OK Hit this Poll: Should it be legal to shoot ferel cats.

I dont know about hunts, but here in CT in the early 80s we had a large influx of vietnamese and cambodians people in one neighborhood and the number of stray dogs and cats went to ZERO! Rumor has it they became Ranchers!! :eek:
 
Barn cats get quite mean, one family around here brought one into their house and tried it as a pet... that didn't work... it ended up getting caught in a cabinet [trying to hide] and the guy tried to get it out but he ended up getting his arms TORN up by the cat and had to go to the hospital, my dad and I just went in with a fish net and got the animal. I would like the abilty to shoot them but I'm not sure on the laws here in NY... because we have a category of nuisance which we can kill if posing a threat or danger to us, livestock etc. Like ferel dogs or coyotes, racoons, skunks etc. Just tell whoever that it was rabid and it came after you ;)
 
It shouldn't be okay, it should be required.

The trick is to figure out whether you are looking at a "free ranging" pet that gets most of its calories from a dish and has vet care and a truly feral cat.
 
Any cat. Both feral and non-feral, free ranging pets are non-native efficient thrill killers of wildlife, especially songbirds. Even touchy / feely bird watchers should support this.

They should be kept at home on ones own property and subject to leash laws. Laws that exempt them from leash laws should be changed too.

BTW in Oz, hunting mags advertise ammo for feral cat shooting. I don't know if Oz has a sensible public or if the governments there just use logic, instead of emotion, in wild life management.
 
I'm not against shooting cats if they're on your property and have no visible collar or are known to be feral, and it is safe to do so (take a shot - no nearby neighbors), but honestly, I'd rather have more cats and less birds - that is, if the cats can catch starlings and grackles. The cats can eat the starlings, which in turn fattens up the cats so that they make a nice meal for my dogs - that works.

Having said that, there sure seems to be some logic deficiency in the "arguments" of the animal lover:

Not so, says Frohman of the Maryland-based Alley Cat group. Man is a far worse predator, she said, with skyscrapers and other man-made structures killing countless migrating wild birds in collisions each year.
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I'm sorry, but if a bird is not smart enough to avoid hitting a building and dying as a result, rather than going around it, then methinks its genes *need* to be culled from the pool. And, what would she have us do, knock down all existing skyscrapers to help the songbirds?

The true solution to the country’s millions of feral city and country cats, she said, is to trap them, have them spayed or neutered and then released back into the wild.
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Wow. Ok, who's going to pay for that / actually get it done? If YOU'RE not, then allowing hunters to do what it is that they do is a solution - in fact, the only solution yet presented that could actually occur. And I find it interesting that she admits that there even is a problem in need of a solution, given that hers is not economically viable.

Killing them, she said, only causes colonies of existing cats to expand in size to take up the territory of those that have been eliminated.
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Well, yes and no. While it's true that any hardy wild/feral species will rebound from a culling exercise eventually, in the short-term, and even perpetually, allowing hunting/culling can and will in fact reduce the numbers, as it is a matter of time - they are hunted faster than they can procreate, in all likelihood, up to a point of diminishing returns - they get harder and harder to see and hunt, allowing an equilibrium to be established at lower numbers than present. Bottom line, she's incorrect.
 
I have zero use for cats. I have suffered no compunction of conscience for being the bete noire of many a stray tom.
 
If that's about the Wisconsin issue, it's ALREADY LEGAL to shoot feral cats there. In fact, there's in unenforced law on their books REQUIRING hunters to kill feral cats.
 
JohnKSa:

Are you serious? There's actually a law requiring hunters to kill feral cats?
I'd be most curious as to how it would be worded. Doesn't seem like they could rightly pass a law requiring you to kill anything. Studies have shown that a few feral cats might not be such a bad thing. It's when their numbers swell that things get out of hand. Believe it or not, the best way to keep the numbers small, and stable, is to spay/neuter the first few that show up. They will keep any new ones from coming in but will not breed to increase numbers themselves. Yea, I know, it's not likely that anyone is going to do that, but in shooting cats we all need to walk softly. Cat lovers do vote - and enough votes could mean no more guns.
Guess I forgot the initial point of this thread: yea or ney on the question?
Sorry, would have to abstain, at least for the immediate future.
 
I wonder how many people who saw this and voted know what "Feral" means? I bet a lot of people just thought "OH MY GOD! They want to shoot my pet cat!"
Now, I know some of you people would shoot their pet cat, but thats not the question being asked :)
 
DR_MAX,

The comment about the unenforced law already on the books was made on THR (www.thehighroad.org) under a very similar thread in the hunting section of that forum. I have found the person who made it, Art Eatman, to be a very reliable source of information.

From what I have read, Wisconsin is not the only area with unenforced laws that encourage the killing of feral animals by hunters.

As far as Yea or Nay, the question & poll are flawed. It's already legal to kill feral cats as far as I can tell.
 
JohnSKa:

I read thru a bunch of the posts in the forum you referred to > sound about like the ones on this forum. Everything from reasonable/constructive POVs, such as yours, to some real crack pots who would probably shoot small children if they could get away with it. Cats are just an easy target. It's obviously a huge problem all over. As several have pointed out, I just hope they can tell the ferals from the escaped house pets. As with my peer group, you landowners are forced to deal with someone else's problem; often in a way you would rather not have to.
I didn't find the reference as to how a law such as the one you mentioned would be crafted, but it would be interesting to see. Anyway, as you said, it is not illegal to shoot feral cats in most places, and not likely to be enforced even in places it is technically illegal. Would be great if there was another way.
 
GROAN!!! And they wonder why you never see Eastern Bluebirds anywhere near metropolitan areas? (I'm talking about the thirty mile white doughnut and not the black highrise center.) I don't want to rant here but even well fed domestic cats will kill 15 to 50 songbirds per year. That is on the same level of predation as the brown headed cowbird.
 
A little off topic but.....

Cats will eat birds...
Dogs will kill cats but usually not eat them unless really hungry, they are simply mortal enemies fighting for the same prey more or less).....
Same with lions and Hyenas....The male lions kill and usually don't eat the hyenas....
I eqaute it with drug dealers fighting over the same "turf"
Just my observations living with discovery channel , a few dogs, and fox news over the past couple years :) ....'

And yes feral cats need to be shot as they can carry disease , multiply unchecked(except for feral dogs ;)), kill local wild life and in general can be a nuisance :(
 
In urban areas it can be hard to tell feral cats from an escaped neighbor's pet and with a permissive law some people would shoot any cat they found in their yard.

I suppose there are those in rural areas who will do the same.

I can tell you that if my cat (she's an indoor cat) gets out and wanders around while I'm at work and I return home to find a neighbor dispatched her, said neighbor would understand the meaning of "consequences". And I'm really more of a dog lover than a cat lover, but cats have their place.

A few years ago people were dumping unwanted cats down by my friend's ranch. Sad. Poor Fluffy or Tom didn't know how to survive in the wild. Kill a field mouse or two when hungry, but they were slowly starving. Out of 17 cats we identified, only 5 were true ferals. We rigged a carry pen and baited it with food that was doped, thanks to a local vet, to capture the cats. The ferals were beyond hope and were put down. Out of the remaining 12, there were 4 who had to be put down and the rest were cleaned up and adopted out.

If you want a law, let's allow the shooting of the people dumping these animals into the wild when they're unable to really fend for themselves.
 
Cat-food ??

Show me a cat that eats starlings and I'll see a VERY hungry cat !! Let's try to get a "Bird-flu" strain that only attacks starlings. Cats may scare off a few singin'birds, but I've yet to see one climb our feeders and catch a Tweety-pie! Get real! Newly fledged robins are another thing, but robins ARE stupid, since it is now the season for them to commit suicide by diving in front of moving vehicles. Plus, cats don't buy our automobiles - - - - or put "deposits" on them, like birds do-doo. Wife and I stride about 10 mi. per week, and several times we have had to turn our route to avoid "feral" dogs. (O.K., maybe just "loosed" dogs, but they equate to your described "feral" felines) , and I also bike about 30 mi. a week. But I don't let any canine deter me from taking my chosen route. I avoid the cur as much as I can,
even riding in the gravel on the opp-side of the road. But day-to-day the beasties get braver. My permit lets me carry concealed, but I have my Glock-21 in a SOB holster, outside my shirt, where anyone can see it. I've been stopped dozens of times in 10 years by local, and state lawmen, and asked politely for my permit. Never any alarm, and the weapon is always dry-chamber. I have killed 6 dogs in ten years. Glock every time, aimed straight down, as the attacker was always right at my right ankle. Always one round: glazer-blues. Always left the corpse right where it drops. And I do use a simple brass-catcher. My biggest problem is "feral" hounds, and "feral" diesel pick-up drivers, not "feral" cats !! Am I misleading anyone ??
 
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