Posted on 04/13/2005 6:44:57 AM PDT by bedolido
MADISON, Wis. - 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.
Having a meat shortage in the fine State of Wis?
See #3.....
Cats are decimating wildlife and cat lovers do not care.
My own neighbors cat is left to roam the neighborhood and I have seen it stalking baby ducks, chipmunks, and birds that have fallen from nests.
They are killers. The only good cat is a dead cat!
Cats -and feral dogs, for that matter -have been part of the North American ecosystem for 400 years now--I don't really believe either are suddenly going to cause mass extinctions of anything--
>>The only good cat is a dead cat!<<
I have to disagree with you.
The only good cat is a Housecat with a responsible owner. We have two, both neutered. The amount of roaming cats in our suburb drive me NUTS! At night, the fights outside the windows get our cats going and they run from window to window hissing and spitting.
Last week I heard the chatter of a raccoon and the hissing of a cat in a fight. The raccoon won. We know because the hissing turned to squeals and finally there was silence.
If one loves a cat, love that cat in your house only.
Contrarian view here. I love to see the neighborhood cats slink around. We have an old cat and two other cats regularly come to visit his food dish and he and they have standoffs which we enjoy. They occasionally spat but no one is hurt.
Now I hate feral cats but how will hunters know the difference?
And people in Wisconsin sound mean if you ask me. Who ever heard of open season on kittie cats.
Well, it *is* a blue state, you know.
Well, there are some mean people in Wisconsin who want to kill our kittie cats. The killed cats are not supposed to have collars but alot of kitties, mine mainly, won't wear a collar. And I let mine out because cats have the right to live out their lives like cats, not like lap dogs. Mine roams and loves it. He is being a cat. And nobody ought to be hunting kitties like him.
I think that statement is too broad. I am cat lover, animal lover and my cats have bells and tags that clink loudly. They stalk but they don't catch a thing. :)
Cat lovers think their "pet" should be able to roam free. I think they need to stay out of my shed and not use it as a litter box. Now if they should happen to eat something in there . . . . .
>>Contrarian view here. I love to see the neighborhood cats slink around. We have an old cat and two other cats regularly come to visit his food dish and he and they have standoffs which we enjoy. They occasionally spat but no one is hurt.<<
Are you in the country or the Suburbs?
If in the suburbs, look by the side of the road in the spring.
Roaming cats are the ones you see there.
When it is outside keep it on a leash and you don't have to worry
>>Cat lovers think their "pet" should be able to roam free. I think they need to stay out of my shed and not use it as a litter box. Now if they should happen to eat something in there . . . . .<<
Exactly!
And I feel that anyone who uses my kids sandbox as a liter box or my flower garden as a toilet deserves what he/she gets.
I enjoy my pets, please enjoy yours on your own property. I don't want to.
You do not have the right to inflict your pet on others. Keep it in the house or on a leash like a dog and it won't get hurt.
Now that would really upset me.
Oh pish! My kittie doesn't bother a soul except people who have nothing to do but complain.
So who are the natural preditors of the cats?
Non-neutered feral cats means population explosion if they are not naturally taken out or by man.
That's why they are starting to take out livestock. We have a God given job to steward our Earth. We eliminated the preditors like wolves so it is our job to control the population.
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