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.
I'll be the first then. I spent more than five hundred dollars several years ago to have a stray cat treated at a local veterinary hospital. I then spent the better part of a weekend finding a home for him---at a nursing home, as it turns out. It ended up as a companion for the old folks in the Alzheimer's ward. It worked out beautifully.
This year I rescued another cat and then canvassed local classrooms until I found a good home for her. I spent six hours volunteering at the local shelter, and in return they spayed her for free.
uh, duh, i do read and i also know knee jerk citizens who will take the law out of context and shoot before they ask questions. maybe you think its cute to murder innocent animals who didn't have a choice in the matter. but we are the ones that domesticated this animal knowing its nature. we are also the ones who get cute little kitties and then dump them into rural areas. THAT ought to be the crime not the animal trying to feed itself. i heard of it all the time. brat college students (or others) who would get a cat for the semester and then dump it in a rural area. makes me sick. and so do songbird anal retentives who claim their "rural" songbirds are being murdered by these kitties.
Heck, that may be the solution...intoduce more coyotes. That would take care of a number of cats.
Or would freepers call the coyotes a 'bunch of bullies'????
" and so do songbird anal retentives who claim their "rural" songbirds are being murdered by these kitties."
Uh, the facts back up those 'anal retentives'. The songbirds belong there. Feral cats don't.
And killing a feral animal isn't murder. It's killing. Amazing how out of whack the cat fanatics can get.
Nam Vet
"I'll be the first then. I spent more than five hundred dollars several years ago to have a stray cat treated at a local veterinary hospital. I then spent the better part of a weekend finding a home for him---at a nursing home, as it turns out. It ended up as a companion for the old folks in the Alzheimer's ward. It worked out beautifully.
This year I rescued another cat and then canvassed local classrooms until I found a good home for her. I spent six hours volunteering at the local shelter, and in return they spayed her for free."
Ok.
Now do that Ten thousand or so times. Or maybe more.
The problem isn't one that can be handled by one person picking up a cat and taking it in. It has to be done on a massive scale. That has to be paid for. And I don't want my tax dollars wasted on something like that to placate some cat fanatics who don't understand the way nature works.
Anyone who would rather have coyotes around that cats... ( I better not finish the sentence)
"And who can tell the difference between a farel and a stray? You have the Power of the Force or somthing? hmph"
For someone who claims to volunteer with an animal shelter, you don't seem toknow much about feral cats.
I suggest you get out in the country and try to interact with some. You will know the difference rather quickly.
"Anyone who would rather have coyotes around that cats... ( I better not finish the sentence)"
Coyotes belong in the wild. Cats do not. Try logic for a change on this.
When my neighborhood coyotes tried to eat my lambs I shot 'em.
Nam Vet
Exactly - feral cats will not only kill for food,they will kill just to kill. And it's not a humane killing either.
"Now do that Ten thousand or so times.
It has to be done on a massive scale."
===
ONE person doesn't have to do it 10,000 times, 10,000 people could be compassionate just once.
Also, please re-read newsworthy's post 75
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1382605/posts?page=75#75
It would be fair to let the cats duke it out with the coyotes.
You didn't suggest that such a practice wasn't feasible; you suggested that anyone calling for humane practices was a hypocrite, which is not true. I will humor you, though.
I don't have a responsibility for ten thousand animals. I do have a responsibility to deal humanely with the animals that wander onto my property. I have done so. Extrapolate from that to the wider scene, and you would never have ten thousand stray cats. Irresponsible people/policies have generated this problem, not forlorn animals.
Exactly.
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