Posted on 04/26/2019 3:21:24 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
Is the damage done by these cats extensive? I’m not seeing a reason why explained...keep in mind I’m a city slicker.
speaking of cats, I am trying to find a plain old tabby housecat or calico female kitten.
There are no kittens.
I have checked all the usual sources but there are no kittens left. Any where.
Don’t people have kittens here in the US?
I can find speciality breeds for 300 to 800 dollars, but no just plain housecats.
What gives?
Wait a few weeks, there will be plenty of kittens. It is early in the season yet for kittens to be born.
really? someone told me spring.
The anti-cat zealots throw out statistics like “Housecats kill billions of birds every year.” But they never have any hard data to back that up.
Cats eat a variety of small critters—rodents, birds, reptiles, insects, etc. And they can be excellent hunters. Without cats, we would be overrun by rodents. This endangers both our food supply and our health.
People who study the domestication of cats say that the relationship between cats and humans began in the dawn of agriculture. The early farmers grew crops that attracted rodents and other pests; the rodents and other pests attracted cats. The farmers tolerated and even welcomed the cats because the cats saved the food supply. The utility of cats is responsible for their spread worldwide. Plus, cats are cute—they have characteristics of human infants—which also contributed to their domestication.
Spring is correct, but later in the spring. Any kittens that might be born right now are too young to be adopted. They have to be 8 weeks old.
thanks. I will keep patience.
I would love a little calico or tiger, with the mice around here, they will be just perfect for winter mousing.
You’re welcome.
I would keep checking at the shelter, since kittens should start to be available within a few weeks.
I love calicos and tortoiseshells. We have always had one or the other (or both). Right now, we have a tortie that we got at the animal shelter when she was about 10 months old.
That many cats wipe out indigenous creatures.
I own and pay taxes on my 40 acres; wouldn’t advise anybody attempt to shoot our cat on our property. That’s a damned good way for someone to disappear.
Long but very interesting article on “1080” here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_fluoroacetate
Apparently, Sodium_fluoroacetate is somewhat invasive species selective, and its use generally benefits the native Australian animals.
That said, I really do wonder whether native predators can control the rats and mice.
Living in a rural area, we have been adopted by various stray cats over the years, sometimes more quickly than others! A few were too feral to ever get close to us — invariably they eventually disappear. Several became very sweet and beloved pets. Overall they are beneficial, tho’ I wish there was some way to deter them from eating the insect eaters (birds, lizards, and frogs)! OTOH, some of the cats have even been fairly effective against moles. Interestingly, none have bothered my daughter’s pet / free range chickens - granted we have an Amberlink rooster with his spurs left to grow, and any but the most desperate cat would be a damn fool to tangle with that rooster. (That said, a ‘possum or especially a raccoon has the opposite effect: The rooster runs and a hen becomes potential dinner for the invader. It took a stronger henhouse and door latching - actually a real lock - the ‘coons can’t learn to open, to minimize those problems.)
If they stick around we get the cats neutered - which we need to do with the big orange tom who has finally really cozied up to us now: The problem is his marking of everything he wants to claim!
Anyway, back on topic, it looks to me like the conservation agencies in Australia and NZ actually DO know what they are doing. Like I said, that Wikipedia article covers it well.
So along comes dogs, dingo’s, and carrion to eat the dead poisoned cat’s remains then get poisoned and die a horrible death as well. Sounds like the Aussies took the easiest but not best path to thin the cat population. Cats will multiply fast. Too fast. One litter can become 11 million cats in just 9 years so it’s a very real problem.
In Arizona there is a no limit, no license needed, open season all year on coyote because they go after small livestock. They will also eat small dogs and cats when they can get them. They can easily jump a 5’ fence. I have mixed feelings about this but I wouldn’t want to change anything. It’s well understood ranchers can shoot to kill any wild dog they see on their lands too. I think feral dogs do more damage to cows, sheep, and goats than the coyote because they are not bred to survive in the wild anymore so they go after whatever is in front of them and they do it in packs.
Tough situation and we have one species to blame for all of it. Humans. People dump their unwanted dogs out in the country rather than take them to a no-kill shelter to be re-homed. Coyote will go after chickens and small livestock but they won’t chew the noses and ears off cows like feral dogs will unless they are a last resort.
To actually answer your question in depth, see this link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_fluoroacetate
Scroll down to Australia and New Zealand.
How many terrorists are living the good life in that country....feed them instead......no more Australian vino for me......
Wait a few weeks, then check with some rescue shelters again-the baby kittens born this early are too young to be adopted yet-I’m fostering a mom and litter of two for the local animal welfare society right now because they have so many tiny kittens-solid smoke-gray mom with two solid black kittens-both male-they are 3 weeks old now but both mom and kittens have already been claimed for adoption as soon as the kittens are weaned at 8 weeks-the shelter had a very pretty female gray tabby about a year old, but she was adopted last week-plenty of gray tabbies around here, though-I have two of my own...
Cats, rats, mice, dingos, rabbits. All introduced and invasive. Bats and the monotremes are the only no -marsupial mammals indigenous to Australia. There are marsupial ecological equivalents to rodents, but they really aren’t rodents, per se.
That’s one of my favorites!
Not to disagree, but all but 1 time we have tried to get a stray dog or cat to a shelter, we’d call around (there are several shelters local to us), and the shelters around here were all full. Even in that 1 case, it was only after we explained the bad situation with a stray @ my elderly Mom’s house that anyone would take it (the stray cat getting in her garage and tearing things up).
A stray dog here we posted a sign for at several local farm supply stores, too, and it took weeks to give him away. There really is a large glut of these animals. :-(
Hawks will not eat dead stuff that they did not kill .... might get the vultures though.
It makes the Bible reference to ‘pearls before swine’ very relevant.
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You are totally and absolutely wrong. “Do not cast your pearls before swine”, in its original Biblical context, is a warning against evangelizing certain kinds of hardened unbelievers.
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