HERE KITTY KITTY“Cat overpopulation is a human-caused tragedy that affects the health and well-being of cats, our native wildlife, and the public,” says Darin Schroeder, Vice President for Conservation Advocacy for American Bird Conservancy (ABC) in a letter to the mayors. “Numerous published, scientific studies have shown that trap, neuter, re-abandon programs do not reduce feral cat populations, and that outdoor cats, even well-fed ones, kill hundreds of millions of wild birds and other animals each year in the U.S., including endangered species. Birds that nest or feed on the ground are especially vulnerable to cat attacks.”
What few people seem to understand is that the domestic cat is an extremely effective predator that has been introduced by modern man into an environment whose species have evolved few, if any natural cat defenses. Non-native, well-fed, inoculated, healthy cats versus defenseless prey is about as fair in the world of nature as the proverbial shooting of fish in a barrel,” he said.
Studies indicate that there are 95 million outdoor and feral cats in the United States that kill at least 532 million birds, and possibly significantly more. Given the well-documented impacts of cat predation on wildlife, ABC urges the mayors to oppose TNR programs and the outdoor feeding of cats as a feral cat management option.
The ABC letter says that dog overpopulation problems aren’t solved by simply turning unwanted dogs loose onto the streets so reason demands the same should be true for cats. What is wrong with the following?
An example is Brownsville, Texas where their mayor, with an IQ well below the speed limit in a school zone, stopped euthanizing dogs at the city shelter. A good thought, a very bad practice. The shelters quickly filled and now the streets of that city are filled with stray and unwanted, and unfixed dogs and cats. Something must be added to “no-kill” shelters for dogs and a special “destroy law” for feral cats.
The loss of 532 million birds a year is quite a number and many of these kills are by domestic well-fed house cats when allowed to roam free. A problem that seems to be getting bigger not smaller.
In Florida the fight is warming up, and the lines have been drawn in the sand between the Sierra Club, the Audubon of Florida and the ever-ridiculous Humane Society of the U.S. A group known for its lies and questionable fund raising practices.
Here lies the rub – in an unusual move the otherwise non-kill Sierra Club has banded with Audubon Florida in favor of trapping and elimination the feral cats on the refuge. Of course the HSUS is doing its normal thing – raising money on the back of this problem without offering one red cent to help.
It has been brought to everyone’s attention that birds, and the endangered species of white-crowned pigeons, marsh rabbits, and woodrats are vanishing rapidly from the refuge, mostly due to feral cats.
I will write more on this growing problem as it becomes public as well as a few comments about the HSUS, in all their stupidity. If you love animals DON’T send the HSUS a dime.
If you have comments or news Jim’s Email is JimF06@gmail.com.
