Posted on 06/12/2008 2:06:12 PM PDT by NFOShekky
Biologists want island cats killed San Nicolas wildlife imperiled By Scott Hadly Friday, June 6, 2008
Federal wildlife biologists are proposing to kill all wild cats now living on Navy-owned San Nicolas Island to protect endangered species.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to use padded leg traps and hunters to eradicate what are believed to be 100 to 200 feral cats. Dogs also would be used to flush out some of the harder-to-catch cats, according to the plan. The wild cats would be shot or given a lethal injection on the spot.
"This is the most humane and feasible alternative we've found," said Jane Hendron, spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Carlsbad.
The wild cats descended from domestic cats that escaped from their owners or were brought to hunt mice decades ago. There are records of fairly significant feral cat populations that go back to the 1950s.
Wild cats have taken a large toll on the seabirds and other endangered species on the island. Worldwide, feral cats are responsible for the extinction of 33 species of seabirds, according to federal biologists.
"On San Nicolas Island, feral cats are known to kill seabirds, including Brandt's Cormorants and western gulls; other birds, including the federally threatened western snowy plover; the federally threatened island night lizard; and the endemic deer mouse," according to an environmental assessment prepared for the eradication plan.
Because the wild cats are hunters, they compete for scarce food with the native island fox, also a threatened species.
On islands off Mexico, Australia and South Africa, the eradication of feral cats has had immediate results in the survivability of seabirds, according to the document.
But the plan part of a recently released environmental assessment of a restoration plan for endangered and protected native species on the island has angered some animal rights groups.
"This is not humane," said Nancy Peterson, who heads the feral cat program for the U.S. Humane Society. "I would not say shooting cats or leaving them in leg-hold traps for up to 14 hours is humane. This is a proposal by wildlife biologists who are treating the cats as wildlife. I think it was really inexcusable that no animal welfare groups or cat groups were consulted for the plan."
Peterson doesn't differentiate these animals from house cats, unlike biologists with the wildlife service and the Navy, who see them as wild animals.
"These are like the domestic pussycats we have at home, but they're living a wild lifestyle," she said.
The plan comes just a few years after the controversial eradication of rats and pigs on Anacapa and Santa Cruz islands.
Animal rights groups lobbied hard against those efforts but failed to stop the poisoning of rats on Anacapa and hunting of pigs on Santa Cruz Island. The National Park Service, which spearheaded those efforts, points to the campaign as a success and says it helped in the recovery of several near-extinct native species.
San Nicolas, part of the Channel Islands, sits about 60 miles offshore. The Navy uses the 14,000-acre island in its sea test range and stations a contingent of personnel there. The remoteness of the island and current use by the Navy mean the habitat is largely unmolested by humans, said Grace Smith, a Navy biologist who lives there.
The wild cats, however, are an exception. Unlike feral cats in urban areas, they are not living off people's handouts and scraps found in trash cans.
"They're hunters," said Smith.
In addition, feral cats could not be captured and domesticated. It would be impractical to deal with them in some non-lethal way such as neutering them all or injecting them with a contraceptive, federal biologists say.
The public has until June 17 to comment by e-mailing fw8cfwocomments@fws.gov or sending mail to Jane Hendron, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 6010 Hidden Valley Road, Carlsbad, CA 92011. Copies of the environmental assessment are available at libraries in Santa Barbara, Ventura and Oxnard. For more details, go to http://www.montroserestoration.gov.
Second, anyone want to venture a guess as to what this environmental study cost us? What it will cost us to hire tracking dogs, hunters, trappers, and a bunch of eggheads to get rid of a bunch of feral cats?
If you are a cat person or if you just don't like seeing tax money flushed down the toilet - money that could, oh let me see, buy armored humvees or other gear that our troops need, fund veterans programs, or hey just pay off the deficit, then I suggest you send comments to the address given at the bottom of the article. Geez!
ping
Why not? I have it on good authority that lots of life has gone out with a bang.
I like cats and we own one, in fact. But, I’d LOVE to go on a cat hunt! Sign me up.
Nothing! I'd do it for free. It sounds like a lot of fun. Get some friends, a few cases of beer, the dogs and plenty of ammo. Beats shooting at paper targets.
Let hunters have a shooting contest and then everyone can attend a big cat barby. Ummmmm......cat on a spit!
I'm with you-- even if this hare-brained plan is 100% successful, all it will accomplish is reducing the competition for local foxes.
This kind of stupidity was tried before on one of more of the Pacific Islands (may have been Wake) before World War II. The influx of Polynesian Rats was so bad that they had to bring the cats back.
Yes, cats do get some good wildlife (such as seagulls), but they also target destructive wildlife (such as rats) in a far more efficient manner than competing predators.
Ditto. The fun you could have with a .22
Thanks for this very important PING! Glad FR is up and running again. :) =^..^=
Heeere kitty kitty kitty!
A heck of lot more than it would cost to have a local cat rescue group trap them, adopt out the kittens, and have all the adults rabies vaccinated, and the adult females spayed, and all of the adults put back on the island. (Adult cats who have been successfully competing with foxes for food are past being domesticatable.) Within 2-3 years, there would be no more threat from cats to the native wildlife.
1 cat cut in serving-sized pieces dusted in flour with salt and pepper
You’re welcome, and me too.
What’s their history?
Import coyotes, they will take care of the cats.
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