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.
The natural preditors in the gulf range have been thinned out to the point of extinction, I’m guessing here from the red wolf and puma. Preditors are critical to the health of a prey species. They kill the sick and the weak leaving the stronger animals to breed. If wolves, coyotes or pumas were wandering around down there, they would eat up the feral cats in no time so I’m guessing that these cats are taking the place of the natural preditors and need to be there.
And btw, our couch potato cat Bob routinely kills birds, rabbits and ground squirrels. It saves on cat food and keeps him healthy.
Why bother with the cops, the first option works just fine......
FWIW, cats very seldom get healthy birds. Heck, there is a sharp shinned hawk who uses my bird feeders as a drive thru restaurant.......I very seldom see him, just the leftovers.
Looks like a someone rather than a something. Maybe an arrow or someone tried to spear it. If so, thats just plain mean.
She doesn't’t quite know what to do about the birds except chatter at them. She doesn't’t even know how to stalk properly. She just watches them and occasionally runs at them by which time they are long gone.
I haven’t heard of any wolves or pumas in the Texas Gulf Coast lately but I’ll tell you for sure that the coyotes are thick in Galveston and Brazoria Counties. There are even coyotes in the center of Houston along Buffalo Bayou. I have seen dead ones on Memorial Drive in the middle of Memorial Park and have talked to people who have seen them alive and heard them howling. People in my part of town along the bayou have lost cats and small dogs so I am sure the feral cat population is down too. Now if the coyotes would just finish off the rabbits in my back yard I could have flowers again.
Yes, cats have to be taught by their mother to “catch” or be “mousers”. I guess if kittens are born indoors the mother doesn’t teach them. I just learned this when we moved to the country.
You need a cat out there. It works for us with all varmits except deer.
After landing at DFW and taxying back to the terminal, our plane stopped suddenly on the taxiway as 2 coyotes sauntered across the runway and taxiway. They weren’t in a hurry. Bold as brass.
I think DFW is the 2nd busiest airport in the country.
Survivors.
I’m guessing that your terriers are better at it than a cat could be. And I know what you mean. We live in the middle of the KCMO metro area but close to a stream and parkway so have owls, rabbits, deer, fox, racoons, etc etc.
Don’t you love watching those wild critters? I can watch them right from my house.
I do too. Right now we have a wonderful joyful mockingbird singing and dancing on top of a tree in our backyard. If my cat eats him, I’ll wring his neck.
That’s BS
Sorry hon, it’s not.
Yes Dearie...it is BS. Why don’t you go back another generation.....this time say it’s the grandmother of the kitten. Then they are really really feral. LOL
Sorry, Fawn...you’re wrong on this one. Sometimes a wild animal is a wild animal. This cat was a wild animal. Even the vet and humane society said it was wild.
The lovely little cat in the pic you posted (what a cute cat!!) is a stray...not feral. There’s a difference.
I love cats, too...don’t think I’m being defensive. They’re my favorite animal next to horses.
But fact is fact. There are wild cats. And they’re dangerous. The kitten that attacked me was neither spooked nor upset. It was wild.
(((I wonder if you are mixing up feral cats and stray cats. All cats without owners are not feral. A feral cat was born in the wild, to a mother who was also born in the wild and they are very hard if not impossible to tame. There are lots of stray cats who are not feral and they need homes and can become good pets.)))
Yep!
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