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

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I will never knowingly consume dog or cat, however, because they are "companion" species and in our society, there is a taboo around their consumption.

Are you saying that you obey taboos, always? There are taboos against eating a lot of the other animals you list--our relatively recent taboo against eating pigeons, and the ancient taboo against reptiles. I don't mean to be confrontational (I'd hate to lose another reader over this post), but we all pick and choose what taboos to obey. Why do you happen to obey this one (against eating dogs and cats)?

[meryddian.livejournal.com]

I guess it depends on the strength of the taboo. Dog and cat... very strong in our culture. Not so much in others.

I didn't know there was a taboo around pigeons. I think more recently people have come to regard them as the "rats of the skies", so /shrug. And I had no idea there was taboos about reptiles... I first tried it when I was oh, 14?

And no, I most certainly don't always pay attention to taboos. ;) But there's three kinds of taboos, imho: intelligent taboos based on reasons that you would have to be stupid to ignore; taboos based on things like religion, which may or may not apply to you; and taboos that once made sense but no longer do and which comes across as odd to most modern people.

I will say, however, that if I am traveling abroad, I do try to respect local taboos, laws, etc. But I also have a hard time looking at a culture, for example, where its people starve and yet "sacred" animals walk the streets unfettered.

So there's a question for you: what if the annoying local pest of an animal is protected by religious reasons and/or laws based on those reasons? For example, cows in India. (They come to mind first although I'm sure they're not the only sacred animal).

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

The pigeon taboo is informal, but strong. They were originally associated with humans as food animals, but ask your average person if they'd eat one. I saw some at my local Asian grocer and was sorely tempted.

The reptile taboo is in Leviticus 11:29-31.

In India there are the cows (which are at least milked, so they're not entirely freeloading) not to mention the rats and monkeys. (Out of respect for Ganesh and Hanuman)

I can't think of any other example off the top of my head, though I am amazed that pigeons and Canada geese are not eaten in the cities of the world. In North America all native songbirds are protected by the migratory bird act treaty, so control of pest geese and other pest birds is complicated (but doable).

Then there's the case of locust plagues in the southwest--the settlers were starving when the locusts ate their crops, while the Indians simply ate the locusts. Likewise, in Jered Diamond's Collapse, he tells the story of the collapse of European colonies in Greenland, since they refused to live on fish and seals, as the native Greenlanders had.

[meryddian.livejournal.com]

I honestly never heard of the reptile taboo. :) And if it's Biblical, well, I've never had my pastor talk about it. But we're Lutheran, so there ya go. ;)