Shooting Feral Cats
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'Domesticated' or not cats and dogs (aside from a few breeds) dont seem to have been altered enough to stop them from being able to live outside of the home. People refer to them as "feral" or "strays" but really, thats probably as close to their natural condition as they get. They can and do live fairly natural lives without people when they have to. Their lives tend to be more violent and shorter, but that is the case for all animals not in captivity. I dont really have much of a problem with cats or dogs being out there doing their thing. Sure, they can be annoying and potentially pose risks - but so can any wild animal that comes into town. Foxes, bears and wolves regularly came into the town where I grew up in the spring and summer. Some were shot, some were trapped and taken deeper into the woods. So far as I know the same stuff still happens.
Yep and what damage and risk they do do is perfectly normal coming from them. Every animal (including humans) kills to survive and caries disease. Thats life - and death. Starving to death or being eaten by larger predators are likely how most animals in the wild die. Thats also natural. Unpleasant to think about but thats the way it goes.
I've found that the main thing that shortens their lives is our insistence on controlling our environment to such rigid degrees that cats that won't submit to being affectionate to humans end up being killed. Plenty of farms could use mousers, but even in a mouser, people tend to insist the cat be pettable and cute and nice. Landfills can use vermin control, but if the cats are 'wild', they must die. How pompous are we that we think being shot by us is a better fate than living longer and dying naturally? I've seen a lot of feral animals, and typically the only time they've been a problem, it was because people were interfering with them, using them for target practice with pellet guns and the like, chasing them away from food sources (because it's OUR garbage dammit!!), and making them fearful and aggressive. Someone mentioned the feral packs on reserves as an example. If you go to any 'reserve rescue' site, like Hope Lives Here, more than half the animals they bring in and rehabilitate, have to have pellets removed, some from pellet guns, some from shot guns. It's no wonder packs go on rampages.
Why on earth should a rational person involve government and public expense to deal with dump cats? Canada has become so wimpish in too many ways. Some years ago I ran over a raccoon on the highway right about dark one Friday evening. After I hit it, it was lying on the shoulder twitching with a broken back but still alive, so I put it out of its misery with a tire iron. People standing around like ghouls started whining that I should have called to get someone out to kill it government style. Bringing out a conservation officer on overtime on Friday evening to kill a coon? Even if they'd sent a cop, why? Cops have enough to do without having to kill a crippled raccoon I was equally capable of safely and cleanly killing. And yes, the word is "killing". It wasn't a "harvest". It is not necessary to say "euthanize". And when I was finished it was dead, not "passed away".
Just couldn't resist an attack, could'ja Soft bits? Out to defend wild puszy today are we? (You are too easy to bait, know that? I knew you wouldn't resist the chance to snipe at a "cat" thread. U R too too easy.)
Can you quote him on that, Avro?
Or you could just read my sig for what he actually said.
CO's are paid a salary. I have the personal cell number of our local CO, to call him night or day, no extra expense. Most are willing to go that extra step, because most of the ones I've met got into the business because they appreciate and respect wildlife.
Maybe you should stick to talking about things you actually know. Whatever they may be.
What a crock of citiot BS sneaked in with some sense.
To begin with, farms that do not breed up some cats are not farms but hobbies. Cats are not native to this continent so if they are not decent to humans then kill the bastards. You have not spent time on any real reserves or you would not be yapping about their dog problems.
I remember back in the 1990's being on a reserve at Kitwanga, BC, west of Smithers. There were dead and dying dogs lying everywhere. Apparently it was a regular occurrence. It was how people feuded - loading up moose burger with anti-freeze and tossing in each others' yards.
Bullsh!t. You ate them.
Sunday supper for the stowaway on the Snakehead rust bucket, no doubt...
I wonder how long before you snap, get warned by Loc and start pouting "That means you too CB", again.Man oh man...Whatever the lascars made you eat on the voyage just keeps hitting your keyboard, Bhopa...
I just pictured you all red and pouty faced, near tears, lol.
Oh pumpkin! Please don't go! I love it when you embarrass yourself!
Come back Av! Don't leave us!
Don't go away ma... err, sad!
Damn, I upset him so much, he ran away...
Oy. 8O I called our township re feral cats and was told we are the ONLY twp. which has NO cat control bylaw
Dogs yep
Cats no.
Of course not. Cats can't be controlled. They are top of the food chain and people are just servants to them.
A case in BC in the 1970's struck down a cat bylaw. Apparently the Magna Carta says something about protecting cats. A provincial statute could do it, but not a municipal bylaw. I doubt that any serious legal research was done on the Magna Carta issue because the argument caught everyone by surprise. Beside, I think the judge got a kick out of basing a decision on the Magna Carta. Since then everyone has been too afraid of trying a cat bylaw, just treating the BC case as gospel. That kind of thing happens a lot, where the bureaucracy gives more weight and too little research to a decision and it develops a life of its own.
On a grain farms, feral cats are worth their weight in gold. One mouse turd can cost you a grade at the terminal. Himalayans do very well in SKs climate.
