All these "killer cat" articles are a backlash against TNR. It's unfortunate
that some people are so mentally paralyzed that they don't realize that spaying
and neutering a cat (or dog) will stop the reproductive cycle. A spayed cat is
a spayed cat, one cat. An intact cat is a cat and then more and more cats with
each birth of kittens. I have spoken to people who say, "Well yes, but even if
you spay the cat you still have a cat. Using this logic, any time you have a
quantity of individuals who are considered "too many", including human
overpopulation you should look towards a solution that involves killing the
individuals, which instantly rids the area of the unwanted human or non human
but doesn't solve the long term problem of overpopulation. Hitler tried this
form of birth control, killing those individuals that he thought were not
valuable and should not reproduce. Obviously, it didn't work too well. Any time
killing is involved in population
control, there will be people who will not go along with the program because
of issues like compassion and aversion to death.
Now here's a true study. There was a town in Arizona or Colorado (not sure
which State) that did have a large number of free-roaming cats. They did trap
them and kill them and were down to very few cats. Most of the remaining cats
were kept inside. It was actually against the law to allow cats outside. Mother
Nature hates to be tampered with. In a year, the town was overrun by rats and
mice and crop eating small mammals. People were so upset that the City Council
voted to import several hundred cats from shelters in surrounding towns so that
they could rebuild their outside cat population. It seems that in spite of the
150 million estimate of cats and the billions of dead mice and rats and birds,
we see no dearth of mice, rats and birds, including song birds. And yes, cats
are an "introduced" species although the cat family of larger cats such as
mountain lions, bob cats and others were here already when explorers arrived to
settle this continent.
There was a good reason why the cats came along. If they hadn't, the rats and
mice that infested the ships would have eaten the food supplies before the
ships could complete the journey. All that would have been left would have been
skeletons of starved to death settlers.
Spay and Neuter your cats and dogs and your weird relatives and nasty neighbors
too!
>________________________________
> From: Kathryn Hargreaves <[email protected]>
>To: [email protected]
>Sent: Sunday, February 3, 2013 10:02 PM
>Subject: Re: [Felvtalk] War on Cats and Others
>
>
>Take heart:
>http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2013/02/03/170851048/do-we-really-know-that-cats-kill-by-the-billions-not-so-fast
>
>
>
>On Sat, Feb 2, 2013 at 1:41 AM, Lee Evans <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>There is so much nonsense, mythology and prejudice going around when it
comes to diseases in general, whether cat, dog or human that it's a
wonder any of us survive the ignorance rather than the disease. An
acquaintance of mine was told by a licensed veterinarian that she needed to
have her healthy FIV+ cat euthanized because humans can catch it
from cats. Meow? My tenant, when I had a rent house, insisted that FIV
was highly contagious but FeLv was NOT. Tail backwards. People to this
day refuse to hug a person who is living with HIV but will shake hands
with someone who has a horrid head cold and get all chummy with people
who are coughing all over the air.
>>
>>Many veterinarians seem not to
like cats to the point of finding reasons to put them to death. Others
are simply too lazy to study new theories of medicine. In some cases, we
have not traveled more than inches away from dancing around the bonfire
to banish evil spirits as a cure for illness.
>>
>>Finally, we are
now being treated to amazingly inflated statistics from almost comic
studies that produced the startling news that cats kill rats and mice.
Who would have thought!! Not just some rats and mice but toss in moles,
voles and gophers, not to mention those things with wings that mostly
fly. Stir with a hefty dose of sensationalism due to a slow news day,
and you come up with BILLIONS of small mammals and birds being
slaughtered and exterminated by feral cats. Please don't mention though
that humans have hunted dozens of species to extinction just to have a
head to hang on the wall or a rug for the floor, or as a way to stop
male sexual dysfunction, or to carve into little statues or furniture
(elephants) or just as a lovely delicacy to eat at a way overpriced
fancy restaurant. (shark fin soup and other
disgusting dishes). Sometimes it seems like humans will kill everything
from snails to whales for the most trivial or ridiculous reason.
However, just let it be known that cats kill mice and rats for a living
and you have panic in the streets. Ah well, time to get off my soap box
and go to bed.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>Spay and Neuter your cats and dogs and your weird relatives and nasty
>>neighbors too!
>>
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Felvtalk mailing list
>>[email protected]
>>http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
>>
>>
>
>
>
>--
>----------------------------
>Go Get a Life---Go Get a Shelter Animal!
>
>
>If you can't adopt, then foster a "bottle baby" shelter animal, to save their
>life. Contact your local pound for information.
>
>
>If you can't bottle feed, then foster an older animal, to save their life, and
>to free up cage space.
>
>
>
>
>Ask your local animal pound to start saving over 90% (and as high as 99%) of
>their intake by implementing the No Kill Equation. No Kill Quick Facts:
>http://www.nathanwinograd.com/?p=11718
>
>Here's the current growing list of communities saving 90% or more of their
>shelter intake: http://www.no-killnews.com/ (see the right sidebar).
>
>Legislate better animal pound conditions: http://www.rescue50.org
>
>More fun reading: http://www.nokilladvocacycenter.org/shelter-reform/guides/
>
>More fun watching: http://vimeo.com/nokill/videos especially
>http://vimeo.com/48445902
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Local feral cat crisis? See Alley Cat Allies' page for how to respond:
>http://www.alleycat.org/page.aspx?pid=537
>_______________________________________________
>Felvtalk mailing list
>[email protected]
>http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
>
>
>
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