Cat Bounty in Randolph, Iowa

KPTM Fox42 ^ | March 11, 2008 | staff reporter

[hiredhand]

You probably dropped out of this thread after calling me yesterday. It sure went "south" in a hurry!

It caused me to think though... when we come visit in a couple of weeks, we should SERIOUSLY consider starting a home for wayward feral cats. This thread has convinced me that there are actually people out there who will PAY CASH to prevent people like us from blasting feral cats to smithereens with our various and assorted weaponry!

Think about it...we could run the "Home For Wayward Feral Cats", and buy ammo with the profits, and ...well... I better stop there lest the crazy cat ladies "beat up on me" again. :-)

You get the idea I'm sure. :-)

[trisham]

You gotta be kidding. In my neck of the woods, keeping a cat outside is a quick way of being minus a cat.

***********************

Heh. We have coyotes here that have eliminated some of our neighbor's cats. They originally had five or six, and now have two. All use our yard as a litter box.

To all cat owners: cats are fine, but keep yours out of my yard, please.

[Knitebane]

Yes, I spent the better part of the afternoon on the phone to a FedGov agency. Yuck.

I've read through the posts though. One fool event posted to be that I might want to trap a feral animal and then take it to a vet and pay to have it fixed.

Sorry. I already pay for the animal rescue service. I pay taxes that pay for the county animal control.

I fail to see the reason to pay twice for a service that will never do what is needed. Namely keeping feral animals away.

[magritte]

It's only a cat, no different than a rat or a squirrel or any other pest...my wife is allergic to cats, and they relentlessly used our deck, shedding and crapping on our furniture...I live captured a dozen, returned a couple to neighbors (yes, I caught one of the neighbor's cats three separate times.."What can I do?" the woman asked me.) Non-tagged I took to a shelter...tried sprays, noise, water, to no avail..And no, there is no animal control officer for cats in my town.

Sometimes, you just do what you have to do. Nothing cruel about it...irresponsible cat owners (there are many) sometimes spoil it for others....magritte

[magritte]

Well said, sir...well said...the real world is sometimes a nasty place, and sometimes distasteful things have to be done...magritte

[Hot Tabasco]

Sometimes, you just do what you have to do.

I love cats and would never go out of my way to harm one. My condo association prohibits animals from roaming free and I respect that and that's why my cat remains in the house or on the back deck. (Plus due to her background, she is hesitant to even exit the house but is now comfortable in roaming my back deck but will not step foot off the bottom step....LOL)

Most of the cats I have trapped (only a couple) were not the target because the trap was set out to catch either an annoying oppossum or a coon. And the cats I recognized as being domesticated I released them.

The one cat I said I caught 3 times, the first time was in my trap and the other two times I merely walked up to it and picked it up. The third time I kept it and called its owner to come and get it.

The latest cat was wild so I chose to relocate it rather than take it the pound. I am familiar with cat rescue programs and know for a fact that this cat would not have been rescued from the pound. But rather than deliver it to its death, I chose to relocate it and let it do what cats do.

I have dealt with a cat foster program group several times and my pal squeek is the third one that I adopted. The first one, Mollyberry, was the best darn cat and how she ended up in rescue I will never know. I only had her for six weeks and ended up spending over $800 in vet bills only to have to have her put down. I hated that. (My thoughts on her are that her owners found out she had liver cancer and chose to abandon her rather than put her down) At least I provided her with 6 weeks of love and comfort.

I contacted the same agency and adopted another cat which I never saw for 2 weeks. I was finally able to locate it in my house and took it back to the agency. After asking more indepth questions, I found out the cat was totally feral when it was captured. That explains a lot of the destruction it caused in my house.

I had no choice but to return the cat to the agency. Fortunately, they had fat cat Squeek that was being fostored (sp?) and I took her home. She has worked out great after the $1600 I spent on her broken leg.......LOL!

Contrary to what Fawn says, I am not an animal hater nor am I evil..........

[hiredhand]

I hate reminding people of the “real” world. But such is the state of our existence right now. Once in a while, we are required to do unpleasant things. Shooting feral cats is just one of those things.

[hiredhand]

I'm sorry you were STUCK on the phone! I had the "pleasure" of working with our production team on one of our "sites" where AT&T swears it isn't "their problem". But we proved it is. Lying bastards. :-) It gave me flashbacks!

I SAW where somebody suggested that you trap them and pay to have them fixed! Sheesh! Yeah...thanks anyway! We've already got the "fix" and it comes from the end of a varmint rifle!...and costs under 20 cents and is a very PERMANENT fix!

I told Sweetie here about the "Home For Wayward Feral Cats" and she thought it was a good idea! :-) We've got 18 acres combined between the two properties! We could keep a lot of cats! :-)

[Fawn]

If the cats are not fixed....that’s irresponsible....but letting your cat outside to roam is not irresponsible. Course it depends on where you live too.....in NYC it would be different. But, It’s letting the cat live the life God intended for it to live.... Would you keep a dog inside all the time? Would you stay inside all the time? Why is a cat different?

[Fawn]

I would bet that if those cats were german shepard puppies.....you wouldn’t be so anxious to shoot them.

[hiredhand]

It wouldn't matter much here. If they were feral dogs (which we've had problems with at times) I'd shoot them just as fast. In fact, we've killed numerous stray dogs that were displaying aggressive behavior around our goat pen. We even called animal control afterward. They said if there were no collars, just bury them. If there were collars, returning the collar was optional. For that matter, we've caught a few that were friendly and came when called. Then found their owners nearby. We've adopted a couple of good stray cats, which are now barn cats....and do this regularly. We keep GOOD mousers this way.

German Shepard puppies? Sheesh...what if they were big eyed toddlers? What's your point? I thought I made it clear before that I'm not very anxious to shoot anything and certainly get no joy from killing. I'm just not willing to suffer feral cats and dogs that damage livestock and create other problems.

[Fawn]

I got this update email from a friend. Thank GOD someone with some sanity stepped in.

~~~

Ever since Mayor Vance Trively instituted a $5 bounty payment on catching and delivering live cats and dogs to the him to be killed, Alley Cat Allies has been working—with your help—to put a stop to the inhumane practice.

Thanks to the more than 3,500 letters you sent and to the help of local supporters and the Iowa State Veterinarian, the Randolph, Iowa’s City Council has overridden the mayor’s plan.

Supporters and Feral Friends Network members Larry and Diane Shackman attended the council meeting on March 13 on Alley Cat Allies’ behalf and presented the city council and mayor with an offer to assist with launching a Trap-Neuter-Return program.

Given the cease and desist request to the mayor from the state veterinarian, the city council voted to shut down the mayor’s operation and institute an effective, humane program. Alley Cat Allies will work with Randolph City to implement a Trap-Neuter-Return program including workshops which will help educate residents about feral cats.

Alley Cat Allies thanks all of the advocates who helped make this campaign a rousing success. We are designing a program for Randolph, and will be sharing it with you and the Randolph City Council in the coming days.

[hiredhand]

I’m done with this thread. It’s on my “ignore” list. I don’t have time for crazy people.

[Fawn]

Facts can get in the way of self-justification.....