I'm waitin around for something to bite!
Posted on 04/13/2007 8:33:45 AM PDT by BradtotheBone
GALVESTON — After devoting much of his life to protecting wild creatures, a prominent naturalist here now faces trial on a felony charge of cruelty to animals.
Jim Stevenson, 53, a well-known bird-watcher and founder of the Galveston Ornithological Society, was indicted this week by a Galveston County grand jury on charges that he killed a feral cat Nov. 8 with a .22-caliber rifle.
"What really bothers me, this cat was down there killing endangered species of birds and others protected by law," Stevenson said in an interview Thursday. "Feral cats are not protected by law, and I stopped a cat from doing that and I get arrested."
Assistant District Attorney Bill Reed declined to discuss Stevenson's view of the law.
"All of those issues, I'm sure, will be flushed out in court," Reed said.
Stevenson, who has lived on Galveston Island since 1996, has traveled the world studying birds and published four books, including the Wildlife of Galveston. and publishes the Galveston Ornithological Society's quarterly newspaper, Gulls N Herons.
Despite his deep involvement with nature, or perhaps because of it, he has been accused of an aversion to feral cats because they prey on the birds he has studied.
Stevenson said the cat he is accused of killing had previously been captured and would have been euthanized had it not been spayed and and released.
Stevenson believes that there is no law protecting feral cats.
An official with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has said the law is unclear.
Although he admitted in a 1999 Internet posting to killing two dozen feral cats near his island home, Stevenson told the Houston Chronicle in November that he is fond of cats.
His arrest last year surprised and saddened many environmentalists.
"Jim Stevenson is not a bad man," Dori Nelson, chair of the Seabrook Eco-Tourism Committee, told the Chronicle soon after his arrest.
The arrest came after a toll-booth worker at the San Luis Pass Bridge told police that he heard two shots fired, then saw a white van speed away with Stevenson at the wheel.
One of the toll-booth employees, who had been feeding several feral cats and considered them pets, found the dead cat and pursued Stevenson. The employee said the cat already had a limp from an earlier bullet wound.
Stevenson is free on $10,000 bail. If convicted, he faces from six months to two years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
I think that all people who view their own selfish interest of releasing non-native species into the environment and allowing said non-natives to devour animals that actually belong in said environment,should be sealed in an enclosure with a 13 foot long Nile Crocodile that has big teeth and algae growing on his back and bad breath. The enclosure would be your home. The croc would be the non-native. Get the picture?
I'm waitin around for something to bite!
Not if they make sure the animals are spayed/neutered (as this cat was). I leave dry cat food on my back porch, both for the benefit of my cats, who enjoy eating outdoors, and for visiting neighborhood cats. Few of the visitors are feral, but all visitors, feral or not, get fixed if they aren't already. So far I've gotten fixings done on one feral (who I adopted, and is now more or less domesticated), and two "owned" cats whose irresponsible owners were letting them run free without being fixed.
All birds do is crap on my car, attack my neighbors, and carry far more diseases than my cat ever could.
If anything, start killing the birds.
Sorry, but all feral cats must exit to that great kitty litter box in the sky!
Meeeeowww! Pow Pow Pow! Tweet Tweet Tweet!
Read a book sometime, you might learn something about introduced species, non-natives, and invasive species.
I’m quite an extensive reader, thank you very much.
And believe me I know all about invasive species living on the Gulf Coast as I do.
We tend to call them Northerners.
Thanks for sharing
Well, that is an interesting perspective...
Since we do not have Bobcats, Cougars, and too much in the way of any other “native” predators in most urban areas of Texas anymore, I would like to hear your ideas on controlling the rodent and varmint population in DFW, Houston, or Galveston Island. Do you have any?
(Not trying to be snarky — I am really curious as to how we would keep from being overrun by vermin without “imported” predators that since the native ones have learned to keep their distance from people.)
You may be an extensive reader but, apparently your perceptions of the value of a natural system is flawed. Most native species have a function wether perceived or unperceived. The introduction of a non-native serves merely to destroy balance. Although the balance of natural systems have already been radically altered, they do not need any additional help from people who refuse to keep their pets under control.
Is there a place in this country where people live and where the domestic American cat is a non-native? Seems like I see cats every where I go.
1m years ago finches didn't exist on the Galapagos Islands. At some point the "non-native" species was introduced, not by man I might add. At what point does a non-native species become native?
I agree, lack of predators has created problems in some areas. Hunting is legal in most states for animals such as squirrels, rabbits, coyote etc. Trapping is also still legal in many states. In urban areas where overpopulation of rodents such as mice and rats are a problem, they can be trapped and disposed of humanely. Overpopulation of rodents is in response to the human condition not a natural occurrence.
When a "Guest Worker" bill passes.
Like most domesticated species, house cats have been selectively bred and have spread throughout the world. They will never be a native species because they are considered a domesticated animal. Australia is also having huge problems with feral cats. They are killing native wildlife wholesale. I am not sure but, there may be a bounty on feral cats in Australia.
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