24. April 2005 · Comments Off on They Shoot Cats, Don’t They? · Categories: General, Politics

With all the cat-lovers on this site, I am amazed that noone has chimed in on the current bill in Wisconsin to allow the shooting of “feral” cats. In any event, this commentary should get the hair on the back of a few people’s necks to stand up:

First of all I have to say, I never knew and can’t believe it is against the law to shoot feral cats in the first place. Looking at the natural world and ecological side of the issue it’s a common-sense idea which has no argument. Feral cats are a menace to wildlife. They are not natural predators that have evolved with wildlife over centuries such as bobcats, cougars, lynx and the like. Wildlife lower on the food chain has adapted to survive these natural predators but not feral cats, dumped house cats or pet cats, whatever you call them, that are allowed to freely roam yards, woods and fields.

Don’t try to convince me differently that not all cats are killers. Cats instinctively hunt to kill and not just for food. Back in my grade school days before I was ecologically aware, we had a cat that adopted us, another stray that someone had dumped in Marilla Park we young’ns took in for a pet. That cat was well fed and cared for and allowed to roam free. Back then there was plenty of wildlife around and she constantly brought back results of her hunting. Baby rabbits, birds of all types, young pheasants and quail. Back in the 1960s there were three coveys within ear shot of our house — rodents, more rabbits and songbirds, all were fair game to our well-taken-care-of cat.

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