Posted on 04/13/2005 9:10:21 AM PDT by Houmatt
MADISON, Wis. Apr 13, 2005 — Although Wisconsin residents have voiced their support for a plan to legalize wild cat hunting, some legislators and cat lovers say they will continue their fight.
The proposal would allow licensed hunters to kill free-roaming cats, including any domestic cat that isn't under the owner's direct control or any cat without a collar, just like skunks or gophers something the Humane Society of the United States has described as cruel and archaic.
Outdoor enthusiasts approved the proposal 6,830 to 5,201 at Monday's spring hearings of the Wisconsin Conservation Congress, a citizens' advisory group.
The results, released Tuesday by the state, get forwarded to the Natural Resources Board for its consideration. Ultimately, though, any measure would have to be passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Jim Doyle.
Already, two state senators Scott Fitzgerald and Neil Kedzie are promising they'll do everything they can to keep the plan from becoming law.
Kedzie, who chairs the Natural Resources and Transportation Committee, called the issue "a distraction from the main tasks we have at hand."
"I don't see a whole lot of momentum for it," Kedzie said. "It's not the responsibility of the DNR to regulate cats."
Fitzgerald, co-chairman of the Legislature's powerful Joint Finance Committee, said he will "work against any proposed legislation to legalize the shooting of feral cats."
At least two other upper Midwestern states, South Dakota and Minnesota, allow wild cats to be shot and have for decades.
Every year in Wisconsin alone, an estimated 2 million wild cats kill 47 million to 139 million songbirds, according to state officials. Despite the astounding numbers, the proposal has been met with fierce opposition from cat lovers such as Ted O'Donnell.
O'Donnell, who gathered more than 17,000 signatures in an online petition to oppose the plan, was joined at Monday's meetings by scores of other animal lovers who held pictures of cats, clutched stuffed animals and wore whiskers.
Even Karen Hale, the head of the Madison Audobon Society, one of the largest pro-bird groups in the country with 2,500 members, voted no. She said the proposal was just too controversial, even though wild cats have reduced the state's bird population.
You're wrong. I've tamed 4 or 5 of the 'beasts'.
Hey, I AM a responsible pet owner.
I used to own a couple of cats when I lived in Oklahoma, near a wooded area. The cats went out there all the time.
I doubt it. You may have re-tamed a few strays, but you get a second or third generation, born in the wild feral cat and you're looking at something about as mean and ornery as a bobcat, and just about as "tameable."
I'm afraid if I saw you shooting a defenseless animal, I'd have you arrested so fast for animal cruelty your head would spin.
It's just a matter of time and you can tame most of them ...cats are domesticated....
>> Why? It's probably hunting quail too. Oh, I guess the cat didn't buy a license. <<
Viking Kitties NEVER buy licenses from the STATE!
Here's your Post of the Day award!
I have two cats, but they are definitely staying inside. Even though they have collars with tags and are microchipped.
I live in WISCONSIN. If this thing gets passed, and anyone shoots my cat, I will consider them a feral human and take appropriate action.
Think I'm kidding?
"California Quail, the state bird, are being hunted to extinction by non-native cats and I will shoot the feral cats every chance I get to protect the quail and other birds."
" You cannot tell me that a bullet from my rifle is a less humane demise for a feral cat than to be dismembered alive by a hawk or an eagle."
So, you hunt quail with a rifle ? Or do you just use that when you're cat hunting?
"What a stupid, cruel plan. This group controls stray cats humanely."
Really? They insist on feeding feral cats and they even insist on feeding WILDLIFE instead of letting nature take care of it's own. Sounds like a bunch of crazed cat-collecting schizophrenics to me.
It is NOT humane to spay and neuter a feral cat and then release it back into a dangerous environment where the cat is a non-native predator.
Where? In Oregon, I believe it is now a felony to maliciously kill someone's pet, but a feral cat? C'mon. The law, again in Oregon, doesn't allow people to have a dog off-leash in game-bird nesting habitat during certain months.
Just out of curiosity, how would you know?
My cats do not go far. In order to shoot them one would have to be on or very close to my property.
I doubt that I'll be hunting in your neighborhood, so your f'ing cat is safe from me. I don't typically hunt in neighborhoods for that matter. In fact, in the areas where I hunt, if I see a "housecat" it is almost certainly a stray or an abandoned animal. Such cats are very destructive to quail populations, which is why most sportsmen in Texas will shoot them. It is usually not that difficult to tell a tame cat that is somebody's loved pet from one that is a stray or abandoned animal that has been living in the wild for awhile. As for your disposition to take revenge for the killing of your pet cat by murdering a person and his family, be warned that if you attempt to enter the house of a hunter, your intended victims are likely to be armed (including the f'ing kids that you think it will be easy to kill). Just so you know.
So if one of the little darlings gets hit by a car, are ya gonna shoot the driver?
How would you react if one of your kids was hit by a car?
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