Posted on 04/12/2005 11:34:55 PM PDT by flashbunny
Wisconsinites have spoken - at least those who showed up at Conservation Congress meetings - and it's bad news for feral cats.
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 Cat Hunting |
| What's Next |
 The Conservation Congress will vote next month on whether to recommend the proposal to the Natural Resources Board.
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| Related Coverage |
 Video: TMJ4 Coverage
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| Recent Coverage |
 3/11/05: Both sides bare claws in debate over shooting feral cats 3/10/05: Cat-hunt plan has promoter in cross hairs |
Vote results released Tuesday show the idea of allowing anyone to kill cats that are not under the control of an owner or who aren't wearing collars passed 6,830 to 5,201 at Conservation Congress meetings held Monday in every Wisconsin county.
Though residents voted in favor of listing feral felines as an unprotected species, cats won't find themselves in cross hairs anytime soon.
Now it's up to the Conservation Congress, a five-person advisory group to the Department of Natural Resources, to vote and possibly pass along to the DNR its recommendation on what to do with feral cats.
Any changes in animal-cruelty laws, however, would require action by the Legislature. That means it won't be open season on kitties, at least not yet.
"OK, we're not talking about shooting cats," said Steve Oestreicher, Wisconsin Conservation Congress chairman. "We're talking about whether they should be classified as an unprotected species."
The Conservation Congress will meet next month to discuss whether it will support the statewide vote. That's likely, Oestreicher said, since the question passed in 51 of 72 counties. It would then be taken up by the Natural Resources Board in May.
Pro-cat groups were disappointed.
"It's appalling news," said Jessica Frohman, of Alley Cat Allies, a Bethesda, Md., clearinghouse for information on feral and stray cats.
"It shows there's a clear need for education in Wisconsin and beyond about what feral cats are and how they behave and how the (cat) population needs to be controlled in humane ways. In one sense, it's a very large vote on ignorance. But in another sense, there was a large margin of people who voted to protect the cats," Frohman said.
Ted O'Donnell, who started dontshootthecat.com in response to the cat-hunting proposal, said he wished the idea had been voted down, but he was heartened by the turnout. He attended the meeting in Dane County where about 1,200 people showed up, including cat people clutching stuffed animals, wearing cat ears and whiskers and holding pictures of felines.
O'Donnell noted the vote margin was much closer for cats than mourning doves. In 1999, tens of thousands of residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of a mourning dove hunt.
"We perceived this as a back-door attack on our animal-cruelty laws. My lack of surprise comes from my understanding of the body," said O'Donnell, who owns Mad Cat Pet Supplies in Madison. "The history is whenever the Conservation Congress wants to shoot something they get it - and this is no exception."
The idea was proposed by Mark Smith, a La Crosse firefighter who wants the state to reclassify stray and feral cats as an unprotected species, arguing that they're no different from invasive species. After news of the proposal hit local and national media, Smith was the target of death threats.
Smith, whose answering machine message said he would not talk about the feral cat proposal, did not return a phone message Tuesday night.
In support of his proposal, Smith cited research by a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor that showed feral cats kill millions of songbirds as well as native species such as pheasants and grouse every year in the state.
Despite the yes vote, the Legislature would have the ultimate authority to change animal-cruelty laws.
"If it ever got that far (lawmakers) would have to declare the animal a nuisance. That will probably not happen," said Oestreicher.
"The thing here is, hopefully we've gotten the attention of the irresponsible pet owners, not just here in Wisconsin but other states, that once you tire of that animal, just don't take it out to the woods and drop it off."
Attendance at the Conservation Congress hearings was 13,281, more than twice the number that showed up last year. The meetings are always held on the second Monday in April. The 20-year average is about 7,000, though more than 30,000 attended in 1999, the year of the mourning dove hunt vote.
Logically? You need to educate people, enforce sterilization and offer cheap spueter programs. That's also the intelligent, humane and educated way that will actually 'solve' the problem for the long term. Your way is the cheap, redneck, careless, dangerous inhumane, instant gratification and short term solution.
"Just like pesticides and shotguns."
Ah, how very liberal of you.
That's an incredibly ridiculous statement. Maybe you even know that.
Man is the ultimate guardian of nature. He is responsible to use his BRAIN and tools to keep nature in balance. When logic is trumped by emotionalism, people and animals suffer.
Emotionalism led to the ban on DDT without scientific evidence of harm. The result is millions of people died a painful death. Along with man birds that were bitten by diseased mosquitos. There's a rebuttal to your idiotic 'pesticides' argument.
In certain areas, emotionalism has lead to hunting bans. In other places, people wanted predators removed so certain 'pretty' animals like deer could flourish. Guess what. They flourished. Then they reached a point of overpopulation. Then they starved. They suffered a cruel, inhuman death because of people using their emotions and their feelings instead of their brains. Now they are kept in check with shotguns and rifles.
Now for your poor little kittie cat. If he does get out in the wild, the biggest threat isn't a hunter with a gun. It's a full blown feral cat that will kill your fluffy friend just for fun. You and others talk about this being cruel to animals. There are few things more cruel than a feral at in the wild that will toy with its pray before it is killed. And it will do this over and over again to many different animals throughout its lifetime.
Now who is the cruel one: The conservationists who want to keep this from happening, or you, the one who wants an invasive species to be allowed to roam free and kill countless animals in a cruel manner?
It's become very clear that you and people like you are the problem. You allow the feral cats to go unchecked with your ridiculous factless arguments that try to equate wild animals with a common housecat.
"Logically? You need to educate people, enforce sterilization and offer cheap spueter programs. That's also the intelligent, humane and educated way that will actually 'solve' the problem for the long term. Your way is the cheap, redneck, careless, dangerous inhumane, instant gratification and short term solution."
See, it all comes out. "Redneck".
Guess what, pillows (your cat's name, right?) Yours isn't a solution. It's a bandaid. What you are trying to do is treat a compound fracture by setting only one of the breaks. And when that part is healed you say it's okay to walk and then more damage is done.
You can go ahead and set up your 'intelligent, humane, and educated way' (gee, condescend much?). That may solve part of the problem. There will still be the population of cats already in the wild - estimated by the audobon society to be around 40 million. Those will still bread. Left unchecked they will grow. How exactly will your 'intelligent' way solve that?
The answer is it won't. You have to keep the population from growing from the outside AND the inside. Otherwise you're just offering warm and fuzzy thoughts that will lead to more and more feral cats being born in the wild. And their suffering in the cold outdoors and the suffering of the millions of animals they kill will be on your head.
Here, why don't you start demanding the armed forces stop its feral cat control program:
http://www.afpmb.org/pubs/tims/tim37.htm
tastes like chicken ....
"Shooting cats is "nature's way"? :P"
Man controlling the animal population is Nature's way. We are the ones ultimately responsible to keep animal populations in check - and keep invasive species from damaging ecosystems that they don't belong in.
Ever hear of nutria? They're a rodent like creature brought to louisiana for the fur trade. The market for their fur disappeared so they were released in the wild. They had no natural predators so they flourished. They cause a lot of damage to the environment so the government issued a bounty for their destruction.
Funny, I don't see any freepers calling the shooting of nutria inhumane. I don't see anyone saying "why punish the poor nutria when people are to blame?". I don't see anyone threating to kill a person that would kill a nutria.
It's the same damn situation - an ivasive species that doesn't belong there causing havoc with the environment. But you get two completely different reactions because certain people disengage their brain when it comes to cats. They equate feral cats, which are wild but don't belong in nature, to their house cats. They emote instead of think. They project their feelings towards their cats to these wild animals. Guess what- these precious feral cats would kill your house cat just for fun.
Feral cats are danger to the environment and your pets in many ways, and they need to be dealt with in a sane, common sense manner- not one ruled by emotional ties to your house pets.
Bwahahahahaha!!!
I'm convinced from reading these threads on cat hunting/shooting that these morons aren't a whole lot different than the DU enviro-nuts.
I hope this Mark Smith gets a rifle shoved up his A**!!!!!
Been that way for quite some time.
They don't have Animal Control in Wisconsin? Why not let them deal with the problem?
And the loons just keep on coming.
See post #128 for another demonstration.
These cat threads are as bad as the worst thread on DU. The fanatics abandon all logic, ignore facts, and resort to emoting instead of thinking. The hatred and vitriol towards anyone who thinks feral cats should be treated like any other feral animals is astounding. These people should be ashamed of themselves.
You have obviously never dealt with animal control.
That's right
Yeah, I saw it. Sad.
There are approximately 2 million feral cats in wisconsin. 40 million in the us.
what everyone here ignores is that the marjority of states have policies that treat feral cats like other feral animals - they can be shot by property owners. The cat fanatics seem to think wisconsin will be the only state that allows this.
When you are in the country and a feral dog comes onto your property and tries to kill your pets, what do you do? Do you shoot it as a threat, or say wistfully "I can't punish this poor animal because an irresponsible dog owner is responsible!".
No, you deal with the threat.
Same thing here. But with cats, the cat fanatics check their brains at the door and think a discussion about feral cats in the wild is about their little fluffy who lives indoors.
Yeah, that's not psychotic at all.
Geez.
LOL. A feral cat would NOT kill your house cat for fun...that's bunk. And shooting a cat is not the sane, common sense manner....it is the reckless dangerous inhumane manner. Catching and humanely eithaninzing is the sane option. I prefer cat colonies myself....but most people don't care.
And you also think they are no threat to birds, when universities have done studies showing they kill millions.
BTW, I haven't seen a response about the official armed forces policy on feral cats. Are they all 'rednecks'????
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