Don't Shoot The Cat

[marmilla]

Oh goodness...
Well to tell everyone the truth I absolutely can't stand cats. I'm quite allergic. They make my eyes water and my skin itch. They also kill lots of birds and such just for fun. Which I don't appreciate. HOWEVER, I would NEVER ever shoot at or kill a cat. It could be someone's pet! How awful. I could never hurt someone else's loved animal like that, no matter how much I detest cats!
My father is the same way as me. We had a really bad cat problem in my house in Roseburg. My dad sprayed our plants with pepper spray so cats would stay away. It works great. It's a good way to keep cats out of the yard without harming them. We also told our neighbors what we were doing in case their cats didn't clean the spray off of themselves or were having a bad reaction to the spray (none of the cats ever had health problems). The cats soon learned to leave our plants and house alone (before they used to use our just planted, very expensive tree as a shredding post).
Another good solution is to live trap unwanted cats in your yard and take them to the humane society. (This wasn't an option for us because my dad and I are allergic to cats.) This allows the trapper to examine the cats for ID tags and notify the neighbors.
The man who wants to shoot cats is just being lazy and irresponsible. How much effort does it take to spray plants or live trap?

[Ravnos]

Feral cats are not your momma's tortie. Try picking one up, you'll regret it. While live trapping them is an option (albiet, a dangerous one for the trapper), humane societies/shelters already take in a huge number of ferals every year, and the problem there is that they are simply not adoptable. They are held for the requisite time period to allow someone to come in and claim it, and then are often euthanized anyway. Only time they contact anyone about it, is if it had tags. While this is not as cruel as outright shooting them, and takes away the crazy redneck with a shotgun who wants to shoot everything factor, it costs a whole lot more. Private shelters simply can't shoulder the burden, and city/county run ones end up costing the tax payers. I have no numbers to offer you on that, but I'm sure its a large chunk of change.

My main complaint about this comes down to other animals. Snakes are killed on sight by most people. Hardly anyone complains about that. Heck, we even have big celebrations where thousands of snakes are brought in, tortured for a weekend for the amusement of humans, then slaughtered to be turned into boots, belts, and hat bands. The vast majority of snakes are completely harmless, and the rest don't want anything to do with humans anyway. The majority of accidental venomous snake bites in this country occur because some idiot was trying to kill it. Is it just because cats are fuzzy and sometimes cute? Well, prairie dogs are used for target practice. No one does anything about that. Can't get much more cute and fuzzy than that. I've even talked to several ranchers, and I have yet to hear a direct story about a prairie dog doing any harm to anything - aside from grass and dirt. Though, I always hear the "well, my cousin's, nephew's, brother, former room mate had a horse that broke its leg in a prairie dog burrow once." - maybe the horse needed its eyes checked.

Anyway, my point is that in this country, our solution to an animal we perceive as a problem (whether it really is one or not) is to obliterate it. Instead of proper education, the public largely believes that it is socially acceptable to obliterate them. It comes down to sheer ignorance. Especially when the problem is of our own making.

Rav

[marmilla]

We need to go to the source of the problem instead of stratching the surface. If a person can shoot any cat that saunters into his or her yard then accidents will happen.
Where I come from the city has an animal comtrol department that takes care of a lot of stray cats and dogs. They don't shoot the animals they take them to the proper facility for them to be euthanatized if no one claims them.
What law makers really need to do it make harsher punishments for dumping unwanted kittens. Animal lovers need to encourage everyone to get their animals fixed so unwanted breeding won't happen. The cats aren't at fault here. It's the irresponsible owners! Some people just aren't fit to have animals...

[Janeczka]

They could find a totally more sensible solution to this problem . The way they're doing it is not going to be fair at all !

[Jamys_mom_1990]

just to let all of you know, many states already have the law to shoot cats, I don't know why we wisconsinians are getting a bad rep for it, but at least 13 other states have this law also! that article and all most all the other articles are twisting the words around of what that man said. what he meant is that we need to find a better sollution to the cat problem in LaCrosse, we aren't very populated, or very big, and we have all birds in town, from pigions to eagles, and the cats are becoming a real problem because they are killing many of the native birds. also they are eating mice and voles that other preditors need to survive. I hope you don't get the wrong impression about the people living in my homwtown, we didn't want all this trouble.
Robin

[Keritsubo]

Perhaps this is being blown out of proportion because the media tends to do that. However I do not believe that in this country there is a need for such a destructive solution. I think that the media attention is really going to make it so that if it passes there will be an outpour of protests ffrom those opposing it. Not only that but I believe there are going to be those trigger happy individuals who take advantage of it.

I don't think any state should have this law! Cats are a part of the food chain and can not be completely obliterated from it. They are part of a delicate balance, even in the city! Like those pesky raccoons who get in your trash. There are other solutions that should be sought before such drastic action is taken.

Frankly, I am a supporter of hunting and a proud Wisconsinite. If I had the time, and the stomach even... oh and the skill to hit a moving target... I would get myself a liscense and help control the deer population, turkeys, what not... this law however makes me sick. It is very hard to tell between the neighbors cat who got out, the faithful barn kitty who just kills mice for a nice warm bed of hay, and the stray that kills birds...

I put my comment into the DNR. People need to be more reasonable, really.

[mm_simb]

I personally don't think that this law should exist ANYWHERE. I think it'll be interesting and tragic when someone mistakes a house-cat that just got out for a street cat. Sometimes you just cant tell if the cat is just a stray. If my cat ever got out I don't want to have to worry about people shooting it. People have enough worrying about other things already (whether he gets run over). I know if someone did shoot my cat (indoor only) mistaking it for a street cat, that person will be VERY sorry.

[Zouave]

>>
I don't think any state should have this law! Cats are a part of the food chain and can not be completely obliterated from it. They are part of a delicate balance, even in the city! Like those pesky raccoons who get in your trash. There are other solutions that should be sought before such drastic action is taken. <<

True. But feral cats who used to be house cats, or who bred outside producing more cats, are not a natural "part of the food chain"! Not unless you have lots of predators roaming around who are a lot bigger than cats.

Something has to be done, including laws requiring spaying, and major penalties for people who abandon animals. Even wild cats could be trapped and neutered or spayed, and released, prefereably to a shelter. Yes, this requires help (money) from cat lovers.

Keep in mind that wild cats are apparently killing some rare
species of animals including birds, so something must be done.

[Crazy Chin Lady]

Just to let everyone know, this law was NOT passed in Wisconsin.

I just saw it on the Milwaukee Channel.

Here's the link to it if anyone wants it.
http://www.themilwaukeechannel.com/n...31/detail.html

I myself am very happy this was not allowed to be passed. I know some of you may be for it, but I myself am very much against it and was happy to see this report.

[mm_simb]

I'm glad it didn't pass also. I really doubt it would've been successful.

[Keritsubo]

Thanks for the update!! Glad to see some rational thought was put into affect.

[Crazy Chin Lady]

Unfortunately, now I am hearing different. I heard that it was passed, but Governer Doyle was going to veto(sp?) it. If that is the case, I wish that site I sent everyone to would fix their site.

I'm hoping it's not true that it was passed and the site is correct.....

[Zouave]

This story was on ABC News tonight:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/LegalCenter...=662272&page=1

How I HATE irresponsible PEOPLE for creating this situation by abandoning unspayed cats!!

>> House cats allowed to run loose and those that their owners have abandoned are blamed for killing millions of songbirds a year in Wisconsin alone. (AP Graphics Bank) <<


Wisconsin Voters Back Plan to Hunt Cats
Pet Owners Are Outraged, but Felines Aren't Fair Game Yet

>> By DEAN SCHABNER

April 12, 2005 -- Wisconsin residents backed a controversial proposal to allow hunters to stalk and kill feral cats, and some naturalists say pet owners should treat the vote as a wake-up call to be more responsible about their furry friends.

The issue of whether to make feral cats an unprotected species, meaning they could be hunted and killed, was put Monday night before the Wisconsin Conservation Congress, an independent organization created by the state 70 years ago to take public input on conservation issues. More than 13,000 residents attended meetings held in all 72 counties around the state. . . <<

[Mygala]

I can't believe that there are many politicians that would support such an idea.

I do think that this has helped raise awareness to the feral cat problem.

If we wait much longer to deal with it, there may be no choices but very poor, inhumane solutions.

In Asian and the Middle east, mass poisonings and clubbing to death are considered viable options for dealing with this problem. I'd rather not wait until those things start being considered...

[Keritsubo]

It is such a ridiculous law I hope that nothing comes of it... here in Minnesota where it is supposedly legal I haven't heard of much. And if they come shooting strays I'm going to be charging with trespassing and hunting on property without permission... grr!