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MG Vernon Chong, USAFR, forwarded:

This WAR is for REAL!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1455005/posts?page=8

To get out of a difficulty, one usually must go through it. Our country is now facing the most serious threat to its existence, as we know it, that we have faced in your lifetime and mine (which includes WWII).

The deadly seriousness is greatly compounded by the fact that there are very few of us who think we can possibly lose this war and even fewer who realize what losing really means.

First, let's examine a few basics:

1. When did the threat to us start? Many will say September 11, 2001. The answer as far as the United States is concerned is 1979, 22 years prior to September 2001, with the following attacks on us:

* Iran Embassy Hostages, 1979;
* Beirut, Lebanon Embassy 1983;
* Beirut, Lebanon Marine Barracks 1983;
* Lockerbie, Scotland Pan-Am flight to New York 1988;
* First New York World Trade Center attack 1993;
* Dhahran, Saudi Arabia Khobar Towers Military complex 1996;
* Nairobi, Kenya US Embassy 1998;
* Dares Salaam, Tanzania US Embassy 1998;
* Aden, Yemen USS Cole 2000;
* New York World Trade Center 2001;
* Pentagon 2001.
(Note that during the period from 1981 to 2001 there were 7,581 terrorist attacks worldwide).

2 Why were we attacked?
Envy of our position, our success, and our freedoms. The attacks happened during the administrations of Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton and Bush 2.. We cannot fault either the Republicans or Democrats as there were no provocations by any of the presidents or their immediate predecessors, Presidents Ford or Carter.

3. Who were the attackers?
In each case, the attacks on the US were carried out by Muslims.

4 What is the Muslim population of the World? 25%.

5. Isn't the Muslim Religion peaceful?
Hopefully, but that is really not material. There is no doubt that the predominately Christian population of Germany was peaceful, but under the dictatorial leadership of Hitler (who was also "Christian"), that made no difference. You either went along with the administration or you were eliminated. There were 5 to 6 million Christians killed by the Nazis for political reasons (including 7,000 Polish priests). (see http://www.nazis.testimony.co.uk/7-a.htm

Thus, almost the same number of Christians were killed by the Nazis, as the six million holocaust Jews who were killed by them, and we seldom heard of anything other than the Jewish atrocities. Although Hitler kept the world focused on the Jews, he had no hesitancy about killing anyone who got in his way of exterminating the Jews or of taking over the world - German, Christian or any others.

Same with the Muslim terrorists. They focus the world on the US, but kill all in the way -- their own people or the Spanish, French or anyone else. The point here is that just like the peaceful Germans were of no protection to anyone from the Nazis, no matter how many peaceful Muslims there may be, they are no protection for us from the terrorist Muslim leaders and what they are fanatically bent on doing -- by their own pronouncements -- killing all of us "infidels." I don't blame the peaceful Muslims. What would you do if the choice was shut up or die?

6. So who are we at war with? There is no way we can honestly respond that it is anyone other than the Muslim terrorists. Trying to be politically correct and avoid verbalizing this conclusion can well be fatal. There is no way to win if you don't clearly recognize and articulate who you are fighting.

So with that background, now to the two major questions:

1. Can we lose this war?
2. What does losing really mean?

If we are to win, we must clearly answer these two pivotal questions.

We can definitely lose this war, and as anomalous as it may sound, the major reason we can lose is that so many of us simply do not fathom the answer to the second question - What does losing mean?

It would appear that a great many of us think that losing the war means hanging our heads, bringing the troops home and going on about our business, like post Vietnam. This is as far from the truth as one can get What losing really means is:

We would no longer be the premier country in the world. The attacks will not subside, but rather will steadily increase. Remember, they want us dead, not just quiet. If they had just wanted us quiet, they would not have produced an increasing series of attacks against us, over the past 18 years. The plan was clearly, for terrorist to attack us, until we were neutered and submissive to them. We would of course have no future support from other nations, for fear of reprisals and for the reason that they would see, we are impotent and cannot help them.

They will pick off the other non-Muslim nations, one at a time. It will be increasingly easier for them. They already hold Spain hostage.. It doesn't matter whether it was right or wrong for Spain to withdraw its troops from Iraq. Spain did it because the Muslim terrorists bombed their train and told them to withdraw the troops. Anything else they want Spain to do will be done. Spain is finished.

The next will probably be France. Our one hope on France is that they might see the light and realize that if we don't win, they are finished too, in that they can't resist the Muslim terrorists without us. However, it may already be too late for France. France is already 20% Muslim and fading fast!

If we lose the war, our production, income, exports and way of life will all vanish as we know it. After losing, who would trade or deal with us, if they were threatened by the Muslims.

If we can't stop the Muslims, how could anyone else?

The Muslims fully know what is riding on this war, and therefore are completely committed to winning, at any cost. We better know it too and be likewise committed to winning at any cost.

Why do I go on at such lengths about the results of losing? Simple. Until we recognize the costs of losing, we cannot unite and really put 100% of our thoughts and efforts into winning. And it is going to take that 100% effort to win.

So, how can we lose the war?

Again, the answer is simple. We can lose the war by "imploding." That is, defeating ourselves by refusing to recognize the enemy and their purpose, and really digging in and lending full support to the war effort. If we are united, there is no way that we can lose. If we continue to be divided, there is no way that we can win!

Let me give you a few examples of how we simply don't comprehend the life and death seriousness of this situation.

President Bush selects Norman Mineta as Secretary of Transportation. Although all of the terrorist attacks were committed by Muslim men between 17 and 40 years of age, Secretary Mineta refuses to allow profiling. Does that sound like we are taking this thing seriously? This is war! For the duration, we are going to have to give up some of the civil rights we have become accustomed to.. We had better be prepared to lose some of our civil rights temporarily or we will most certainly lose all of them permanently.

And don't worry that it is a slippery slope. We gave up plenty of civil rights during WWII, and immediately restored them after the victory and in fact added many more since then.

Do I blame President Bush or President Clinton before him?

No, I blame us for blithely assuming we can maintain all of our Political Correctness, and all of our civil rights during this conflict and have a clean, lawful, honorable war. None of those words apply to war. Get them out of your head.

Some have gone so far in their criticism of the war and/or the Administration that it almost seems they would literally like to see us lose. I hasten to add that this isn't because they are disloyal. It is because they just don't recognize what losing means. Nevertheless, that conduct gives the impression to the enemy that we are divided and weakening. It concerns our friends, and it does great damage to our cause.

Of more recent vintage, the uproar fueled by the politicians and media regarding the treatment of some prisoners of war, perhaps exemplifies best what I am saying. We have recently had an issue, involving the treatment of a few Muslim prisoners of war, by a small group of our military police. These are the type prisoners who just a few months ago were throwing their own people off buildings, cutting off their hands, cutting out their tongues and otherwise murdering their own people just for disagreeing with Saddam Hussein.

And just a few years ago these same type prisoners chemically killed 400,000 of their own people for the same reason. They are also the same type enemy fighters, who recently were burning Americans, and dragging their charred corpses through the streets of Iraq.

And still more recently, the same type enemy that was and is providing videos to all news sources internationally, of the beheading of American prisoners they held.

Compare this with some of our press and politicians, who for several days have thought and talked about nothing else but the "humiliating" of some Muslim prisoners -- not burning them, not dragging their charred corpses through the streets, not beheading them, but "humiliating" them.

Can this be for real?

The politicians and pundits have even talked of impeachment of the Secretary of Defense. If this doesn't show the complete lack of comprehension and understanding of the seriousness of the enemy we are fighting, the life and death struggle we are in and the disastrous results of losing this war, nothing can.

To bring our country to a virtual political standstill over this prisoner issue makes us look like Nero playing his fiddle as Rome burned -- totally oblivious to what is going on in the real world. Neither we, nor any other country, can survive this internal strife. Again I say, this does not mean that some of our politicians or media people are disloyal. It simply means that they are absolutely oblivious to the magnitude, of the situation we are in and into which the Muslim terrorists have been pushing us, for many years

Remember, the Muslim terrorists stated goal is to kill all infidels! That translates into ALL non-Muslims -- not just in the United States, but throughout the world.

We are the last bastion of defense.

We have been criticized for many years as being 'arrogant..' That charge is valid in at least one respect. We are arrogant in that we believe that we are so good, powerful and smart, that we can win the hearts and minds of all those who attack us, and that with both hands tied behind our back, we can defeat anything bad in the world!

We can't!

If we don't recognize this, our nation as we know it will not survive, and no other free country in the world will survive if we are defeated.

And finally, name any Muslim countries throughout the world that allow freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, equal rights for anyone -- let alone everyone, equal status or any status for women, or that have been productive in one single way that contributes to the good of the world.

This has been a long way of saying that we must be united on this war or we will be equated in the history books to the self-inflicted fall of the Roman Empire. If, that is, the Muslim leaders will allow history books to be written or read.

If we don't win this war right now, keep a close eye on how the Muslims take over France in the next 5 years or less. They will continue to increase the Muslim population of France and continue to encroach little by little, on the established French traditions. The French will be fighting among themselves, over what should or should not be done, which will continue to weaken them and keep them from any united resolve. Doesn't that sound eerily familiar?

Democracies don't have their freedoms taken away from them by some external military force. Instead, they give their freedoms away, politically correct piece by politically correct piece.

And they are giving those freedoms away to those who have shown, worldwide, that they abhor freedom and will not apply it to you or even to themselves, once they are in power.

They have universally shown that when they have taken over, they then start brutally killing each other over who will be the few who control the masses. Will we ever stop hearing from the politically correct, about the "peaceful Muslims"?

I close on a hopeful note, by repeating what I said above. If we are united, there is no way that we can lose. I hope now after the election, the factions in our country will begin to focus on the critical situation we are in, and will unite to save our country. It is your future we are talking about! Do whatever you can to preserve it.

After reading the above, we all must do this not only for ourselves, but our children, our grandchildren, our country and the world.

Whether Democrat or Republican, conservative or liberal and that includes the Politicians and media of our country and the free world!

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“For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.”
Ecclesiastes 3:19

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....This is Goodbye

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The fawn pictures came from an email...I just liked them and posted them here since my nick is Fawn.
You can read about them here: Albino Deer

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Here's a fun ~but aggravating Ripleys puzzle ~Try it!

If you need the answer to this puzzle....see the bottom of this page. Thanks to 'RADIOASTRONOMER' for the solution!

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Try this math puzzle:

1. Grab a calculator. (You wont be able to do this in your head)
2. Key in the first three digits of your phone number (NOT the area code)
3. Multiply by 80
4. Add 1
5. Multiply by 250
6. Add the last four numbers of your phone number
7. Add the last four numbers of your phone number again
8. Subtract 250
9. Divide number by 2

Do you recognize the answer?

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Here is another interesting Quiz--testing your Senses.

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Here is a Mindless fun little match game:

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Smack the Penguin and get rid of your frustration!!

Ripleys puzzle solution:
Considering A B C D E from top and 1 2 3 4 5 from left to right
R= right U=up L=left D=down
e3R c3D d1R e5UL b1D c3L a1DR d1U e2R e4UL c3L b1D e1U

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Air Sack Mites ... Air Sack Rupture ... Allergic Alveolitis ... Anatomy (Avian) ... Aspergillosis ... Avian Brain Disease ... Avian Flu ... Avian Goiter (Thyroid Hyperplasia or Dysplasia) ... Avian Gout ... Avian Influenza ... Avian Pox ... Avian Tuberculosis (Mycobacterium avium) Bacterial Infections ... Baldness ... Beak & Feather Disease ... Beak Problems / Deformities ... Bird Fancier's / Breeders Lungs (Allergic Alvolitis) ... Bird Flu ... Bite Wounds ... Bleeding ... Blepharitis ... Blocked Gizzard ... Bordetella ... Botulism ... Brain Disease ... Breeding-related Problems ... Broken Legs / Toes ... Bronchitis ... Bumble Foot ... Bursal Disease Canary Pox Virus ... Candida / Candidiasis ... Cancer ... Canker (Trichomoniasis, more commonly known as “pigeon canker) ... Chick Deformities ... Chlamydia / Chlamydiosis ... Chronic Egg Laying ... Cryptosporidium / Coccidia ... Coccidiosis ... Conjunctivitis ... Coryza Diabetes ... Diarrhea Egg Binding ... Egg Laying (Chronic) ... Egg Yolk Peritonitis / Egg Peritonitis ... Emphysema ... Enteritis ... Eye Problems Fatty Tumors ... Feather Cysts / Feather Lumps ... Feather Disorders ... Feather Lice ... Feather Plucking / Chewing ... Fowl Cholera ... French Molt ... Fungal Infections Giardia ... Gizzard (Blocked) ... Gout Heavy Metal Poisoning ... Hemochromatosis ... Herpes ... Hypothyroidism Infectious Bronchitis ... Infectious Bursal Disease ... Infectious Coryza ... Infectious Sinusitis ... Influenza Kidney Disease / Problems Laryngotracheitis Lead Poisoning ... Liver Disease ... Lymhpoid Leukosis Macaw Wasting Disease ... Marek's Disease ... Megabacteria / Megabacteriosis ... Metal Poisoning ... Mites & Lice ... Mutilation ... Myialges Nudus ... Mycoplasmosis Necrotic Enteritis ... Neuropathic Gastric Dilatation ... Newcastles Disease ... Nutritional Disorders Omphalitis ... Overheating Pacheco's Disease ... Pasteurella ... Papilloma ... Parasites ... Parrot Fever ... PBFD ... Pneumonia ... Psittacosis / Chlamydiosis / Ornithosis ... Pseudomonas ... PDD ... Poisoning ... Polyoma ... Pox Virus ... Prolapsed Cloaca ... Psittacine Beak & Feather Disease. Regurgitation ... Respiratory Distress / Diseases Salmonella / Salmonellosis ... Sarcocystosis ... Scaly Face & Scaly Feet Disease ... Seizures ... Self / Skin-Mutilation ... Sinusitis ... Skin & Feather Disorders ... Stargazing Teflon Poisoning ... Thyroid Problems ... Tuberculosis ... Tumors (Cancer) ... Tumors (Fatty) ... Toxicities / Poisoning / Ingestion ... Trichomonas Visceral Gout ... Visceral Leukosis (Marek's Disease) ... Vomiting West Nile Virus ... Wet Vents Yeast Infections Zinc Poisoning ... Zoonotic (Bird / Human) Diseases

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In 2006 many of you supported the CABS/Proact campaign against the reintroduction of stone crush traps in the Central Massif sanctioned by the then French Environment minister Mme Nelly Olin. Tens of thousands of song birds, many of them protected by EU legislation, are trapped and crushed under stone slabs weighing several kilograms and then eaten as delicacies. Since the elections in June 2007 France has a new Minister for Ecology, Sustainable Development and Planning, Jean-Paul BORLOO (MBA Manchester University, graduated in philosophy, history, economic science and law). Please protest AGAIN against this brutal and literally stone age practice to the new minister at http://www.proact-campaigns.net/proact_france/stone_traps_02.html

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ATLANTA -- Officials have quarantined birds from a Florida dealer and 35 PetSmart stores in Georgia after an outbreak of a bacterial disease that could affect humans.

The Georgia state Department of Agriculture said two confirmed cases of avian chlamydiosis have been reported. The bacteria affects parakeets and other parrots.

Once passed to humans, it is called psittacosis.

Georgia agriculture commissioner Tommy Irvin said stores are required to move the birds away from customers and feed the animals medicated food for the next 45 days.

Irvin says Preferred Birds, which is based in Florida, has also had confirmed cases of bacteria.

Humans who catch the illness may experience fever, chills, headaches, muscle aches, and a dry cough. The disease can be treated with antibiotics.

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Israel was investigating a fresh outbreak of avian flu after 18 contaminated birds were found dead on Thursday at a kindergarten in a coastal town in the north of the country.

"This morning, 18 ducks, chickens and pigeons were found dead among a total of 25 birds held in a petting corner in a kindergarten in Binyamina," an agriculture ministry spokesman told AFP.

Tests discovered the presence of the H5 virus category, which only kills birds, unlike the highly pathogenic H5N1 sub-type of the virus that is dangerous to humans.

Experts were examining the infected birds to see if they had been infected with the H5N1 strain.

Authorities have banned the transportation of animals in a three-kilometre (two-mile) radius around Binyamina, a coastal town north of Tel Aviv, in a bid to prevent the spread of the virus, the agriculture ministry said in a statement.

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WHAT KILLS BIRDS?
Common sense tells you it's Urban Sprawl and pesticides...yet some refuse to believe in common sense. Here's a compilation of what is killing our birds. SO please don't blame the cats:

Curry & Kerlinger has compiled the following information from environmentalorganizations and government agencies.

Glass Windows

Bird Deaths a year: 100 to 900+ million
Dr. Daniel Klem of Muhlenberg College has done studies over a period of 20 years, looking at bird collisions with windows. His conclusion: glass kills more birds than any other human related factor.

Automobiles / Trucks

Bird Deaths a year: 50 to 100 Million
Scientists estimate the number of birds killed by cars and trucks on the nation's highways to be 50 to 100 million a year. Those statistics were cited in reports published by the National Institute for Urban Wildlife and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Electric Transmission Line Collisions

Bird Deaths a year: up to 174 million
Estimates made by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service demonstrate millions of birds die each year as a result of colliding with transmission lines.

Agriculture

Bird Deaths a year: 67 million
Pesticides likely poison an estimated 67 million birds per year according to the Smithsonian Institution. Cutting hay may kill up to a million more birds a year.

Land Development

Bird Deaths a year: unknown
Suburban sprawl is a silent but deadly killer. The National Audubon Society says loss of bird habitat is the greatest threat to bird populations.

Communication Towers

Bird Deaths a year: 4 to 10 million
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that bird collisions with tall, lighted communications towers, and their guy wires result in 4 to 10 million bird deaths a year.

Stock Tank Drowning

Bird Deaths a year: unknown
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists and other conservationists believe that large numbers of birds inadvertently drown in livestock water tanks.

Oil and Gas Extraction

Bird Deaths a year: 1 to 2 million
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports that up to 2 million birds died landing in oil pits to bathe and drink in 1997. Fish and Wildlife says netting has improved that situation somewhat. There are no overall estimates for the number of birds affected by oil and gas spills, and oil and gas extractions (and transport.)

Logging and Strip Mining

Bird Deaths a year: unknown
Logging and strip mining destroy bird habitat. According to the National Audubon Society, habitat destruction is the leading cause of bird population declines.

Commercial Fishing

Bird Deaths a year: unknown
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Ornithological Council report that 40 thousand seabirds per year are killed in the Gulf of Alaska by long line fishing operations. These same sources say long lining and gill netting kill large numbers of birds in other parts of the country as well.

Electrocutions

Raptor Deaths a year: more than 1,000
Experts estimate that more than one thousand hawks, eagles, falcons and owls are electrocuted on transmission lines and poles each year.

Hunting

Bird Deaths a year: 100 + million
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, more than 100 million ducks, geese, swans, doves, shorebirds, rails, cranes, among others are harvested legally each year.

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Setting the Record Straight: Anti-Cruelty Laws Protect All Cats
Wendy M. Anderson, Legal Director

On November 12th, the founder of the Galveston Ornithological Society will go on trial for felony cruelty for intentionally shooting and killing a cat with a .22-caliber rifle. The Houston Chronicle reported that he claims "feral cats are not protected by the law." The Wall Street Journal reported that he admits he killed the cat, but that the law "would permit radical measures in defense of a piping plover," an endangered species of bird that winters in Galveston.

Whether or not he’s guilty is for a Texas jury to decide. The trouble is, in the national media’s coverage of the case, little effort has been made to report on what the law really is. Let’s set the record straight: Intentionally killing a cat is a criminal offense in all fifty states and the District of Columbia. Anti-cruelty laws apply to all cats—pet, abandoned, lost, and feral—and there is no such thing as a “piping plover defense.”

Anti-cruelty laws are among many types of laws designed to protect society from violent people. In fact, anti-cruelty laws, first enacted in the late 1800s, were established to protect animals from human violence, irrespective of ownership. These laws led to the creation of child abuse laws and then, in the 20th century, elder abuse laws. The common denominator in all of these laws is protection from a violent person. Scientific research now provides a nuanced understanding of the link between different types of violence. An aggressive individual who lashes out in response to conflict is a threat to society, whether the victim is a child, a spouse, or an animal. Intentionally shooting a cat is a violent act. That fact doesn’t change because the animal isn’t wearing a collar.

Like the laws against homicide, anti-cruelty laws excuse intentional killing in the rare cases when harm is imminent and serious, making lethal force necessary. Although anti-cruelty laws include other defenses, they do not recognize a bird-protection defense. Indeed, the piping plovers at issue in the Galveston case are already protected by federal laws, as are hundreds of other bird species. Those laws reflect decisions made by elected officials, informed by scientific evidence, on the best measures to protect and recover endangered species. In fact, scientific research shows that humans, not cats, are the overwhelming cause of declining bird populations. No individual is entitled to act contrary to the law simply because that person’s opinion differs from the collective judgment of the legislature.

Anti-cruelty laws protect all cats. That protection is not—and as a practical matter, cannot be—based on ownership status. We wouldn’t want such distinctions to be made anyway, because like many criminal laws, these laws exist to protect all of us from aggressive individuals. We are a nation of laws, not of violence. For this to hold true, we must remain vigilant against every act of violence, inflicted on any victim—even when the victim is a cat.

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DOGS ARE KILLING AND SERIOUSLY MAIMING PEOPLE
http://www.dogbitelaw.com/PAGES/statistics.html

If people care enough about birds to warrant killing feral cats....I'm sure they'd want to put an end to hurting people and therefore want to eradicate dogs...right? Or they are hypocrits

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Compassion often eludes feral cats; groups out to save them

Cats — nearly invisible and often reviled — have prowled into the spotlight.

The free-roamers with an aversion to humans have grabbed headlines this spring because of a bounty on their heads in Iowa, a threatened roundup and disposal in Fairfax County, Va., and other elimination plans across the country.

But the cats also are receiving attention of a different sort.

Grass-roots groups and animal-welfare organizations are directing money and energy toward helping the tens of millions of feral cats that skulk about college campuses, cluster around back-alley trash bins, swarm among the rocks at beach communities and colonize the nether-reaches of suburban parks, military installations and abandoned barns and fields:

•PetSmart Charities will announce in July a $13 million spay-neuter program in Los Angeles. A clinic in Burbank, which Best Friends Animal Society in Utah also is helping fund, will sterilize 20,000 feral cats a year. PetSmart Charities has committed $862,000 to feral cat programs in Austin and Dallas as part of a $5.5 million five-year grant to Texas cities

•The Humane Society of the United States has just completed a CD/DVD. Effectively Managing Feral Cats will be free to 6,000 shelters, communities and feral-cat advocates through a PETCO Foundation grant. The Humane Society also holds workshops and has given thousands of dollars to a few small groups launching initiatives to protect feral cats.

•Alley Cat Allies, which advises individuals and groups on feral-colony management, is embarking on major research to collect data about ferals and the people who help them. The non-profit group also will launch a year-long educational campaign beginning Oct. 16, National Feral Cat Day, and will push for public disclosure on how many feral cats shelters take in and euthanize to "make more transparent" every community's "animal-control practices applied to feral cats, which most often rely on lethal control methods," president Becky Robinson says.

•No More Homeless Pets in Utah runs a sterilization program and works with city, county and animal control officials to develop alternatives to trapping nuisance homeless cats and depositing them at shelters — "a practice which almost guarantees euthanasia," says the group's Gregory Castle. A decrease in the number of cats in colonies and concurrent lower euthanasia rates have been "dramatic" in some locations, he says.

All major efforts involve trapping, neutering and returning the cats to their colonies. This method thwarts future litters and reduces the yowling, spraying and fighting that annoy humans. In the process, the cats usually are vaccinated, treated for minor problems and given a notch in the ear to identify they are sterile. Over time, the colony will grow smaller through attrition.

"TNR is not only the most humane, it is the most practical way of stabilizing the populations and … reducing them," Castle says.

"Some New York neighborhoods no longer have feral colonies, or the colonies are much smaller," says the ASPCA's Aimee Hartmann, which holds workshops throughout the city, performs hundreds of sterilizations and loans traps to groups employing the method.

Scores of other groups participating in the practice report similar results.

Opponents speak out

The TNR method is not without detractors. Many veterinarians refuse to do such sterilizations because they say cats shouldn't live outdoors because they become victims of the elements, predators and vehicles. And some bird and conservation groups say feral cats can decimate bird and small-mammal populations and spread disease.

Advocates counter that ferals exist because house pets were set loose or escaped, they adapted to survive, had litters, and now, a generation or more removed from being house cats, they can't be tamed. And refusing to deal with that reality leads to more litters and more cats killed once they become public nuisances, are captured, taken to shelters and euthanized because no one will adopt them, advocates say.

Moreover, most ferals don't live short, hideously deprived lives but are quite healthy and less apt to harm wildlife than toxins and development that overtakes habitats, says Julie Levy of the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, an expert in infectious disease and feral cats. When neutered and vaccinated, such animals live many years.

A right to roam free

"For a long time, the prevailing feeling was that these animals aren't deserving of help," Robinson says.

But attitudes are changing.

"There are people who have been taking care of these colonies for years, getting up before dawn, leaving food and water." Once regarded as odd, they're increasingly regarded as "unsung heroes."

Today, a live-and-let-live attitude is taking root, she says.

A 2007 Harris survey found that 81% believe feral cats should be allowed to live out their lives roaming free.

Still, many people have never seen a feral colony and are unaware of their numbers, which, combined with strays, could be as high as 80 million, Levy says, so these animals occupy a lower rung on the public's concern-about-creatures hierarchy.

Advocates insist the separate-and-unequal distinction is specious.

"A good proportion of these free-roaming cats were once owned, or they are one generation removed from house pets," says Susana Della Maddalena of PetSmart Charities. "We don't think it's fair to exclude them from help."

Name-calling is a form of ad hominem attack that draws a vague equivalence between a concept and a person, group or idea. By linking the person or idea being attacked to a negative symbol, the propagandist hopes that the audience will reject the person or the idea on the basis of the symbol, instead of looking at the available evidence.

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create your own personalized map of the USA or write about it on the open travel guide
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