Posted on 03/06/2005 8:32:04 PM PST by esryle
MADISON, Wis. Hunter Mark Smith welcomes wild birds onto his property, but if he sees a cat, he thinks the "invasive" animal should be considered fair game.
The 48-year-old firefighter from La Crosse has proposed that hunters in Wisconsin make free-roaming domestic cats an "unprotected species" that could be shot at will by anyone with a small-game license.
Hunters will vote on the proposal on April 11th during hearings for the Wisconsin Conservation Congress across the state.
Smith's proposal has horrified cat lovers, but some see it as a way of stopping cats from killing wild birds.
Department of Natural Resources attorney Tim Andryk says the vote would simply be an advisory recommendation to state lawmakers.
He says that to have open season on roaming cats, laws that relate to abuse of domestic animals may have to be amended.
Then we will all be outlaws just like Robin Hood, killing and eating the kings deer.
There is more than one way, my friend.
;O)
I don't see dogs roaming my neighborhood. I see cats all over the place. I have Purple Martins that nest in my houses by the dozens. I'll choose them over a cat any day.
My cat came with them installed when I got him, and I've kept them on him ever since. He doesn't mind them at all - the ones I use are the full-claw-cover kind. They work really well.
It should be noted that if one has a feral cat problem in the area, it is because there is an abundance of food in the area - usually rats, mice, or other such vermin. Cats won't stay where there is no food - this is something that the idiots in Europe's Middle Ages didn't figure out. When they decided to start running around killing off "random" cats, the mice and other vermin multiplied out of control, thus spreading the Black Plague. Millions of people died. It took Europe hundreds of years to return to the population and civilization levels that existed prior to the cat exterminations and the resulting plague. Don't think it can happen again? Two people in NYC were diagnosed with the Black Plague in 2002.
Moral Of The Story: Don't kill cats. You might just be killing yourself.
Spackler, we're on the wrong thread....oops. Some people think that it takes a village to raise a cat. Apparently, they're doing their cat a favor by letting it get run over on the street or killed by another roaming cat.
I guess its a bit like gun control. I wouldn't disarm my cat, because you know there are strays out there that haven't been declawed, and you want him to be in a fair fight if it comes to that.
(For the record my cat Neelix is the neighborhood stud. He's been fixed, but he still beats the cr*p out of every newcomer cat that dares to tread into our cul-de-sac)
Watch a cat with his claws intact pick something up or try to manipulate something. Then watch a cat with no claws try to do the same thing. The difference is obvious and saddening.
Yikes. Put some ice on that!
Perhaps we should do that for stray dogs too?
Or better yet, stray people?
This guy is sick.
I would imagine of cats could talk they'd echo the same sentiments about YOU!
Here kitty, kitty....
We could use a platform like that where I live, lots of strays. Thanks for the post
One more thing, my cats are all indoor and are fixed.
Killing wild cats and dogs is only an issue for people in cities and the suburban areas. Live out in the country and you can get rid of any mangy dog or wild cat anytime. As a matter of fact city people like to dump these animals on the country folks so it only seems fair. Yes if you want someone to do the dirty work for you take them to the pound if not adopted in a week they kill them. Lethal injection vs 22 to the head. I've seem many mangy dogs, dogs with dispemper and cats with disease. I personally don't wish for them to be around my pets,me or children. And I don't care to get close to them. And this is a woman speaking. All cats and dogs do not look like pampered pets nor do they act like them.
OK but let's make it a fair fight. Let's have some group populate Madison, Wisconsin with 5000 mountain lions, easily rounded up from Colorado, and allow the hunters only camp knives. You could add a few grizzly bears to the mix, but they're not cats. Or are they?
I've seen one single feral cat in my neighborhood kill six doves, a cardinal,two squirrels, and a few finches in one single afternoon. The really sick thing was that this cat didn't even eat them.
He preferred the food left out in a neighbors backyard. This cat was simply killing for sport.
Now before you call me a cat hater, I must tell you that I have had at least one cat in every single home I've lived in for the last 25 years.
Every single one of those cats has been neutered or spayed, and was never, ever allowed outside the home.
It's almost impossible to really run a home without a housecat.
However feral cats are incredibly destructive pests. As much as it pains me to say it, feral cats should be destroyed on sight.
L
This was a very sh***y excuse for a human being.
If only we had massive herds of Grackle killing cats, maybe my car would be cleaner. Grackles, now there's a problem.
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