Posted on 03/06/2005 8:32:04 PM PST by esryle
MADISON, Wis. Hunter Mark Smith welcomes wild birds onto his property, but if he sees a cat, he thinks the "invasive" animal should be considered fair game.
The 48-year-old firefighter from La Crosse has proposed that hunters in Wisconsin make free-roaming domestic cats an "unprotected species" that could be shot at will by anyone with a small-game license.
Hunters will vote on the proposal on April 11th during hearings for the Wisconsin Conservation Congress across the state.
Smith's proposal has horrified cat lovers, but some see it as a way of stopping cats from killing wild birds.
Department of Natural Resources attorney Tim Andryk says the vote would simply be an advisory recommendation to state lawmakers.
He says that to have open season on roaming cats, laws that relate to abuse of domestic animals may have to be amended.
New York has been infested with rats since the first ships landed.
Wise crack, there, Soliman-Bundy.
For those of us who have been forced by AgencyPersons to quarter predators like panther and grizzley on our lands, the issue isn't funny. Even with the handgun which I now have to wear when I am on my own property, I am aware that if attacked, there is very litle chanc of survival.
If you feel wildlife has sacred value, buy your own religious experiences and the land to support them. Don't ask others to support your beliefs.
"New York has been infested with rats since the first ships landed"
And the devolution of part of the American body politic into DemoRats certainly added to the New York rat population.
But there is an answer. I have a cat dubbed DemoCat - it is always there for a free lunch and it feels entitled. ;-)
Around here we leave roaming cats to the tender mercies of coyotes. There are very few cats.
After a cat was caught, he'd come out and pick up the heavy, steel trap and drop it into a large garbage can filled with water. 20 minutes later or so he'd retrieve the drowned animal, drop it into a trash bag and toss it into the dumpster.
Very few cats roaming around that neighborhood
Now, why? In the past, it was common for people to let their cats got outside. Sometimes cats slip out of the house. Did he get a kind of thrill out of killing defenseless animals? Was he the type to deliberately swerve his car and try to hit an animal crossing the road?
There are just some people who like to kill for the sake of killing. They may do it in the name of "protecting wild birds" or some such lame excuse, but they are simply psychopaths who like to kill. Some would kill humans if they thought they could get away with it, and others do.
Did your friend's father have the courage to serve in the military? At least the potential of going to war existed and the prey shot back.
By naturally controlling the population of birds the cats are making sure the birds don't over populate the area and become pests.
Of course, but any number of hunters want all of the game to themselves. A feral cat taking one pheasant in one year is one less pheasant for a hunter to shoot.
My late father was a hunter and a cat lover. One day, he brought home a number of dead pheasants and showed one to the original Siamese Princess, a now elderly seal-point Siamese cat. She let out out a loud yowl of alarm! I guess she was more accustomed to lusting after the small sparrows and starlings that she saw from the window. The pheasant was too big.
I've been told that they are worse -- no fear of humans.
NYC's rat probelm is mostly with democRATS....
If you love your cat, keep it inside. Otherwise it's trespassing.
In some areas, feral cats and coyotes have taken over empty ecological niches. Here in NJ, most of the predators (especially the big ones) are gone. Black bears, redtailed hawks, a few eagles, foxes, racoons, coyotes and feral cats. No wolves, though mountain lions have been spotted (a friend and former big-game guide in Africa spotted one in northwest NJ).
I'd pay to see that.
I don't object to hunting -- my late father hunted and I have hunter friends. I just don't hold with killing a animal for the "fun" of it. If you kill it, you eat it!
I agree because it's the most effective way to stop the aggravating practice of picking noses in public ;-)
That's what happened to a man I know. Coyotes killed most of his barn cats. In NJ.
A five gallon bucket 1/2 filled with water, a coat hanger, empty soda can and some peanut butter makes for a good mouse trap.
No, human beings are to blame for most, if not all, decimations and outright extinctions -- either by overhunting or habitat destruction, or both. The end of the last ice age hurt some animals, such as mammoths, because of change of habitat that they were unable to adapt to, but humans probably finished them off.
Exactly. That's why tyrants hate cats -- too darn independent. Hitler and Napoleon hated cats. I bet Saddam Hussein hated them, too.
"Why do cat owners think that they have the right to allow their animals to roam freely, and crap in my flowerbed?"--
"Because they're cats. Birds are probably pooping in your yard too. Unless some real injury or property damage occurs, it's no big deal."
Then you shouldn't complain if I come over and crap in your flower bed and pee off your deck.
Right. Some homeless cats belonged to someone but got lost or were abandoned. A friendly but homeless adult cat is a stray. Adult ferals may be friendly to a person who feeds them, but not to strangers, for good reason.
Cats eat birds and mice. Coyotes love nothing more than a domestic cat. Seems kinds of silly for man to legislate what mother nature has already dealt the cards on. This man does not need a law, he needs a large canine.
I honed my rifle skills on feral cats in the pasture and the fields on our farm. If the odd felonious feline wasn't content with a diet of fresh milk and barn rodents and took up the rouge life of an ex-mouser turned rabbit and quail killer, it would be added to the target of opportunity list.
Besides, after my brother and I wiped out the groundhogs along the ATT highline embankment that spit the farm in half, what else were we to expend our reserve .222 ammo on? Coyotes? They made a big detour to avoid our acreage.
I had a neigbor in CT that thought he would trap some cats. What he ended up with was a very large, and very angry, raccoon.
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