what's a good load for cat?

12-34hom,

Slightly off-topic, but: can you tell me where you heard that the natural mortality rate among quail was 80%? It seems that, in the 40 years since I was a teen, all game and song birds have become much more sparse. I'm wondering what their rates were then and now and where you got this information.

Thanks.
 
Jimmy, while attending college for a degree in horticulture, i took some parks and rec classes.

The teacher was a retired conservation officer for the state of Iowa. I got that stat from one of his classes, along with the mortality rates for other types of game animals.

12-34hom.
 
If the people that had owned the cats had taken responsibility for them and had them fix'ed then there would not be so many strays.
 
Dude

Long garden hose, sprinkler, hand on faucet, stealthy patience. A quick twist of the wrist is all it takes. Cats scatter, homeowner gets a video to send to America's Funniest Home Videos". It may take a few soakings, but cats hate water more than anything in the world.

My wife has 4 cats and I couldn't bring myself to shoot them.
 
JimmyDee, I heard/read of the 80% quail mortality figure from Texas Parks & Wildlife biologists...

A Wisconsin study, done some maybeso ten years back, used grad students in wildlife biology and folks from their Game Dept. The published conclusion was that a feral housecat will kill about 100 songbirds a year. They estimated the feral cat population of Wisconsin at around one million. The resulting problem is left as an exercise for the student. :)

Now, this last number sounds high. However, the "dog pound" folks of Thomasville, Georgia, responded to complaints from neighbors of my wife (rural area) and did a live-trap program. Within less than two miles of her house, some 70 feral cats were trapped.

I can tell you that they did not get all of them. :) Conservatively, then, it's not unreasonable to guesstimate some 30 feral cats per square mile in rural areas. (I imagine it would be much lower in the low-rainfall states; sparser populations of prey.)

Art
 
I've caught several stray cats by trapping them using Victor 1 1/2 coilsprings soft catches.They have padded jaws and are actually much more humane than a cage trap.
After I caught the cat I would give it to somebody,since it's against the law to kill a trapped domestic animal in my state.
 
Cats are not tough and this includes bobcats. And bobcats are my favorite wild animal so there is no bias there. Feral cats are a very real problem. I am a cat lover but I have to shoot several a year because I live on a ranch but the ranch is close to town and townpeople dump their cats out here. Plus, many cats simply like the wild life. And they definitely decimate bird populations. Some breeds of cats seem to prefer birds to mice. Anyway, as for dispatching of them quickly and humanely I prefer either a .410 or a .22 Mag.
 
"what's a good load for cat?

....whatever I happen to be carryin' when I seez 'em.

Every strayin' cat I see while I'm on my property gets the same treatment, might be different medicine, but the outcome is usually the same....GYD. Our pheasant and quail populations are hurting enough 'round these parts without the added strain of what feral or stray cats do to them.

Now I do keep a couple cats here on the farm to take care of the mousin' and rat business. And we do get the occasional stray tom who happens by hoping to service the female when she's takin' on customers. But, if I can do my part it's the last thing old tom ever does. And, if I find my own tom starts to strayin'(which usually starts when they're about a year and a half old) he get the same treatment.

Years ago my Grandpappy showed me how to take away some of the roaming urges from tom cats. I won't go into great detail but it involved an old boot, a very sharp knife, and a little medicinal value alcahol(some for the cat and a shot for Gramps when he was done).;) That little out-patient procedure, although a bit painfull I'm sure, usually adds a few years life expectancy to old tom.

FWIW, stray/feral dogs don't fare much better when they step foot on my place. But that's another topic........
 
When cooper made his little statement about this being the age of the wimp, he sure wasnt talking about Art! Good attitude Art.

Now, I got nothing against cats speciffically but Instantanious lethality seems humane and proper in this case.

Honey, fetch me my 12 gauge!
 
Well, life is full of necessary chores. Some are not inherently as much fun as others. I've never understood the point of a bunch of hand-wringing over doing what needs doing.

So I'll clean toilet-bowls and windows, or shoot feral cats, or rebuild motors or change flat tires--whatever needs doing.

"Do it, and then talk about it."

:), Art
 
I have a 9mm carbine, it seems like it would be good cat medicine out to about 50 yards. For people who grow up in an urban environment, killing seems to be removed from their normal view of the world. Growing up on a farm, where death is an everyday occurance, it doesn't seem to bother me to kill a few cats. Cats are devastating to the local fauna. (No, I am not a bloodthirsty killer;) ). I personally don't think that my investments or wildlife should suffer because of any imaginary rights that marauding cats may have.

I don't have a problem with anyone who is happy to tolerate cats on their own property or whatever. I would also try to refrain from killing my neighbors cats with the thought of being a good neighbor. If they got after my chickens or turkeys or whatever else they might try to destroy, that would be a different story. Best -
 
dZ, that's just for trespassers. :D We don't have any of the USF&WS pets, down here.

Ya gotta remember that Ol' Wiley is sort of a walking DisposAll hisownself. And, the buzzards will be back before too long...

:), Art
 
Cat scratch fever.

Maybe TFL should have a cat killers club.

Art could be the Grand Poohba & his minions that save thier wildlife from the scourge of the dreaded "feral Cat".

12-34hom. - lol
 
Art could be the Grand Poohba & his minions that save thier wildlife from the scourge of the dreaded "feral Cat".

Thanks, it is not often that I find something on a message board to be genuinely funny. -
 
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