I thought this thread was about the Vietnamese community in San Jose.
Never let your cat or dog out of the house!
You know, the math in that strikes me as a bit, well, off. I mean they’re basically saying that cats kill X number of animals or they kill thirty times that many. We’re not really sure. Perhaps if you gave us a larger grant to study the problem, say a 219 million dollar one (Ornithologists need Porsche’s too, ya know!) we might be able to come up with the answer.
This is a letter from Mark Smith published in the La Crosse Tribune. I think his intent was actually to make it legal to kill uncontrolled cats.
http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2005/03/23/opinion/guest23.txt
A snip from the DNR’s site
(PDF) found here: http://dnr.wi.gov/org/caer/ce/news/DNRNews.pdf
The feral cat question, which is number 62 in the hearing and meeting questionnaire, was suggested by a La Crosse County participant last year and advanced through the process to be included as a Conservation Congress advisory question this year.
The question asks whether people are in favor of the DNR taking steps to define free roaming feral domestic cats as any domestic type cat which is not under the owner’ s direct control, or whose owner has not placed a collar on such cat showing it to be their property and to list free roaming domestic feral cats as an unprotected species.
From an article in local paper from early March:
http://dnr.wi.gov/org/caer/ce/news/DNRNews.pdf
Mark Smith’s suggestion will be placed before hunters on April 11 at the Wisconsin Conservation Congress spring hearings in each of the state’s 72 counties. Smith, a 48-year-old firefighter for the city of La Crosse, said any cat not under its owner’s direct control, or which does not have a collar, should be considered fair game.
“If I’m in the woods and see a cat that doesn’t have a collar, then I could shoot it,” Smith said. “It gives people some leeway if they want to remove cats.”
He added, “I get up in the morning and if there’s new snow, there’s cat tracks under my bird feeder … I look at them as an invasive species, plain and simple.”
I don’t think he’s concerned with rural cats at all. He wants a legal way to get rid of nuisance cats. I think it would be a nightmare trying to establish what is and is not a feral cat. I just don’t see this getting passed.
Well, you know, if you put the bird feeder in the right spot, it doesn’t matter how many cats show up, they still won’t be able to get a tweety snack. :rolleyes:
Well, it is Stanley Temple. He’s to good science what a brick is to a tasty snack.
There’s more then one side to the story. Sometimes these cats come into our property and piss on our vehicles, on our porch, and crap in our gardens. Last year a feral cat got into our storage shed out back and had a bunch of kittens. By the time we realized there were kittens about they were to old to be adopted as they were feral as well.
I live in a rural environment so I could pretty much get away with shooting as many cats as I wanted, legal or not. One of the biggest reasons I haven’t done so is because I don’t want to take out someone elses pet. I’ve had cats and dogs myself and I know how attached people get to their pets. I’m not a black hearted bastard and I don’t get off on killings cats but my enjoyment of my back porch is diminished when it smells strongly of cat piss.
Marc
Hey, I’m just reporting what was in the linked article. I still support the shooting of cats whether they make an impact on the bird population or not.
Marc
I used to periodically leave my car overnight at work, a sprawling, heavily wooded complex about a mile from the nearest residence. I finally had to discontinue this practice because it, a convertible, would absolutely reek of cat urine the next day, especially the rag top. This never happens at our residence where we’re surrounded by cat owners.
Is it that ferel, unfixed cats “mark” while spayed and neutered cats aren’t so inclined?
trying again>
Don’t know that I trust the numbers in that article either - from the numbers of suspected feral cats to the numbers of dead song birds.
Also wonder if they’ve thought about the number of other , non song bird type victims of feral cats - are they prepared for the population explosion for mice, rats, moles, voles and other less home owner desired cat prey?
Yes.
I believe that is the case.
Marc
Honestly, what’s the big deal about killing feral cats?
Marc
They count money spent on vet bills as “investment” in Kansas, and you can recover it from the person who wrongfully kills your pet if you can prove you spent it with bills.
It’s not so much about killing feral cats, I think, as it is that this seems to be the only solution that they’re talking about. And by that I mean, they’ve made it fairly easy for anybody to whack a cat, and not as many people as you are going to be concerned that they might be targeting a family pet. Plus, I’ve got a feeling that there’s going to be some slackjawed folks who will think that this gives them the right to torture the cats before killing them. If they have to be put down, then do it as humanely as possible, and by professionals. That way there’s less of a chance that someone’s pet get’s killed.
It seems to me that Wisconsin also needs to look into requiring cat licenses and part of the agreement would be that you would pay extra for the license if you had an unneutered cat. That would help keep owners from allowing their unneutered cats to roam free. The fees collected by this license could go to fund clinics where low-income folks could take their cats to be neutered at a reduced rate.
Finally, if Wisconsin does manage to get a handle on their cat problem, how likely do you think it will be that they’ll repeal the law once they’ve dropped the feral cat population down to a few hundred thousand or so? Remeber, income taxes were a “temporary measure” to help fund the war, and we’re still stuck with them.
This is pretty annoying, since my home happens to be in the state mentioned. There just seems to be way more reasons why this is a bad idea then what I can see on the good side. Also, my dad owns some woodland not far from LaCrosse. I have never heard him complain about feral cats. This really sounds like a mean spirited person with an agenda.
Regarding coyotes, as others have mentioned, there are plenty in Wisconsin now. In the last few weeks I’ve seen several hit along the interstate. The local story among hunters is that they were originally introduced into Minnesota by that state’s DNR. Naturally it didn’t take long for them to cross the Mississippi in the winter. I have no idea if this is how coyotes actual got to Wisconsin though.
Coyotes don’t need human help. They have expanded their range across the country:
They have become pet-killing nuisances in some Atlanta suburbs.
What other options are available? I suppose we could trap feral cats, neuter them, and then release them but I don’t think the state is prepared to pay for such a program. Most people live in the city and most municipalities don’t allow people to use firearms within city limits so Fluffy should be safe in most areas.
A bullet is plenty humane. At least it’s good enough for deer, elk, and various other animals so I think it’d be just fine for felines. If people are that concerned over their pets then they need to be responsible and prevent them from getting loose. Sure, I know accidents happen on occasion and pets can get free but that doesn’t account for the vast majority of feral cats.
How much of their resources does the state of Wisconsin want to combat this cat problem?
I fail to see why they’d need to repeal it even if the cat problem was in check.
Marc
Regards,
Shodan
How about trapping and having them put down by professionals?
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. Most farmers I’ve known didn’t have a problem with shooting a cat that was causing a problem legal or not. (Farmers, BTW, tend to be more humane about it, they having better things to do than spend time torturing cats.)
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.
Because if there comes a time when pets out number feral cats, then you’re more likely to have a pet get killed.