Feral cats...Australia has the right idea...

[CalG]

Reminder...never discuss cats or electrical wiring on any message board. The topic does bring up something from many years ago where Wisconsin proposed to allow shooting of feral cats. It made the national news and the outcry was so loud that the proposal was withdrawn. In the meantime a few friends commented that (like me) they never knew it was illegal. So we're back to where we started...shoot on sight, just don't talk about it.

It's always open season on ditch cougars.

 

[Diggin It]

OTOH, perhaps the "Spay/neuter" program would work better if applied to certain humans instead.

North Carolina tried that.

In contrast to other eugenics programs across the United States, the North Carolina Board enabled county departments of public welfare to petition for the sterilization of their clients. The Board remained in operation until 1977. During its existence thousands of individuals were sterilized. In 1977 the N.C. General Assembly repealed the laws authorizing its existence, though it would not be until 2003 that the involuntary sterilization laws that underpinned the Board's operations were repealed.

Eugenics Board of North Carolina - Wikipedia

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^^
Good catch. Mine was a tongue-in-cheek comment for the very reasons cited in your link. Yet there are times when I have to ask why some people are allowed to reproduce.

Disclaimer; I have no kids, I decided years ago that the population is growing too fast plus I wouldn't have been a good parent.

 

[lilranch2001]

Did you get up on the wrong side this morning /pine? I'm not placing various values on creatures or making moral statments,just stating what I've witnessed. I've accidently ran over and caught more things in car grills than I've seen cats kill but quite a different thing with dogs. Nothing more,nothing less.

I have noticed That the ole pine tree tends to get real ouchy about some posts, then is a fine fellow on others....

I guess sometimes I get a little grumpy as well

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I'm with pine on this one...

I've spent my whole life out in the country or in the bush, and as a kid we had quite a few cats on the farm as we had milk cows and always gave them some milk...

IF a cat brought home a rabbit, pheasant ect., dad would shoot that cat, and YES I have seen cats bring home rabbits and one or two pheasant.

I don't know where the cats these days come from, but there's always cats coming here to replace the ones I shoot, so I keep shooting them as they make huge mess' in my barn! I have one neighbor with a cat and it has never came over here, at least I've never seen it here. I wouldn't shoot it if I did see it here, as they feed it and take care of it...

I know in the past, citiots have dropped cats and dogs out here as I've seen them do it, so I have to assume that's where they are still coming from.

SR

 

[dieselcrawler]

Like SR said... things in the country some times just need 'taken care of...' Im almost to that point myself. Our barn cat population has been fairly self-limiting, with the barn next to 2 lane highway, and a modest coyote population... until lately. Theres about a dozen out there now. Can I donate some to Australia?

 

[MossRoad]

If any of you think that most of the feral cats come from city people dumping them, you're sadly mistaken. The majority of feral cats come from other cats, both feral and un-neutered/spayed pets. It's just that simple.

And in rural areas, most stray cats come from people that have "barn" cats. It's a fact. Very few dumped cats make up even a small percentage of feral cats.

 

[ruffdog]

Didn't Australia have a problem 20+ years ago with rabbits (hares)? Sometimes another critter is introduced to solve the first problem, only to create a larger problem.

 

[goeduck]

We have very few feral cats yet very few few coyotes. Rabbits seem to self limit. What we do have is a lot of raptors, mostly bald eagles.

 

[Wagtail]

I suspect that a lot of people will disagree with this. The bigger issue is how would they limit this to just feral cats without killing off everything else in the area.

You're thinking your own environment... not an Australian environment.

That being said, the poisoned 'sausage' programme wouldn't work for Tasmania or the habitat ranges for dingos. We've got very few native carnivorous species... the Quoll, the Tasmanian Devil and the Dingo are all that I can name off the top... and they're all protected.

Oh yes, there's a feral cat problem (pigs too,for that matter) here on Tassie. Open season for a farmer with a licenced firearm. One of the problems is the cost of spaying/neutering = it's cheaper to simply dump the critters in the State Forest. That's how I ended up with my cat; she was dumped in the forest (my 'next-door' neighbour) as a kitten... on a cold July night and showed up at my back door.

Of course she's now had all of her shots and been spayed... so I know the 'prohibitive' costs of responsible cat ownership. (naturally, spaying costs more than neutering)