Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Getting My Dander Up

http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/nov/03/cat-plan-ruffling-feathers/

Okay the debate here is whether to capture/spay/neuter/vaccinate feral cats and release them back where they were caught or to euthanize them.

I see merits in each side.

What fucking pisses me off is the image of feral cats as some sort of super predator that is emptying the entire nation of birds and mice and squirrels.

Ahem, excuse me. What about the real estate developers who are slashing and burning and cutting down every tree for acres and acres and acres here in my part of town?

Seriously, how many birds, squirrels, mice, deer, hawks, raccoons, possums, snakes do you think these developers are responsible for out right killing in the deforestation process? Or by slow starvation as there are more and more animals on less and less land? Or a gruesome death by automobile as they hunt for a new place to live?

So, should we just euthanize the developers or spay/neuter/release?

Thor sez: The birdies can come live in our backyard.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

I love it!

Sharon said...

I vote for kill. (The developers, that is.)

I haven't heard the arguments against capture/neuter/release, not lately, anyway, but I do think it's the way to go. Or the way a friend of mine did it, which was to capture, neuter and release a mother--and finding homes for all her kittens, which actually meant keeping three for herself.

Fortunately, she's got a big house. And a reasonably understanding husband. Well, he's coming along, anyway.

JanetLee said...

Sharon - the problem is the inability of most people in this state to critically think a problem through.

The problem is people won't report feral cats because the policy now is to euthanize.

Result: the colonies continue to grow.

So a proposal is being made to change the policy to spay/neuter/vaccinate and release.

And people are reacting the way they do when anything "new" is proposed, start screaming knee jerk reactions, I'm sure some one got around to making it all out to be a socialist plot designed by President Obama to let cats breed and kill all the dogs in the nation.

Anonymous said...

Have you heard of Alley Cat Allies?

Seth (Tempe, AZ) said...

The goal of TNR (Trap-Neuter-Release) is to reduce the number of feral cats and eventually to eliminate feral cat colonies through natural attrition.

Alley Cat Allies is a great organization and a superb resource.

I am not a big fan of developers. BOOO!