat-season/298893 "2005-04-12T01:23:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2005, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-season-wabbit-season-putty-tat-season/298893/61 "2005-04-12T23:20:48Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > How about trapping and having them put down by professionals? In the cities that makes sense because it’s dangerous to have people shooting at cats. In rural areas it makes sense to just let folks with hunting permits do it. You know in my neck of the woods we don’t even have animal control. If a dog gets hit by a car it just sits on the side of the road for weeks or months at a time. On the bright side I did get to see the natural process of decomosition on a daily basis last year. > [@](#): > > A hunter, however isn’t going to decide to amuse himself by taking a small caliber round and randomly shoot parts of a deer before finishing it off. I’ve met plenty of people who thought that it was perfectly okay to torture feral cats. The fact that some might torture the cat isn’t a good enough reason to forbid everyone from shooting them. > [@](#): > > New Jersey seems to make a good deal of money off their cat licensing program. They also whallop you with a pretty hefty fine if you’ve got a cat that isn’t licensed. Has it helped their feral cat population? How effective is enforcement? > [@](#): > > Because if there comes a time when pets out number feral cats, then you’re more likely to have a pet get killed. That’s unfortunate but people need to be responsible for their pets. Marc ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2005, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-season-wabbit-season-putty-tat-season/298893/62 "2005-04-12T23:41:19Z")
> [@MGibson](#): > > In the cities that makes sense because it’s dangerous to have people shooting at cats. In rural areas it makes sense to just let folks with hunting permits do it. You know in my neck of the woods we don’t even have animal control. If a dog gets hit by a car it just sits on the side of the road for weeks or months at a time. On the bright side I did get to see the natural process of decomosition on a daily basis last year. Well, that’s a regional thing, since in most parts of TN, even the rural areas, they scoop dead animals off the road. > [@](#): > > The fact that some might torture the cat isn’t a good enough reason to forbid everyone from shooting them. Wait until it starts hitting the papers. > [@](#): > > Has it helped their feral cat population? How effective is enforcement? Don’t have specifics, but I know that if you take your cat to the vet and it’s not tagged, they’ll turn you into the state. > [@](#): > > That’s unfortunate but people need to be responsible for their pets. > > Marc Again, wait till it starts hitting the papers. Enough angry pet owners read/see stories about pets getting killed because someone thought they were feral, and when folks find out that you can’t sue for damages, then there’s going to be a royal ruckus. Why wait until it goes that far to do something? Isn’t that kind of how Wisconsin ended up overran with feral cats? Nobody wanted to do anything until it was too late? Better they come up with a more effective solution, _now_ than have the courts and legislature tied up because of a bunch of angry pet owners who’ve lost their “fur babies.” ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2005, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-season-wabbit-season-putty-tat-season/298893/63 "2005-04-12T23:46:23Z")
> [@MGibson](#): > > Honestly, what’s the big deal about killing feral cats? Nothing. As I mentioned in another thread, I used a Have-a-Heart[sup]TM[/sup] trap at our previous home to capture stray cats. Afterwards I’d take them over to my uncle’s house and drown them in his creek. It certainly wasn’t an enjoyable experience, but it _did_ decrease the cat population in our small section of the neighborhood… ---
**Author:** ![Unregistered\_Bull](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3da27b/32.png) [@Unregistered\_Bull](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unregistered_Bull)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-season-wabbit-season-putty-tat-season/298893/64 "2005-04-13T00:17:47Z")
> [@MGibson](#): > > Honestly, what’s the big deal about killing feral cats? > > Marc Nothing, unless you have a burning hatred of hunting or guns or a passionate hatred or total apathy for native wildlife. Of course there is aslo the run of the mill, animal rights whackjob. Usually it’s a combination of all of the above. ---
**Author:** ![aurelian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f4b2a3/32.png) [@aurelian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurelian)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-season-wabbit-season-putty-tat-season/298893/65 "2005-04-13T00:19:23Z")
**Crafter** , isn’t one pit thread enough? The [question](http://www.madison.com/tct/news/stories/index.php?ntid=35784) was defeated in Dane County (a shock, I know). > [@A Madison resident](#): > > “I am very happy that a greater number of the public is suddenly concerned about the decline of song birds, game birds, and other small mammals,” Wenholz said. “However, to suggest that feral cat predation of these organisms is a significant reason for their decline is quite inaccurate. The destruction and loss of habitat is far and away the primary reason…• More song birds, game birds, and other small mammals are likely destroyed by lawn care, including excessive mowing, pesticide applications and other domestic and land practices.” Another snippet: > [@](#): > > Don Hammes of Middleton said that half the people present were there for the wrong reason. “The Legislature will cut the Department of Natural Resources budget. What’s more important - protecting cats or our environment and wildlife?” I thought of this, too - this vote brought out a lot of people who would normally never go to a DNR meeting. The local pet food store, MadCat, was selling Don’t Shoot the Cat t-shirts, and there were fliers advertising the meeting at all the coffee shops and local restaurants. I wonder what kind of effect bringing this question to a vote will have on other questions. I’m just waiting for the _Daily Show_ to do a piece on this: the last time they were here was for the students that were suing the downtown bars for collusion; of course they managed to find the doofiest students possible and included footage of people chugging boots over at the Essen Haus. ---
**Author:** ![aurelian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f4b2a3/32.png) [@aurelian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurelian)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-season-wabbit-season-putty-tat-season/298893/66 "2005-04-13T00:29:16Z")
> [@Unregistered Bull](#): > > Nothing, unless you have a burning hatred of hunting or guns or a passionate hatred or total apathy for native wildlife. Of course there is aslo the run of the mill, animal rights whackjob. Usually it’s a combination of all of the above. Damn the white man, you got me! It’s really not that I was concerned that should my (VERY strictly indoors and spayed) kitty-cat get outside, she could be shot; it’s really that I just don’t care about native wildlife. During the week, I enjoy running over squirrels. In my SUV. While talking on my cell phone. My record is four in a row. I try to make an effort to destroy at least one badger den per week, though it’s hard to do with my busy schedule. I have several hundred songbirds currently penned up and am force-feeding them, so that I may make a songbird pâté. I regularly put out tiny bowls of rat poison for whatever animal may come around. I make special high-fiber loaves of bread that I feed to the local mallard population, in the hopes of giving them terrible gas. And, yes, I am working on a vest made of puppies, to go along with my mourning-dove hat. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-season-wabbit-season-putty-tat-season/298893/67 "2005-04-13T12:40:47Z")
I think the feeling against cats is not entirely rational or conscious. No, of course ferals, pissing, bird-killing, etc., are not good things. But I suspect the legislation here came about for a not entirely conscious reason: people who have guns and people who hate cats tend to have certain assumptions in common that resonate with each other. Gun owners basically believe in chaos; the gun is there to impose order on those who won’t play by the rules. Cats never play by the rules. They recognize no authority and have no work ethic, so they’re not only lawless but worthless (if you take it to the logical conclusion). ---
**Author:** ![Greathouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greathouse/32/2992_2.png) [@Greathouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greathouse)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-season-wabbit-season-putty-tat-season/298893/68 "2005-04-13T13:05:24Z")
> [@Beware of Doug](#): > > Gun owners basically believe in chaos; the gun is there to impose order on those who won’t play by the rules. Moron :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-season-wabbit-season-putty-tat-season/298893/69 "2005-04-13T14:17:38Z")
The statewide results are in and the cats [lost](http://abcnews.go.com/US/LegalCenter/story?id=662272&page=1) 6,830-5,201. All of which may be irrelevant anyway, as the Department of natural Resources does not back the notion of cat hunting and the chair of the state house’s ways and means committee opposes the idea too. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-season-wabbit-season-putty-tat-season/298893/70 "2005-04-13T15:03:38Z")
> [@Greathouse](#): > > Moron :rolleyes: I bow before your incisive insight, impeccable logic, and persuasive rhetoric. Now fuck off, you kill-crazy, cat-hating shitkicker. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Greathouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greathouse/32/2992_2.png) [@Greathouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greathouse)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-season-wabbit-season-putty-tat-season/298893/71 "2005-04-13T15:15:11Z")
:d ---
**Author:** ![Greathouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greathouse/32/2992_2.png) [@Greathouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greathouse)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-season-wabbit-season-putty-tat-season/298893/72 "2005-04-13T15:16:30Z")
Ok. I don’t know what the fuck happened there, but that was supposed to be the big grin smiley. Oh well. Glad you have a sense of humor, but I still disagree with the statement you made that I quoted. ---
**Author:** ![RogueRacer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@RogueRacer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RogueRacer)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-season-wabbit-season-putty-tat-season/298893/73 "2005-04-13T16:03:52Z")
It doesn’t sound likely that anything will actually come of this. There are a few people in the way that don’t agree and they have the power to stop it. Getting back to the feral cat problem, I just don’t know where the hell this problem is supposed to be. I talked to a friend and coworker who is an avid hunter (sometimes several times a week) and has been for many years. He has seen a grand total of one cat in the woods. Some of his hunting is in the LaCrosse area. I personally have never seen a cat in the woods that didn’t belong to a local farmer. Even that has been rare and it’s usually a barn cat from my dad’s farm in my dad’s woods. My dad isn’t a big cat fan, but he knows their usefulness around the farm. His cats have never had collars. I will guarantee that his barn cats ending up shot in the woods will just end up making one more posted (no trespassing) farm in Wisconsin. The would-be cat hunters are just going to end up shooting themselves in the foot so to speak. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-season-wabbit-season-putty-tat-season/298893/74 "2005-04-13T16:26:08Z")
> [@RogueRacer](#): > > Getting back to the feral cat problem, I just don’t know where the hell this problem is supposed to be. I own a farm in Wisconsin (we have one cat, collared, neutered, shots all up to date, 17 years old). Our area is overrun with feral cats outside. They get run over on the local roads, they intimidate my own cat and dog, and I’ve seen the feral cats feasting on birds in the middle of the road before. One of our neighbors (a nice guy otherwise) puts out food for them year-round, and a warm shelter in the winter. Of course, he doesn’t take them to the vet or spay or neuter them, but he sure enables them to breed like mad. I’ve lived here all my life and can verify the songbirds are not here anymore. Cat related? The experts say so. I don’t hunt, and I don’t hate cats. But I’m not happy with their presence here. I consider them a worse nuisance than the local raccoons, skunks, and coyotes. I would not object to someone ‘thinning’ the community by any means possible. And if our cat would happen to get offed in the process, I could only blame myself for not supervising said cat. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-season-wabbit-season-putty-tat-season/298893/75 "2005-04-13T16:47:44Z")
> [@Qadgop the Mercotan](#): > > I would not object to someone ‘thinning’ the community by any means possible. Let me modify that to “any reasonable means possible”. I’m not in favor of nuclear weapons, have concerns about poisoned bait, etc. But I’d consider letting some of our local farmers (whom I know and trust) onto my land to thin out our local feral population. ---
**Author:** ![RogueRacer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@RogueRacer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RogueRacer)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-season-wabbit-season-putty-tat-season/298893/76 "2005-04-13T17:36:00Z")
QtM, do you live close to one of the larger cities? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-season-wabbit-season-putty-tat-season/298893/77 "2005-04-13T17:51:08Z")
> [@RogueRacer](#): > > QtM, do you live close to one of the larger cities? What’s close? What’s large? Milwaukee is 45 miles away, Sheboygan 20. There are a few villages within 5 or 6 miles. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-season-wabbit-season-putty-tat-season/298893/78 "2005-04-13T17:54:07Z")
> [@Qadgop the Mercotan](#): > > What’s close? What’s large? > > Milwaukee is 45 miles away, Sheboygan 20. There are a few villages within 5 or 6 miles. \< **Bosda** is creeped-out \> **Qadgop** …do you live in Pewaukee? Or Waukesha? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-season-wabbit-season-putty-tat-season/298893/79 "2005-04-13T18:01:30Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > \< **Bosda** is creeped-out \> > > **Qadgop** …do you live in Pewaukee? > Or Waukesha? > > :eek: _Psst!_ I bet his last name is Gein. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-season-wabbit-season-putty-tat-season/298893/80 "2005-04-13T18:08:20Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > _Psst!_ I bet his last name is Gein. :eek: Silence, Hillbilly! Me & my fellow Cheesehead are _ **communing** _, dammit! 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-season-wabbit-season-putty-tat-season/298893.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duck-season-wabbit-season-putty-tat-season/298893.md?page=5)