When squirrels attack

[rubato]

There are many cat rescue groups that will take feral cats and not kill them. I've used them many times because I get no pleasure from killing animals.

This was decades ago and while I take no particular pleasure in the act I manage to flush the toilet when required.


yrs,
rubato

[Gob]

There are many cat rescue groups that will take feral cats and not kill them. I've used them many times because I get no pleasure from killing animals.

This was decades ago and while I take no particular pleasure in the act I manage to flush the toilet when required.


yrs,
rubato

He's recently been toilet trained! Well done.

[BoSoxGal]

Estimates put the US feral cat population at 70 million. Feral cats cannot be tamed or adopted out as pets, in 99% of cases. They pollute the environment with their waste and they are responsible for the deaths of many millions of songbirds and small mammals. They are the result of lazy putrid humans refusing to spay/neuter or otherwise take responsibility for once-pet cats. It's cruel to take a wild animal and force it to live out its life in a cage. Mass euthanizing is the only solution - humane euthanizing, but euthanizing just the same. We don't need any more feral cats in the world, but songbirds we DO need.

[RayThom]

When I was a lad (in the Philly suburbs) it was not uncommon to find someone tossing a cat-in-a-poke into nearby Darby Creek where I would swim and fish. If I saw the same thing today I'd call the police but back then it was a matter of course and no one thought it to be out of the ordinary.

That was then... this is now.

[Lord Jim]

BTW, for those who may not recall, when rube first mentioned this cold-blooded vile practice back at the CSB, it had nothing to do with this feral cat invasion/ abandoned cat / no animal control available yarn that he is spinning now...

It was in a discussion about cared for, owned cats that roamed in the neighborhoods they lived in. (Common behavior for many domesticated cats, particularly in suburban environments.)

He called such cats a "pest species" and it was in this context that he recommended his carbon monoxide "solution."

So I call bullshit on the whole story he's telling in this thread in an attempt to make himself look like less of a sneaky, sick, twisted, anti-social misanthrope than he actually is...

ETA:

This reminds me of when rube first posted about his scofflaw bee keeping setup, and said that if you wanted to do this, you needed to keep it out of site to avoid "complaints from the whiners"...

After he started getting shit for this, he cooked up a story claiming he had in fact talked to his neighbors about it and they were all fine with it...

Most of the time rube doesn't care how big an asshole he looks like, but sometimes he changes his story in an attempt to make himself look like less of an asshole...

[Long Run]

Does anyone think the 70 million feral cat number is close to accurate? A quick search shows it to a wild guess based on very old data. It has been many years since I have seen a feral cat. It seems like the efforts to reduce the population (sterilization of both feral and owned cats) have been effective. It is my understanding that owned cats are the main problem with respect to killing birds and other animal populations.

[Burning Petard]

May be various reasons why feral cats seem to have disappeared. New Castle County Delaware has an effective program of expanding green space as part of the zoning regulations. In mild weather some of these places become attractive locations for homeless to camp.
I visit these places regularly. The cops and welfare people also visit them and try to push them into something better or at least move on.
I noticed that in some of them, a good distance from home or apartment developments, containers of pet food. They seemed to be regularly replenished. It took me only a little time of observation to discover not-homeless individuals were putting out this food and most of it was going to feral cats.

It also did not take much before the government connected animal control people were also patrolling these areas with live traps. I never inquired as to the fate of those trapped. But that was several years ago and I no longer see the animal food deposits in the woods or sheltered spots on the edge of the major roads.

Perhaps those people concerned about 'those poor cats' have shifted their attention to 'those poor Canada Geese' I now see everywhere.

snailgate

[BoSoxGal]

Okay, I guess the scientists who study and write about this stuff for such prestigious publications as Smithsonian and National Geographic magazines, and the Humane Society of America, are all full of shit and just don't know as much as Long Run.

70 million feral cats, give or take 10-20 million. Just wait a few months, they breed like crazy. I've seen feral cats EVERY place I've ever lived - Maine, Washington, D.C., Arizona, Montana, Massachusetts. The place my brother lived until recently in NY was overrun with feral cats, dozens of them lived on/around the farm where he had an apartment - he got so heartsick seeing them half starved he put out food for them every day. (He should have trapped them and taken them to the shelter, but alas, he did not.)

Guess they just don't live where you do, LR - or maybe your head is up your ass.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure your head is up your ass.

[MajGenl.Meade]

It appears to be "take" 20 million actually.... but it's still a huge number and concern.

Overpopulation is a serious concern, as well. In the United States, approximately 2 percent of the 30 to 40 million community (feral and stray) cats have been spayed or neutered. These cats produce around 80 percent of the kittens born in the U.S. each year . Although 85 percent of the estimated 75 to 80 million pet cats in the U.S. are already spayed or neutered, many have kittens before they are spayed or neutered. Those kittens, especially if they are allowed outdoors, add to the number of outdoor cats and the problems associated with them.

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/fer ... _FAQs.html

Obviously they did not mean to imply that the 2 percent of outdoor cats that have been spayed or neutered produce around 80 percent of the kittens born in the US each year (!). Clunky sentence structure there.

[Lord Jim]

Guess they just don't live where you do, LR - or maybe your head is up your ass.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure your head is up your ass.

If you want to bet on Long Run having his head up his ass versus rubato having his head up his ass when it comes to actual knowledge about a subject under discussion, (any subject under discussion) I'll take that bet any day of the week...

In fact I'll take that bet three times a week and give you 10-1 odds each time...

ETA:

Then I'll just sit out in my backyard counting my winnings...

[RayThom]

Fewer feral cats? Here's my theory:
http://www.boxiecat.com/A-Litter-Bit-of ... _b_49.html

[oldr_n_wsr]

Around here, there are groups who trap feral cats, then spy/neuter them then release them back where they were caught. In a few years there are no more feral cats in that area as there is little to no reproduction.
The areas are usually shopping centers and such that have a good amount of food stuffs in the dumpsters. Of course now, without the cats around, the rats, racoons and possums have benefitted from the dumpsters.

[Guinevere]

If you see a cat with the tip of one ear clipped, it is likely a feral that was caught, treated/vaccinated/spayed or neutered, and then returned to the wild. That's the current practice, as they do provide help with rodents and other vermin.

My town used to have a huge problem with feral cats, but once the coyotes arrived, it became less of an issue. We have fewer skunks and raccoons, too. The coyotes will also grab a swan every now and then.

[oldr_n_wsr]

We need some coyotes here on LI.
No skunks, but racoons are everywhere. As are deer. The coyotes could kill off the sick and weak of the deer herd, which is too big right now.

[datsunaholic]

I caught a feral cat once with an entire litter of 2 month old kittens that was living in my hedge. I hated doing it but I had to send them to the Humane society- there was no way my yard could handle that many cats reproducing. Ended up keeping the adult cat long enough to have her spayed, then gave her to one of my Dad's co-workers who had a small hobby farm.

Now I live on an old farm (just a 1-acre parcel carved out of the original 20 acres, but I have the old barn) and have about 3-5 feral cats roaming the place. All quite skittish but they seem to get along with each other as I don't hear fights and they have overlapping territory, especially the barn. One big orange Tabby was dumped by the prior owner's husband when she died and he abandoned the place. "Orange Kitty" was abandoned 6 or 7 years ago and is still around, saw him last week. They do keep the rat population in check, but the Voles have gotten out of hand. Haven't seen any kittens or signs of them, fortunately. My elderly neighbor does feed them on occasion, along with inadvertently feeding them birds since she has a now resident flock of mourning doves because she feeds them too. I find piles of feathers every so often.

[RayThom]

And they're so fluffy.

[BoSoxGal]

It's too bad that so many people are so much more concerned with nasty flea-infested Toxoplasma gondii-spreading feral cats than they are with songbirds. Catch, spay/neuter & release does nothing to limit the current slaughter of millions of songbirds every year by feral cats - and by pet cats allowed to roam the outdoors at will.

I've had and loved several pet cats in my life, but this is a prejudice I simply don't understand. Cats DO NOT belong outdoors - pet cats should live indoors, with at most access to the outdoors within an enclosed run in the yard, or on leash just like a dog - cats can easily learn to leash walk.

Allowing a pet cat to roam the neighborhood at will should be illegal just like allowing a pet dog to do the same is generally illegal in most municipalities. Keeping cats indoors is healthier for them and for the environment as well. The outdoors belongs to songbirds and small mammals whose ecological niche it is.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Catist!