[MeganC]

No sarcasm at all. We live on a ranch in Wyoming and stray cats sometimes wander onto the property and, when they do, they end up as food for the crows. This is because we don’t want them fighting with our barn cats and maybe infecting them with feline leukemia, I don’t want them biting or scratching my kids, I don’t want them attacking my chickens, and we don’t want them colonizing our property.

Besides, I’m saving these cats from the coyotes and the occasional eagles who think that cats are tasty snacks.

To answer the questions of the psychotic cat lovers who will no doubt be DEEPLY OFFENDED at my post:

1. No, I’m too busy to take time out of my day and try to trap a stray or feral cat and then drive it 45 miles into town to the animal shelter so the animal shelter can kill it.

2. Yes, I know you’re DEEPLY OFFENDED by how we manage our property. Get over it.

3. No, I don’t go around hurting cats off of my property. That’s because they’re on someone else’s property and it’s not my place to do that. In Wyoming it’s good manners to respect other people’s land.

4. No, my older barn cats don’t wander off. The ones that do end up as coyote food. No, I don’t get upset with the coyotes for eating cats.

- Megan

[Mastador1]

No we are talking too different things, I'm talking about neighborhood cats and you're talking about feral cats out in open country. I don't equate the two, in any case the older gentleman was wrong in so far as not discussing the issue with his neighbor first. I just think there are too many shoot first because I don't like an animal posts. When things are justified I have no trouble with it, I just believe the first step, when possible, is to talk with the animals owner first. I mean we wouldn't just shoot a punk kid first would we?

[workerbee]

Well, I'm a serious cat lover, but I don't take offense to what you've said. Feral cats can be a problem anywhere, as they were even in my suburban neighborhood. A person's livelihood, and most certainly their kids, take precedence every time. And cat owners should be held to the same standard as dog owners -- cats do NOT have some sort of privilege to go anywhere they please.

But I do hope you'll reconsider your "cat folk are all liberals" stance. That really hurts! ;-)