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.
Seems some folks have trouble with the shut up part.
The responses to this thread should reinforce why its there.
S.S.S. should have been Bernie Getz mantra
Fixed cats still kill birds. The thing he did wrong was post that he had killed them. He should get a slap on the wrist and that is all.
Got it...I'll tell the vet...he apparently has a different book than yours. And what's with the 'SHEESH'?
Paint your kitty if you don’t want it shot. Here’s how.
http://ueba.net/hosted_pages/Painted-Cats-20070219
I strongly disagree. Killing feral cats should not be a crime, and anyone should be able to say it, anywhere.
Correction: If there is a hungry animal around, I will feed it.
“Sheesh” is old people’s vernacular.....and, yeah....tell your vet that.
Once they do that by definition are they not Feral anymore?
If it's curled up on your bed with you, it's probably NOT a feral cat. Unless you live out in the country with feral cats crossing your property, attacking birds, making a nuisance of themselves (and then dying on your property), you don't understand the problem here.
Well you’ve got to be carefull what you say. Ask Imus.
What are you in for?
I stepped on a crack.
But kid, steer clear of that hombre pressing wildflowers: he killed a cat for yowling, down Saragossa way—just to see him die.
What if your cat is Cat-holic?..........
At which point it's no longer a feral cat.
Feral birds are more of a health threat than feral cats.
West Nile, Avian flu, histoplasmosis, Chlamydiosis, Eastern Equine Encephalitis, Cryptococcosis, Allergic Alveolitis, for a start.
No. Not any more.
How true.
Uh, no.
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