Catseroles and kitten mittens.

[urbpan]

Domestic cats are some of the worst invasive species when allowed to roam free and breed. They kill native prey species and compete with native predators. (They also spread diseases like rabies and toxoplasmosis.) In Australia, a place free of placental mammalian predators for millions of years, they are especially bad. That's why they can get away with a feral cat recipe contest while in America we couldn't get a simple hunting season going, on the grounds that it was "cruel and inhumane" (As if somehow hunting feral cats is more cruel than hunting feral pigs, or for that matter, any animal.) Unfortunately for those who would eat cats to extinction in Australia, it turns out they aren't especially good eatin'. Their fur could be a good product to motivate a cat hunt, but you couldn't import it into Europe. Fur, useful as it may be, has fallen out of favor in recent decades, anyway.

What do you think? Any good way to control feral cats that you can think of? Capture/Sterilize/Release is one solution, but still puts cats out in the wild, to kill birds and spread disease. Part of my new job is dealing with feral cats, and not all of them are saved. It seems like a waste to toss a carcass in the trash, or incinerate it, when it's made of useful meat and fur. Or is pragmatism uncalled for with the sensitive issues surrounding beloved species? Do all cats (and horses) deserve decent burials? What to do with the glut of unwanted and pest animals?

Comments

[deederange.livejournal.com]

I just had to deal with this very issue on Friday. A feral cat had a litter of kittens in our yard sometime in the last few weeks. I have started trying to trap the kittens. InitiallyI had grand designs of saving them, but upon taking the first kitten to the humane society, I was told that he was really sick (his eyes were all goopy so I kind of suspected that) and they said that I could pay to take him to my own vet or they would have to put him down. I just wasn't willing to risk my own cats health for that of a feral. I felt awful about it, but the poor kitten was obviously very ill anyway, if I had left him outside he would have just died a slow death. I am still trying to catch the rest of the kittens and the mother cat, who most likely passed disease onto the kittens.

The only solution to the problem is to stop it at the source. Ban the sale of ANY pet that has not been neutered/spayed. Severely restrict or highly tax ANY animal breeder (dogs, cats, exotics) and have the money go into programs to shelter all the unwanted results of thier idiocy. Also, chip ALL pets before they are sold/adopted. If the animal is found in the wild, the owner is tracked and fined in a massive way. (Again, not just cats, but dogs and exotics -- there are huge problems in FL with people buying exotic snakes, lizards, etc and releasing them when they get bored. )

Sorry to ramble, this issue hits close to home today, I'm still really sad and angry about the poor kitten.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I feel for you. That's a sucky situation.

Yeah, and the evereglades really needed a population of Burmese pythons.

One of my fantasy jobs is animal control in a place like florida, catching wayward monitors and stuff.