Feral cat hunting

The animal shelter folks finally came out to reduce the numbers, via trapping. In a period of just over a month, from the nearby woods, they trapped seventy-two (72) cats. Seventy-two!
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Years ago my father finally became fed up with the huge number of strays around his house and bought a Havahart trap. He rapidly lost track of how many he trapped & turned over to animal control, but at the beginning, it was not uncommon to go out during the day and count 20 to 30 strays/ferals visible at one time. One or more of the neighbors was putting out food for them.

It was interesting to see the local small wildlife populations slowly recover when the cat infestation was eliminated.

What's really insidious is that the normal predator/prey balances do not exist for feral cats when people feed them. In a normal situation, a predator population rise results in a prey population drop which, in turn, causes the predator population to drop as well. The system has a built-in feedback control system that insures the predator can not wipe out the prey population. When people feed feral cats, that control system is lost. The predator population is not dependent on the prey population for sustenance. That allows predators to hunt their prey into extinction
 
I'm just having a difficult time wrapping my brain around this. Wouldn't an exploded population of feral cats also lead to increased numbers of yotes, stray dogs, skunks (from free food left out), and Lord knows whatever other kinds of critters? Seems fox and yotes would go nuts over mobile meals that are easier to chase than jackrabbits. I unnertand that not every place is like my Tx Panhandle home- but aren't several parts of the US annoucing increased yote numbers and problems?
 
Feral cats, as all things in nature, are part of a balance. Yes, they might kill songbirds, but they also kill mice and rats.

The one thing in life that troubles me, and has absolutely no use whatsoever in nature, are bubbas and townies.

I'd raise a predator solely to eat them, if I could find an animal dumb enough with a taste and palate aptly coarse to actually stomach that much fat and red fannel.

Thankfully there are explosives which they foolishly handle, worn out brake shoes, faulty lightening rods, saloon bets, genetic damage from inbreeding, and falling down steps when drunk. All as Darwin outlines.

The townie population controls itself, so cats I don' worry about. Perhaps there should be a college study to find out how much damage the human race endures from idiots.
 
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I have a couple cats. One is just an overgrown kitten and it stays in the house all the time for now. The other spends about half her time in the outdoors but tends to hang around the house. Both were strays that just made a home at our house when they were kittens.

I have no hesitation to shoot a cat in the woods that has no collar. A 22 rifle works just fine. If it has a collar, it gets a pass. I don't shoot them around the house as I live in a subdivision. I've seen stray kittens that are now full grown cats. Somebody is feeding them.

I get rather pissed when I find a new litter of kittens in my garage from some cat.
 
Tourist, "balance of nature" is a nice buzzword, but feral cats are far more an "imbalance of nature".

Coyotes and foxes subsist nicely on mice and such. They kill for food, not for the fun of it. Feral cats, just like housepet cats, will kill beyond any need for food. If you've ever had a cat and watched the behavior, this should have become quite obvious to you. In the wild, you can occasionally find where a feral cat has killed an entire covey of quail in a night--and eaten but one or two. The common predation reduction of a covey tends toward approximately 40%.

Expansion of a feral cat population means a serious degradation of the balance of nature, insofar as carrying capacity of a habitat: Far fewer squirrels, rabbits, game birds and songbirds. Mice, rats and snakes comprise an important part of an ecosystem as well.
 
Sorry The Tourist, but you're wrong. Feral cats are NOT a part of nature, they are an introduced species, an alien animal that when put into an ecosystem can throw it dramatically out of balance. This is why almost all alien species have shoot on sight seasons (nutria, starlings, pigs, European sparrows and pidgeons, etc.). Unfortunately, some destructive animals like cats and horses are cute, so when they go wild and begin destroying the environment, people with NO understanding of nature demand they not be controlled. It's more than a little ridiculous.
 
tyrajam said:
Sorry The Tourist, but you're wrong.
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No, I sincerely believe that the rampant inbreeding of drunken townies causes more damage to the environment than small animals. Just the intoxicated destruction of green felt on pool tables has to be quite pricey.

For decades I have watched one gaggle of bubbas foster another generation, and then another generation--destroying the double-wide populated spawning ground where the culling sound of the Home Shopping Network and Oprah provide the siren sound for their expansion. I can't even figure out how many Chinese factories are running full-tilt, consuming precious resources, to weave enough red flannel to cover the slobbering beasts.

Fortunately, they usually electrocute each other with tinfoil placed into microwaves.

My point is this. Foolish acts by humans, especially toothless townies, destroy more of the hunting and fishing areas than any little animal. I've found Mountain Dew cans in the woods, cigarette butts in The Badlands and aluminum Blazer 9mm cases in the prairie dog towns in The National Grasslands.

What, 9mm cases in dog towns? I suppose black-footed ferrets also listen to rap music.

Remember, we're the good guys. And that also means we're not slob hunters. Nor should we defend such actions. I think I know these guys pretty well.

I cannot remember where, either here or in TheHighRoad, but a forum member reports uninvited hunters ignoring his "No Trespassing" signs and shooting family dogs.

If destruction of wilderness areas is a "shooting offense," does that mean I get to shoot 4-wheelers who rip up mud for sport?
 
Wouldn't an exploded population of feral cats also lead to increased numbers of yotes, stray dogs, skunks (from free food left out), and Lord knows whatever other kinds of critters? Seems fox and yotes would go nuts over mobile meals that are easier to chase than jackrabbits.
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Perhaps. I was talking primarily about a suburban environment in the example I gave. In that situation, the animals you describe (with the possible exception of small stray dogs) are not going to increase to any significant extent because people won't tolerate them the way they tolerate feral cats.

The point is that when a predator is given an unending food supply, it creates a situation where the natural balances are disrupted.
Remember, we're the good guys. And that also means we're not slob hunters. Nor should we defend such actions. I think I know these guys pretty well.
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Eliminating feral animals is a responsible measure. I'm not sure exactly what you're suggesting should happen to the "townies & bubbas" but I SINCERELY hope that it's irrelevant to and out of the context of shooting feral animals.

At any rate, the fact that there are other threats to the fauna does not change the fact that feral cats are a damaging influence and that responsible hunters should do what they can to minimize that damaging influence in a humane manner.
 
"...that responsible hunters should do what they can to minimize that damaging influence in a humane manner."

I'm all for that.

What I have a problem with are people who simply hate cats and will blow them away or do terrible, cruel things to them with glee--without caring or bothering to make sure the cat is a stray. Reading through some of the posts in this thread, I think there are a few of these people right here on TFL.
 
As you probably all heard, they tried to legalize feral cat hunting in the state of Wisconsin. Well the lefties won over, so now we just hunt them using the SSS method.
Shoot, Shovel, Shutup.
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So the message is that you only obey the laws that you happen to agree with? Great for the image of gun owners and legitimate hunters. I don't see how you can know if the cat is a stray that might have wandered from home (as cats do) or a feral cat. I would be curious if you would be as supportive of shooting "wild dogs."


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"Please don't shoot." "I promise I'm not a feral cat, honest."
 
Dogs running loose in deer habitat can be shot during a hunt. The laws are in place to keep loose dogs from running deer to death. The law USED to be that feral cats were to be shot on sight to relieve the predation on songbirds and game birds raising young. IIRC these were enacted during the Great Depression. Does anyone think cats and dogs have evolved into thinking individuals since then? Dogs run deer; it's part of their fabric of being; cats kill for the act of killing well beyond the need for food. Feral cats are everywhere, and the people that feed them are NOT helping to control their population. Everybody has a soft spot for kitty kitty that comes up and rubs themselves against your leg. Too bad those people haven't had the opportunity to watch a feral cat hunting. If it doesn't have a collar I watch them very closely. Through the crosshairs.
 
JohnKSa said:
I'm not sure exactly what you're suggesting should happen to the "townies & bubbas"
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Just a touch of irony and humor. The thrust of the debate is to kill things that upset a balance in nature. Most of the posters were all for killing cats. I simply suggested we start with the real villians first. All of a sudden I'm the bad guy.

Wayward_Son said:
What I have a problem with are people who simply hate cats and will blow them away or do terrible, cruel things to them with glee--without caring or bothering to make sure the cat is a stray.
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And that's my point. As I mentioned, one member (I believe a THR) mentioned that trespassers had killed three of his dogs.

Frankly, I wish the penalties for slob hunters were even more draconian. Sometimes the DNR can confiscate their trucks and guns and level a hefty fine. I wish they would implement restrictions similar to The Lautenberg Act.

Act like a slob, lose your hunting rights in Wisconsin for life.

What are some of the biggest problems we complain about? Why, it's public land closing, hunting restrictions (like "earn a buck") and pressure to regulate firearms more and more every year.

Who do the lefties point to? Why they characterize us as drunken, law breaking inbreds. Why does it work? Well, it's because there really are such things as drunken, law breaking inbreds who violate (poach deer) and act like my entire state is thier toilet.

If you want to shoot crows, doves and feral cats, then let's see the guidelines. And as a voter I can assure you that restrictions won't allow a guy named Clem with a huge candle-power light blasting away at every shadow. We have enough of those guys.

The DNR here actually has a "statue of a deer," (yes, a fake deer) that townies blast away at during stings.
 
The thrust of the debate is to kill things that upset a balance in nature.
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I understand your point, but equating killing feral cats with murder is a bit over the top.
Act like a slob, lose your hunting rights in Wisconsin for life.
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Assuming that there was an objective definition of "acting like a slob" I'd be all for that--and I don't know any hunters who would feel differently.
...one member (I believe a THR) mentioned that trespassers had killed three of his dogs.
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The idea that killing feral animals is in any way analogous to shooting someone's pets on that person's property gives me considerable heartburn. That is like saying that picking up litter is the same thing as stealing from someone's front yard.
If you want to shoot crows, doves and feral cats, then let's see the guidelines.
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I don't know the laws everywhere, but in TX the only regulation restricting the killing of feral animals that I'm aware of says that the animal may not be killed "in a cruel manner".
 
JohnKSa,

Just using a bit of humor, here, nothing else.

Wayward_Son mentioned guys who would thrill kill. It was that segment of society I was equating with slob hunters who kill dogs on posted land.

And Wisconsin is a whole different kettle of fish. Just as we have slob hunters, and out of staters who consider my entire state to be a 'rental car,' we also have tremendous pressure from the left on all guns.

Feral cats are just what is a current debate. We cheeseheads have heard all of this windmill fuel several times over on the ideas of killing crows and expanding rights to the hunting of doves.

You know as well as I do that some bubba or a slob hunter is going to thrill kill a cat wearing a collar. You also know that when the government takes away a right they usually go overboard and it's next to impossible to get a repeal. It took bikers ten years to overturn the helmet law that no one ever really wanted. (We build Harleys in Milwaukee, the birthplace.)

If I had my way I'd recommend a seven day waiting period on the purchase of double-wides, the mandatory use of condoms by any purchaser therein with eleven toes, and no cable service of the Oprah Winfrey show if your butt is bigger than the hood of your pick-em-up truck.

Once under control, we'll talk about feral cats...
 
It is difficult to determine what a feral cat is. If it is a feral cat, I'm all for their elimination in a responsible way. Some farmers have cats around to keep the vermine population under control. I doubt any of those cats ever come inside their house, but they are the farmer's cats all the same. Some would consider them feral; in fact most would. They certainly don't haul them to the vet for shots.

I keep hoping the local cats would do something to control the tree rat population. Most seem to ignore the squirrels, but killling a juicy cardinal is a major victory.
 
In the final analysis, and for this debate, the prospect of including the shooting of feral cats is a Wisconsin matter.

We have our own politics, our own sensibilities, with the top third of the state so different from the bottom that they could be a separate state--which has been discussed.

We had a dove hunting issue that caused a bitter division among our citizens and hunters. At some periods we have a truly spooky increase in the number of crows.

To that, we have slob hunters and out of staters.

And I'm not kidding about idiots. One local farmer takes bright orange spray paint and writes the word "COW" on his cattle during deer season. These nuts will shoot at anything. The woman who sang at my wedding is a platinum blonde. In her full length blaze orange coveralls she still got shot at--while in tree stand.

Well, townies love the taste of orange flying cows.

Serously, we don't need more stupid divisive issues here. We have just concluded a dismal hunt, we are still trying to pass our CCW, the lefties are stirring the pot for liberal presidential candidates, and our bubbas have enough to shoot at.

If you're a Madison townie and your third grade son is reading you this thread, don't get angry. Slip off your boots, count to eleven and take a deep breath. You can get Oprah on cable in about 45 minutes.
 
WOW this discussion has run the gamut and not gone to chit!
Tourist, even a thrill kill is worth while on a feral cat.
As for dogs... dogs are not on my permit as they are defined by florida law as "property" so I am never legally hired to eradicate them. I can, trap them and turn them over to Animal Control. cats are defined as "INVASIVE PREDATORY SPECIE" this is why they are fair game. Even with a brand new diamond studded collar and sporting shiny NEW tags... if it is loose and not on "THE OWNERS LAND" They are FAIR GAME! I actually kinda collect them!
As far as Ace Ventura.... No I liken myself more towards the 1970 or so character portrayed by Jan Michael Vincent in "The Mechanic". I take my jobs serious. I do my best to prevent "collateral" damage which will get me kicked off a job as well. My next purchase in long guns is a .17HMR but need a big job to justify the purchase.
Brent
 
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