Posted on 05/13/2005 5:55:07 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
MANITOWOC, Wis. (AP) - A month after Gov. Jim Doyle said a plan to allow hunters to shoot stray cats was making Wisconsin a laughingstock, the public advisory group that raised the issue decided Friday to let it die.
"There is no need to push it any further," Wisconsin Conservation Congress chairman Steve Oestreicher said of a proposed change to allow licensed hunters to shoot feral cats that kill songbirds and other wildlife. The proposal ignited a firestorm among animal rights groups that called it inhumane and dangerous - and raised the specter that hunters would shoot cats that had only wandered from their homes.
Still, 57 percent of those at the Conservation Congress' meetings in all 72 counties last month favored the idea, which supporters said would let people deal with nuisance stray cats.
Members of the Conservation Congress advise the state Natural Resources Board and the Department of Natural Resources, according to its Web site.
Delegates at the group's convention in Manitowoc voted Friday to recommend the change to the Natural Resources Board, but the group's executive committee decided against it. For the proposal to become law, it would need legislative approval and Doyle's signature.
"The governor has indicated he would never sign a bill," Oestreicher said. "It's time to let it go."
The La Crosse firefighter who proposed the idea, Mark Smith, complained the advisory group caved in to animal rights activists. But he said he won't pursue the issue.
"I think it is wrong that these activists hold such power as they do," he said in a telephone interview. "The politicians are all scared of them and lay down. I am one little guy who was looking to change something. It is not about animal cruelty, it is about individual landowner rights."
Jessica Frohman, a spokeswoman for a Maryland-based group called Alley Cat Allies, hailed the decision. "I think cat owners and pet owners are going to be just as happy," she said.
Some estimates indicate 2 million wild cats roam Wisconsin. South Dakota and Minnesota allow wild cats to be shot.
Wisconsin gives up on maintaining and protecting the songbird population, while Governor is heard to mutter "just a bunch of dam*ed dinosaurs anyway" as he vetoed the feral predator disposal act.
Darn. There was about 20 soldiers who were heading there to hunt cats just as soon as they got off the plane coming back from Iraq.
Here in my part of Ohio, I just "shoot, shovel, and shut up". Unless I'm on my rural property. Then I just fling 'em in the bushes.Oops! Now the cat lovers are gonna get me...
Whew! Now we can just be a laughingstock because of Diamond Jim's refusal to allow photo I.D. in the face of massive voter fraud. (while recently signing a bill that requires photo I.D. to purchase OTC cold medicine). Well I sure feel better!
Good. I want to see cat hunters remain where they belong. In jail for a long, long time. Or at least paying a fine that is severe. A man of kindness to his beast is kind.
Last year the mountain dew approach was the only thing that reduced the numbers signifigantly.
I'm a rural Wisconsin farmer. I've got all the cats the cat lovers abandon. Getting em spayed at $150 a copy or nutted for $75 is a real joy. Current population around the house/barns is about 18+/-. I think my wife gets pissed and tosses a bag of catfood in the field accross the road from us without comment. The traffic culls the fat greedy ones.
Just round them up and give them to PETA. PETA kills a few thousand of them every year at their offices in Virginia.
There was an old lady up the road from us who had an old farmhouse she abandoned and moved into town. She would stop by every day and feed the cats. Over the years their numbers went into the hundreds. Then feline leukemia ravaged the herd. Dead cats everywhere. The county then came in and trapped the ones not showing illness and euthanized them.
I live in rural Indiana. There are tons of cats here as well. I either feed them or I don't. Haven't found the need to murder any roving animal yet, though. I have about 3 families of bunnies in my yard, preventing me from having a garden. I've tossed them some lettuce, but they still don't trust me quite yet.
My daughter was bitten by a beautiful tomcat one of those "cat lovers" dropped off to "live out his days in the country". I was never so mad. OSU wanted a certain part of the cat to check for rabies. I was more than happy to oblige their quest for kitty parts. Cats are evil creatures...
The trolls on free republic certainly think the kitties are evil. One of my best friends is a cat, however.
It ignited a firestorm in me and I absolutely despise animal rights groups. I am not an environmentalist, but I am a conservationist. There is a huge difference.
Every post I made on this subject was written from the perspective of a hunter and an advocate of hunter's and gun owner's rights. Even a complete moron should be able to see the risks evident in promoting a hunt of feral cats. The animal rights crowd would have had us for lunch.
If you love songbirds so much, go ahead and shoot cats in the wild as you see fit. SSSU. But don't ask for a season on them. Such a request will only mar the hunters legitimately pursuing their sport.
I hate cats; I really do, but this hunt was insane.
FYI. The irrational cat cult has won.
That's a sad situation with that old lady and the cats. She certainly wasn't helping them by feeding them every day like that on a large abandoned property. It sounds like she should get the blame and the county bill for putting them down.
You must like cats much more than birds.
and the various diseases they carry, which makes it more likely these peoples' precious house cats will come in contact with them and get sick.
But hey, let's not use logic on the situation. It's for the kittens.
Don't worry. The cats will "murder" your bunnies quite efficiently, though you may be awakened by the terrible screams they emit while being tortured to death.
The cats seems to find the screams quite amusing.
I find it amusing that people say that hunters should not kill feral cats because it is "murder", but have no problem with the cats themselves, who "murder" for sport many times their own number. If the cats were killed, far less creatures would be "murdered".
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