Feral cat hunting

FERAL CAT SEASON JUST OPENED AT MY PLACE.
Came home from work last night and turned up my lane and had a cat run across the lane right in front of me.
I just thought that I had spooked the cat when I drove in, but much to my surprise the cat ran across the lane and pounced on a full grown rooster pheasant.
I have always thought that the cats were more of a problem with the wild bird chicks. Never dreamed that they would take a full grown pheasant. :mad:
It's open season on cats at my house!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Hogan, HAPPY HUNTIN' BUD! Shooting over bait and electronic calls is 'tween you and sylvester and morris!;) It would urk me more to see a pheasent killed by a feline than to find my truck pissed in cuz of no windows in the doors!
Brent
 
I shot at a feral cat with an air rifle once but missed.... but it sure scared kitty pretty well when he jumped like 3 feet in the air....:D
 
Interesting how we can change our outlook.
I am (was) a big fan of feral cat "population control", didnt really give a crxp about songbirds but didnt want them around the chickens.
last year i built a new chicken coop and run. covered the entire run with wire and burried the wire 6 inches into the ground along the perimeter. i did that mainly for cyotes but it has worked well to keep cats at bay.
lately, my two barn cats have taken in a couple of feral strays. at first you couldnt get near em but after about a month of eating the barn cats food (and realizing where that food is comming from) they have gotten very tame.
the new, expanded "posse" has managed to controll the mouse/rat population in the barn and corrals and i havent found an excess of dead birds around.
so, i guess i disagree with the idea that feral cats cant be tamed and they kill (for pleasure) even if well fed.
having said that, i WILL thin the "herd" if more than 6 total.
JMHO
tom
 
on my home from grocer this a.m. about 11 on a fine fair day I saw 2 cats stalking around the street-side I drove on. no doubt hunting birds scratching for seed. domestic cats should be de-clawed, nuetered and wear bells on collars.
 
An Example

Until recently, I lived in a large city in California. For being a large urban area, it had a nice river cutting right through the middle of it. The river had miles of "nature" trails along side it. I used to go exploring with my dog all the time.

When I started going their, we spooked up a lot of cats. I don't if they were feral or not, but suffice to say my dog got excited quite often.
After a few years I noticed fewer and fewer cats and more and more coyotes on the trail area. I also noticed that we were seeing more song birds and quails. I was theorizing that the coyotes ate the cats and the birds were left to live and multiply.

I even talked to some the park rangers about this. They agreed with me, that the increased coyote population seems to have diminished the cat population and increase the number of birds.

Now I live in a rural area of Nevada. Now and then we have a new person move in around here. They let their cats out, their cats don't usually return. Again, the coyotes can be thanked.

The more I think of this, the more I respect coyotes. I almost hesitate when I shoot them.:D
 
tplumeri, The other risk with ferral cats is genetic defects. I have seen MANY whole litters of barn kittens born blind. Six toes, deafness and skin sensitivities abound in not so many generations of uncontrolled inbreeding... Not to say you ain't keeping an eye on it but I have seen the "barn cat" birth defect so rampant that the farmer asked me and my buddy to take a break from shooting sparrows and pigeons to completely wipe out the cats so he can get some new "stock" in. We did and he did... he went to 4 different parts of the county and got half a dozen 4 females and 2 toms for 2 locations and figured he had 6-10 years before needing to worry about that again...
Brent
 
brent,
good point, i have seen some mutant cats around. I weed them out real fast. the ones that showed up recently look normal and im wondering if someone didnt just drop em off an the dirt road. they were real easy to adapt.
tom
 
I hate to give up the fact that I do have a soft side at times... It was one of the most somber trials of my life (to this day) to "eliminate" that many INNOCENT critters. many of them cats woulda had a hard time finding a fart in a closet! Actually them days are a SUPER STRONG part of the "makin's of HOGDOGS" I look at them summer days as part of how and why I am able to KNOW without the shadow of doubt that any bad human set on taking mine from me is an evil being not worth a second thought! If you can kill a dozen blind kittens and cats that ain't done a dang thing to nuttin' than a thug is a no brainer opponent!
Brent
 
now, dont get all mushy on us! :)
now Ive felt bad about whackin some critters in the past, but that didnt affect my judgement when i drew and put two rounds in a BG who was threatening my wife.
dont think your "soft side" will prevent you from doing the right thing when the situation calls for it.
 
Oh contrary my innernet bud... Those days hardened me! I hear a devout deer hunter say he ain't sure he could defend his family against a chump with a gun...
What did them 10-15 deer last season do to you? I don't often bring up "that summer" but in this thread it fits... No video games were not a part in my capacity to distance my emotions from a HD/SD/BG situation... it was the fact that I could hunt "innocent" game to feed the family or shoot farmer hated birds in exchange for more BB's that did it... Never once did I second guess my decision to shoot an animal but them dern cats did not provide my family with grub and as far as i could tell were harmless (minus the gene pool oil ring they left) and it was for that OBVIOUS fact only I was able to do what I did.... Did I mention that the human gene pool is in much more serious need of a deep scrubbin'?!
Brent
 
Did I mention that the human gene pool is in much more serious need of a deep scrubbin'
Click to expand...


Now, that aint an acceptible way of thinking in todays society!
But i Agree 100%
You gotta pass a test to drive a car, but any moron can can have all the kids they want! AND, we reward them by giving more welfare payments for each kid!
 
While it is a side track.... My Scotch swillin buddy Ron White said it well when he explained you can have a tummy tuck to look like a teen, an ear implant to hear as well as ever and lasik to see as well as anyone but "THERE IS NO CURE FER STUPID!"
Brent
 
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