I am so sick of the feral cat colonies that infest so many locations that I like to bird. And while I am sick of the cat colonies I am even more sick of the deluded people who believe that by feeding feral cats they are somehow helping them. Outdoor cats live short, ugly, violent lives. They get hit by cars, suffer from parasites, predated upon by coyotes, and die from disease. Of course, the deluded folks just spin and lie and make stuff up. For example, how many lies can you find in the quote below from this article?
Mr Kerridge says it is a misconception that cats kill a huge number of birds. Birds are a long way down a cat’s food chain so well-fed cats tend not to hunt at all, he says.
Feral cats kill huge numbers of birds. Birds are, with reptiles amphibians, and mammals, the prey that feral cats kill. And cats, regardless of the amount of food provided for them, hunt instinctually. The fact that they have supplemental food means nothing in terms of their hunting as even well-fed pets hunt and damage bird populations.
It would be amusing if it wasn’t so sad that Alley Cat Allies is desperate enough to get their propaganda out that when you Google “domestic cats kill birds” or other similar search terms their paid advertising comes up and leads you to lies like this:
Cats have lived outdoors for more than 10,000 years—they are a natural part of the landscape. Today, they live healthy lives outdoors and play important roles in the ecosystem—as they did thousands of years ago and as all domestic cats are biologically adapted to do.
Of course, we really shouldn’t hold the lies that “cat advocates” tell against them. After all, they are just victims of the mind-control parasites that they catch from their cat’s feces. No, really.
Keep your cat indoors. For help on how to make an outdoor cat an indoor cat check out this post.
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Well said! Feral cat advocates had a booth at a recent green living expo in Portland (as if that isn’t enough of a conflict of interest!). My boyfriend had to guide me quickly away before I caused a scene. There’s absolutely no reasoning with these people! And FYI, all of you outdoor cat lovers, I like cats too! I cat-sit all my friends’ indoor cats and warn my neighbors that I own and use a humane trap for outdoor cats. Just doin’ my part to help the little native critters that live outside and encouraging friends to keep felines indoors.
I agree with what you say, but not how you say it. People need to be educated in order to change their ideas. And they won’t change their ideas if they are on the defense.
Check out ACC&D for information on an organization that is working toward a low cost, non-surgical method of birth control for cats and dogs. There are many of us that love birding, and love cats, and are working to find a humane solution. We look for a humane solution to a disheartening problem and very real problem.
I am a member of the Alliance for Contraception in Cats and Dogs. I hope you join us.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
I like to think that 10,000 Birds is a place where we can rant if we want. Most birders I know go out of their way to be polite to people with dogs off the leash, feral cat feeders, and violators of Piping Plover barriers. We smile, we say, “Excuse me, your dog off the leash is destroying the nests of Grasshopper Sparrows, were you aware of that?” and we educate. (Well, I admit, I have been known to yell at the owners of dogs chasing Piping Plovers down the beach.)
So, I say, let us rant and yell and defame here!
Here’s some more of their lies revealed to add to your information:
TNR-Advocates “Vacuum Effect” is an absolute 100% LIE.
There’s an interesting study done by the Texas A&M University on TNR practices. They started out with about 12 sterilized cats. At the end of 9 months they had over 30. An increase of more than 200%, all moved in of their own volition. This isn’t due to any mythical “vacuum effect” that cat-advocates spread and lie about so often. You would have had to remove cats to create a vacuum for others to replace them. The exact opposite happened in this study.
Simple reason being: CATS ATTRACT CATS
Cat scents attract cats. This is why they spray everything; to attract mates, rivals, and mark territory. Cat sounds attract cats. Mewing kittens will even attract stray toms who kill the kittens if they are not their own (basic feline behavior of any cat species).
If you want more cats, keep some around. More will find you. Get rid of them all and there’s no reason for other cats to come to that area. I proved this myself by getting rid of every last cat on my own land, HUNDREDS of them. ZERO cats moved in to replace them for OVER TWO YEARS now.
Another interesting finding, sterilized cats very poorly defend their territory. Any new cats see this as easy-pickings and move in to take over. If that cat-colony is being fed then non-sterilized cats will actually overtake the sterilized colony’s food-source because the non-sterilized cats are not as docile and complacent.
Here’s how TNR-MATH works (and how most people are so easily conned and deceived):
“In NYC there are currently 465 registered TNR colonies. When TNR began in these colonies, 6047 cats were present – today, there are 4523 cats present, a decline of approximately 25 percent.” (Quoted from Alley Cnt Allies who are SO proud of this.)
6,047 cats REDUCED the total by 1,524 cats, about 127 PER YEAR. That’s only 0.08% of the 1,806,310 feral-cats within the city’s limits. (data taken direct from TNR-advocates’ own resources)
Apparently, if you TNR 4 cats and 3 die from being flattened by cars this is a 75% decline of feral-cats everywhere.
Guess how many have been born IN JUST THE LAST 6 MONTHS (hoping like hell that they’re not breeding every 4 months). Let’s do the math…
(1/2 total = females) 903,155 X 5 (avg. number in a litter) = 4,515,775 NEW CATS. Which lowers the number of them that have been reduced by TNR idiots to only 0.024%. THEY ARE GOING BACKWARD.
Guess how many will be born in another 6 months? (4,515,775 / 2) X 5 = 11,289,438.
The 1st 903,155 females are still breeding, so add 4,515,775 more. Add the original 1,806,310, totaling 17,611,523 CATS IN 1 YEAR. Which means that TNR groups have only reduced the cat-population by 0.008% of them. That’s not even 1/100th of 1%.
They would have to trap & sterilize an average of 48,251 new cats being born PER DAY from present population numbers just to MATCH their breeding rates. Unless MORE THAN 48,251 cats are TNR’ed PER DAY then they haven’t done a thing to reduce their breeding rates. In the 12 YEARS they’ve been doing this they haven’t been able to TNR more than 1/8th that MUST be trapped IN JUST ONE DAY just to break even!
Alley-Cat-ALL-LIES can’t even reduce cats in their own city, yet they promote it as a worldwide solution. Then even bigger fools fall for it and promote it.
If trap & kill was such a dismal failure because they can’t trap them faster than their breeding rates (domesticated cats breeding 2-3X’s faster than any naturally occurring cat-species), then what on earth would make ANY OF THESE TNR fools think that trapping them to sterilize them will EVER catch up to their breeding rates?
Not too bright, are they.
Ridding your land of cats is not easy but it can be done. Accomplished in less than 1-year once you start taking effective measures, just as I managed to accomplish this on my own land over 2 years ago, HUNDREDS of them permanently gone, and NO CATS have replaced them in all this time. (That mythical “vacuum effect” is an absolute 100% LIE. Simple reason: cats attract cats. Get rid of every last one and there’s none there to attract more of them ever again.) You MUST use a method more effective than trapping. “Hunted to Extinction” is the ONLY method that is faster than a species can out-breed and out-adapt to. A painful fact of human behavior that we must now depend on to solve this 100% man-made, invasive-species, ecological disaster.
If you do the research, as I did using data from the most “successful” TNR programs, you’ll easily find that no TNR program has EVER trapped more than 0.4% of existing cats in any one area for over a decade now. (Even Oregon’s amazing 50,000 TNR’ed cats, at the end of this year will have only trapped 0.35% of them in Oregon.) They simply cannot trap them faster than they breed out of control, no matter what they do. And those cats that learn to evade traps go on to produce offspring that now also know how to evade any trapping method used. So not only are >99.6% still and ALWAYS breeding out of control, and spreading their diseases everywhere, and still destroying ALL wildlife (native prey becomes tortured play-toys, native predators starve to death from cats destroying their ONLY food), but TNR fools are also ensuring that any future generations of these devastating invasive-species won’t even be able to be trapped. This is why, due to TNR-Advocates’ insistence that they have “the answer”, that their feral-cat population has now climbed to an ecologically-deadly 150 MILLION feral-cats across the USA. Soon to turn into 1.5 BILLION cats within the year if you apply cats’ breeding rates to previous population numbers. (That’s actually a low low estimate. The real number from calculations spit out by their reproduction rates is closer to 2.4 BILLION.)
Here’s another fun aspect of TNR that TNR-LIARS never bother to tell you.
I recently learned that TNR cat-hoarders practice a form of “TNR-On-A-Budget” (my name for it). TNR cat-hoarders who want to keep feeding their cats but can’t afford all that tedious mucking-about and getting them sterilized or vaccinated just trap the cats and clip the cats’ ears themselves. Then release them again right after clipping their ears. Doing their best to hide all evidence of where they keep these colonies and telling few about them. This way the cat if trapped again just gets released right there so the cat-hoarder can continue to dote-over and feed their unsterilized and unvaccinated cats. Plus everyone else who might happen on their secret cat-hoarding locations thinks those cats are sterilized and vaccinated so they have fewer concerns about them still overbreeding or spreading deadly diseases. The TNR cat-hoarder feeder just tells them, “Oh, don’t worry. See that clipped ear? They are sterilized and vaccinated. Perfectly fine and legal!”
Thanks to these “TNR-On-A-Budget” people, clipped-eared cats must be trapped and euthanized or destroyed on-site — the only affordable and sane solution for everyone.
Here’s proof, post taken from http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=295067530554567&id=110911218963121
“Chris Cook
We had a culling of the neighborhood cats 2 years ago when there were only 10 or so (I lost 4 under my care in the same week). Now there’s over 25 – that I know about (about half fixed)… it’s just a matter of time before someone decides they have the ‘solution’ to the cat ‘problem’. All I can do is get them tipped (in case Animal Services gets them, there’s a small chance they’ll release them back to the area they caught them) and hope for the best by making my own yard a hidden sanctuary of sorts. At least my HOA knows I’m TNRing them and not just feeding them so they (for now) look the other way while slamming the feeders-and-breeders who contributed to the problem getting out of hand and refusing any and all offers of assistance.”
Not only is this criminally irresponsible TNR practitioner hoarding and feeding unsterilized cats, she even attracted MORE cats to keep reproducing — which again disproves their oft-spewed “vacuum effect” LIE. While also lying to her HOA to boot. She even believes that what she is doing *is* TNR, that’s just how demented these people are. I’d say this person reflects the norm rather than the exception, since TNR advocates relentlessly lie about so much and so often.
Hint: for those of you permanently solving cat-hoarder’s ILLEGAL TNR invasive-species colonies by stepping up their rate of “attrition” (i.e. death by any means); look around for any game/field/trail-cameras that might be hidden from immediate view, then collect them as a souvenir and payment for your well-deserved efforts.
As for the suggestion that you’re going to change these people by being nice to them, THAT’S THE VERY LAST THING YOU SHOULD DO, IF EVER.
I wasted 15 YEARS of my life being “nice” when trying to reason with demented cat-lovers. During which time THEIR _INVASIVE_SPECIES_ CATS DESTROYED ALL NATIVE WILDLIFE ON MY LAND. All native prey became tortured cats’ play-toys, all native predators STARVED TO DEATH. Those that became neither died of cats’ diseases that cats spread everywhere.
Being “nice” about this is what caused this ecological disaster. The time for being “nice” to cats and cat-lovers is OVER. DONE. FINISHED. They had their chance to learn how to be respectful and responsible pet-owners. Isn’t that just too bad if any that they let roam free get destroyed on-sight now. They’re clearly proving that those pets are expendable by letting them roam free. They really don’t care about them at all. They’d rather see them get ran over by cars or dying from any environmental poisons, or they’d keep them safe from all harm to begin with if they really cared about their cats.
This will never be solved by being “nice” to ANY of them. Nature does not survive on being “nice”. They and their cats have absolutely ZERO respect for all other life on this planet and deserve the exact same amount of respect in return — NONE.
It wasn’t until I STOPPED trying to reason with cat-lovers, and on advice of the sheriff, finally did what needed to be done — SHOOT ALL CATS — that my land, all the wildlife on my land, and my life itself started to return to normal. I no longer have to go out twice a day on cat-patrol to shoot more cats nor waste more time and energy burying them to protect wildlife from the diseases they carry. Much to the chagrin of manipulative TNR LIARS that spew their psychotic “vacuum effect” bullsh**. NO CATS have replaced them. The native predators and all other native wildlife THAT BELONGS HERE replaced them.
Learn from this. You can argue with the Toxoplasmosis parasites in the cat-lovers’ brains until you are blue in the face and your whole planet is destroyed by their cats, but it’ll never get rid of the cats that have destroyed your life and all the native wildlife.
Just do what needs to be done — DESTROY THEM.
Woodsman, that’s enough.
No thanks for telling you the truth and giving you a solution that actually works?
May you drown in diseased feral cats.
I think that Woodsman,as distressing as his posts are, represents the attitude that birders and birdwatchers have toward feral cats. They want them dead, period, end of subject. Are you concerned that someone might stumble on this post, read Woodsman’s screeds and get the idea that he represent the majority opinion among birders toward feral cats? and get the idea that birders advocate killing cats?
If the goal is no more outdoor cats, then I consider that means the birding community would support policies encouraging municipalities across the country to trap and kill all outdoor cats that do not have ID tags, collars or microchips.
If people want to use this as a safe space to vent their hatred for feral cats and Alley Cat Allies, then posts such as this are going to encourage rants.
Bonnie, sorry, but you still haven’t quite gotten the point. TRAPPING THEM CAN *NEVER* CATCH UP TO CATS’ BREEDING RATES. HUNTING OR POISONING THEM IS THE *ONLY* METHOD THAT IS FASTER THAN THIS MAN-MADE CAT SPECIES CAN OUT-BREED OR OUT-ADAPT TO.
You’re all going to have to grow some balls in your life if you ever want to solve this problem. And you’re NOT going to solve it by continuing to listen to ANYTHING that ANY cat-advocate will EVER say during their lifetime. You MUST ignore everything a cat-lover says and just destroy *ANY* cat that is found away from supervised confinement.
That’s it! That’s the solution!
One more important thing: You MUST destroy ALL stray and feral cats, collared or not. Because strays are the very source of *ALL* feral cats. If you don’t destroy them as well then you’ll never stop the source of all feral cats. I’ve a box full of collars to prove that this is required in the solution.
Guess what this also does? You can’t train a cat to stop destroying wildlife, but you CAN train cat-lovers to keep their invasive-species piece-of-sh** cats indoors where they damn well belonged in the first place. They aren’t going to learn unless they suffer the consequences of their criminally-irresponsible behaviors and values. Of this you can be 100% certain. And even then, you have to permanently disappear 12-15 of their cats before they even begin to start to figure out how to be a responsible pet-owner. Some are so painfully stupid that you have to shoot HUNDREDS of their cats before they stop releasing more of them, even when they KNOW that their cats are being shot to death! They STILL release them! (Like the painfully stupid cat-lover f**ks in my area.)
Whine about it forever OR do something to actually put a final end to the problem.
I solved it on my land! My life and all the animals on my land have been 100% cat-terrorist free for over two years now. I have owls again (so trusting that they will roost 10 feet from me and even catch a vole at my feet), hawks are soaring over my woods again, wild-turkeys strut through my yard again, grouse are drumming again. I have songbirds I’ve never seen in my life before entertaining me with songs I never imagined a bird could sing, so complex and melodic. Extremely beneficial gray-foxes made a den near my home last fall. I enjoy watching them prance through my yard most every night. These are just a FEW of the things that have returned to my life after destroying every last cat I spotted. (I even learned the predator-calls of my squirrels, for they would alert me when a cat was in the area and by following their cat-specific predator-alerts I could track down the cat they spotted anywhere in my woods and shoot it. You have to become THIS relentless and vigilant to put an end to this ecological disaster for once and for all.)
The immeasurable rewards that you’ll bring back into your life for destroying every last free-roaming cat you see are far far too great to do anything less than this.
And Corey? Grow some f**kin’ BALLS for once in your sad life. Whine whine whine like a little school-girl, or fix the problem!
Woodsman, for the record, I don’t support trapping and killing feral cats. I am not interested in “growing balls” because I don’t get pleasure from the death of any living creature, be it a feral cat or a wild bird.
Bonnie, then I suggest you stop eating. Something’s going to die to keep you alive, one way or another. Even if you are vegan your crops have destroyed countless square miles of native-habitat. And every time they inject liquid ammonia into the soils (as I see them do here to grown corn and soybeans), they are gassing millions of animals to death to grow your vegan crops.
Do you honestly think that shooting cats is somehow pleasurable? IT’S A MISERABLE NASTY JOB, LIKE HAVING TO CLEAN OUT A SEPTIC TANK, BUT ONE THAT *MUST* *BE* *DONE*.
Or kiss your world and all its native wildlife goodbye because you are just that pathetically spineless and irresponsible for the well-being of all native wildlife on your planet.
Screw it.
May all you whiney-assed “OH! The birds are dying!” spineless freaks drown in a sea of disease-infested cats. But should any of the cats from YOUR land come onto mine in the future? You can kiss their sorry asses goodbye. ALL the native wildlife on my land will be safe from harm from your lousy piece-of-sh** cats. At least you will never be able to blame ME for any invasive-species cats having destroyed valuable wildlife. THAT WILL BE *YOUR* FAULT.
@Woodsman: You are no longer welcome here. Stop commenting.
I just found this site two days ago. I’m glad I did, I have found it quite illuminating.
I recently submitted an article to a blog called “Okinawa Hai!” intended for the US military community in Okinawa, Japan. I have lived in Okinawa for the past 3 1/2 years and have observed an explosion of feral cats during my birding forays around the island. Many of these cats are left behind by military familes who find them too expensive or inconveniet to bring back to the States. The number of cats far exceed the number of people willing to adopt.
Feral cats are preying on Okinawa’s native fauna, especially the endemic and endangered Okinawa Rail and Okinawa Woodpecker. The article pointed out this problem and gently remided cat owners to keep their cats indoors and not too leave them behind when they depart the island. Here is the response I received from the blog moderator: “Thank you for your submission about how to help with the feral cat population on Okinawa. We have read your article, and while well-written we do not feel it is in keeping with the overall feel and content of our blog. Thank you for your time.” No explanation was provided regarding the meaning of “overall feel and content.”
A response such as this moves me that much closer to advocating for Woodsman’s position on feral cats.
fyi……..Animal Balance is an organization that works to protect indigenous plant and animal life by focusing on feral dog and cat populations on islands around the world. Contact them . ACC&D is also an organization to contact. Not everyone is going to choose to remain ignorant forever. Good luck to you.
I’ve referred many folks to 10,000 birds blog in the past, and while I’m aware this post and its responses are far from the norm, it’s embarrassing.
And to Woodsman: The simple fact that you would poison and cause a slow and painful death to ANY living creature says everything we need to know of your character.
I have to say, I’ve really enjoyed reading this comment thread. I am not making a stand one way or another on the proper way to eliminate feral dog and cat populations, I merely want to say that I’m a little disappointed in some of the responses to Woodsman’s remarks. He has a right to say whatever he wants. Though his views may be extreme to some people, they are his views just the same, and he has a right to say what he wants, especially when feral advocates are just as extreme.
I love dogs and cats, and my own cat was actually a stray (he is now neutered and is an indoor-only cat). I don’t feel comfortable with the idea of killing an animal, but I cannot offer an effective alternative myself. I think it’s unfair to try to bully someone off of a comment thread simply because you are uncomfortable with his opinion.
@OkiLi: This is my blog. People who come here to express their opinions are more than welcome. People who hijack the comment thread and post multiple comments in a row and then act like a jerk when they are asked to stop are not welcome. Woodsman has a tendency to act the same way all over the web whenever this topic comes up and that type of behavior is just not welcome here.
I do not like cats running wild and in my back yard. They go in my vegetable garden and ruin my vegetables. I have a dog and do not let it run wild in your garden so I expect the same respect. Keep your cat in the house. If not I will catch it and bring it to the human society.
As the old saying goes, “If you are not a part of the solution (the only viable solution in this case), then you are a part of the problem.”
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dear mr. woodsman,
in your earlier post you did say “poisoning”.
and just to let you know… and perhaps even raise a smile: a stray around my home was taken to te vet today as he was cleary sick. testing positive for feline leukemia and feline aids, the cat was euthanized. not that any neighbors (WITH THEIR OUTDOOR CATS) give a crap, but me… with 4 indoor cats is who took responsibility for the situation.
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Woodsman – you made your point, we all get it, let sleeping dogs (and cats) lie.
The only good feral cat is a dead feral cat. I love shooting them, they are a varmint pure and simple. Cats should be kept indoors or at least in strictly controlled fenced areas.
It’s very sad to see the hate in a creature that truly did not ask to be….Feral Cats are not classified as an truly wild animal nor are they classified as a stray domesticate. I did not ask to have ferals in my yard and tried to find a solution….I do think that Trapping fixing and releasing is a great Idea…not that I like doing it (and I do) because I think over the past few years it has helped in my area..I see a difference….the colony defends it’s territory and male cats do come around but are chased away by a female that was one of the first I had fixed….this is a fact where I live…I have observed these ferals over the last 3 years and TNR does work ….it’s education that also helps there are more people out there that are already feeding them because they feel sorry for them….if there going that route then its still going to be a problem because more cats will be born but at least if you trap neuter, spay and release they will not reproduce…I have been down that route too and it’s not nice have unwanted kittens around…if turned into shelters they will most likely be put down….Life is not easy for anyone it’s what you choose to do about it…either by finding out the facts or doing nothing its your choice….but reading on how killing them is the only solution then I feel sorry for those people..l.. do they feel that way about homless sick people too??? makes me wonder.
OK, all of the points are taken , WHAT Woodsman and others’ like him forget is that we need to STOP THE SOURCE! Being inhumane, poisoning and killing is why we have Tigers and other species that are either near extinction or already extinct.
Woodsman and others NEED to put that HATE energy in stopping the SALES of cats and dogs and rabbits, etc in pet shops on craigslist, in the alley’s etc. HOWEVER that would be too much effort for them I guess. THEY like to HURT and mame. There is a name for folks like you. STOP THE SOURCE, stop the breeding and pimping of these animals and we will NOT have this problem. REQUIRE spay/neutered pets of ANY KIND including the birds being brought into this country.
STOP THE SOURCE, do you Woodsman or Vendikar think you could do that?
You go, Thors Magni! Stop the source, ACC&D,and education are the real solutions. You can go to any 3rd world country and find dead and starving animals from their systematic inhumane poisoning of strays. And there are always more to take their place. Let’s be realistic, and look at the best viable solutions. Which always include EDUCATION!
hey woodsperson or piney!! Heres and idea kill all the blue jays that kill thousands of birds and the red tail hawk and eagles. and kill all the a holes tearing down the woods that just destroyed many lives birdies and the babies in the nest. Why dont you go out back and kill yourself you are your just taking up space!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“Outdoor cats live short, ugly, violent lives. They get hit by cars, suffer from parasites, predated upon by coyotes, and die from disease.”
Same could be said about wild birds compared to birds kept indoors in a cage, fed an enriched diet and brought to the vet.
I could say, I’m sick of all these wild bird. They shit all over my car and ruin the paint. bird shit carries diseases. Also the birds ruin my garden. The birds eat the seeds I plant in the garden to the extent that only 10 percent of the seedlings survive. Those lousey good for nothing birds also eat the earth worms in my garden. I want the earth worms in my garden because they make compost for the plants. Then, when the fruit rippens they peck at it and ruin alot of it. There have been some woodpeckers that make holes in the stucco siding of my house. And forget about sleeping after dawn. The birds make such a racket even before the first hint of sunlight.
Bird Droppings spread disease!
Serious diseases associated with pest birds include:
Histoplasmosis – a potentially fatal respiratory disease; results from a fungus growing in dried bird droppings.
West Nile Virus – a serious and potentially life-threatening infection; spread by mosquitos that have fed on infected wild birds.
Salmonellosis – a bacteria that often occurs as food poisoning; can be traced to pigeons, starlings and sparrows, bird droppings and dust from bird droppings.
Candidiasis – a yeast or fungal infection that affects the skin, mouth, and respiratory system; spread by pigeons.
Cryptococcosis – an illness that begins as a pulmonary disease and can later affect the central nervous system; caused by yeast found in the intestinal tract of pigeons and starlings.
St. Louis Encephalitis – an inflammation of the nervous system that can result in paralysis, coma or death; spread by mosquitos which have fed on infected house sparrows, pigeons, and house finches.
Besides being direct carriers of disease, pest birds are frequently associated with over 50 kinds of ectoparasites, which can work their way throughout structures to infest and bite humans:
Bed bugs – parasitic insects that feed on human blood and have become a worldwide epidemic; find out how to detect Bed Bugs sooner with Bed Bug ALERT monitors.
Chicken mites – known carriers of encephalitis; may also cause fowl mite dermatitis and acariasis.
Yellow mealworms – may cause intestinal canthariasis and hymenolespiasis.
So Should my solution be to kill all the birds on my property?
Finally something in this hodge-podge of half-truths and all-lies: No use being nice to them! I agree, so I’m never nice to the sick cat-hating bird-huggers like you, especially the ones who pretend to “like” cats and yet want a mass killing spree. I had a neighbor once with a bird feeder who complained because she claimed my cat (who never left the house) was killing her little birdies. My reply: “Well, I guess your bird feeder became a cat feeder.” May an army of feral cats crap on your petunias!
Hey dude. What state you in? I think I’ll send out a cop to arrest you since killing feral cats is illegal in all but the teeth-optional states.
Having seen Woodsman’s posts on other forums, I can only conclude that he is obsessed.
Where I live (UK), then what he is advocating is illegal. There are many things which could happen to you if you are caught killing a cat, or even disposing of a cat which is already dead without the owner’s permission.
The most obvious one is that someone could call the police and have you charged with theft, because a cat is property. You will then have to declare that you have been found guilty of theft on your job applications, and you will be permanently barred from some occupations.
If you are also found guilty of animal cruelty, or violating poison controls or firearms offences, you could be looking at some serious jail time.
The owner can also pursue you for punitive damages, and if you live in a council house then your neighbors can petition for your eviction.
Whether you love or hate cats, this is the law. Please stop encouraging people to break the law of the land… in legal terms, this is no different from advocating shoplifting because “big companies are guilty of tax evasion”. In the same way as the shoplifter who shoves three packets of chicken nuggets down his trousers and says it’s OK because he’s making a protest against capitalism will still be convicted, the person who disposes of his neighbors’ cats will find himself in a lot of legal trouble if they are caught.
The legal alternative in the UK is to register a humane trap with a charity or legal agency. If you catch a feral cat, hand it in to the RSPCA who will rehome it responsibly… they do not practise TNR here. You are responsible for the welfare of any animal you trap, and you are legally required to check the trap every 12 hours. You are not allowed to harm the cat, but you are allowed to shoot any rats or foxes you trap (which, incidentally, pose a far greater threat to local wildlife within urban areas) with a low powered air rifle which is registered with the police for this purpose. This is due to local environmental health and noise regulations. If you shoot a fox, you will have to comply with local regulations for the disposal of the carcass; these vary between UK counties.
I hope this helps.
I am not sure who Woodsman/Nature Advocate really is or if he is an individual. Sometimes I wonder if his comments are computer generated since there are so many of them.
Even as inflammatory as his statements are, I agree with the majority of them. I don’t agree with the following statements of his:
Nothing eats feral cats (coyotes seem to).
There are many instances of rabies in feral cats (there are in a relative sense since most modern cases of rabies in domestic animals are in cats, but in an absolute sense, there are still very few cases of rabies in domestic animals. Previous generations virtually eradicated it by NEVER DOING BAT-S**T CRAZY STUFF LIKE TNR. We are now burning through that credit left to us by our grandparents who grew up on farms, knew about animal husbandry and predation, and knew people who actually died of rabies. As we build up numbers of feral cats of spotty vaccination history, we are building up the fuel base for a massive conflagaration. The spark has not arrived yet to start things off. That is how TNR poses a huge rabies risk even while there are so few rabies cases.)
Trapping won’t work, shooting will (all depends. For desperately hungry and/or naive populations, catching several at a time is a possibility at the beginning. After that, shooting. After that, poisoning. In places where gunfire is not practical which frankly is most places these days trapping might be the only way.)
Every feral cat is horribly diseased or infested with parasites (there are bound to be some healthy cats in every group just as in blighted neighborhoods there are young toughs strutting around on the street while shut-in seniors succumb at a disproportunate rate to diabetes and other diseases aggravated by isolation from society, because there are young toughs strutting around on the street all the time).
TNR Programs effectively sterilize only a tiny percentage of feral cats, like less than 1% (Hard to tell, but trying to prove any numbers down to the nearest percent is a hard sell. When he is doing the selling, few people are buying anyway so trying to prove such extreme numbers is not winning any converts. IMO it is not so much that the numbers that can be sterilized are universally so small as to render TNR utterly useless as it is that few people appreciate how high the target is. The most common estimate quoted is that a minimum of 70% of the cat population must be kept sterile before any effect is noticeable. TNR fanatics claim they can pull it off, and children claim that they will do all their homework just before they go to bed after watching all their favorite TV shows, but reasonable people know that neither group has it in them. The children we can hope to reform. The typical TNR practitioner on the other hand is of a personality type that if they have once helped out when a cat was sterilized, they feel they have earned the life-long right to feed away, without calculating daily whether the benefit in cats sterilized meets the 70% threshold and compensates for the cost of having fed the cats, both by increasing the overall productivity of the remaining cats, and by allowing all the cats, sterilized or not, to live another day while killing wildlife and spreading disease).
I am sure I have left some points out but these are the major points where I think Woodsman/Nature Advocate needlessly makes statements that will be contested. Add to that the extremely caustic tone in which the statements are made and the effect is truly counterproductive. I sometimes wonder if a TNR advocate is behind it all to alienate people against the anti-TNR message. Still, I largely agree with him.
I realize this is a very old article and conversation. Corey, advocating for indoor cats is a good start, but the cat overpopulation is out of control. You say that Woodsman is no longer welcome, but is that because of his tone and rhetoric, or his proposed solution? What is your proposed solution, if not TNR? TNR without a caretaker/feeding component? Would you advocate for enhanced euthanasia programs? Licensing? Let’s agree that the cat overpopulation is the core problem, and discuss options. Thanks, I’m listening.
I just stumbled on this post and the comments here about killing birds are disgraceful.
Ferals cats are an introduced invasive species.
Local Birds are NOT. People advocating to murder birds simply on the premise that they don’t like them (and you can tell the hatred from their post) for shitting on their car is atrocious and probably a TNR’er.
The difference between birds killing other birds, and cats killing birds, is that birds kill to eat, and the death is usually fast and not wasted.
Cats on the other hand, hunt and play as long as they can, and one cat persistently kills 2-3 birds (not counting other animals) a day.
I have had feral cats break into my home numerous times through cracked windows and murder my life companions once they killed off the entire bird (hummingbird and songbird) population that I set up in my garden.
It’s devastating. TNR doesn’t work. Culling is the most effective method, or the reintroduction of coyotes (but cat lovers have been illegally shooting eagles, owls (no evidence they eat cats; cat lovers just speculate so they kill them) and coyotes to protect their cats).
Cats need to be licensed, have there vaccination shots, not allowed to roam, must be on a leach of off property of owner, and fines in place if not met. The irresponsible cat owners which includes the hoarders that feed colonies in other peoples neighborhoods, are very much the reason for why there are so many unwanted cats out there. They are the most rude of all people I come across. They lie , they lie. I say this twice because I can’t believe the things that they say. So bad that I can’t even put it in words. I feel for woodsman the situation he and others are put in because of unwanted cat advocates, but torturing a unwanted cat not the best idea. Have them put down by the proper vets and or clinics that provide this. And it is sad that these unwanted cat hoarders they are rude nasty lying selfish hateful dangerous and even violent people. They will not allow different opinions of there own to even be heard. There way or no way. They would not eat anyone to hurt there unwanted cats but they would have no problem poisoning someone dog. They are selfish and really don’t care about other people at all. They feed unwanted cats in property they don’t own or even live near. They will even do this after being told by the owners not to. They just do not care of the nuisance they create. Peter Wolf is the perfect example of this. He doesn’t even bother with t n r. The more the merrier for this guy. He even brings more in from shelters that can’t adopt out for whatever reasons. And all this in a neighborhood he does not even live in. That is the kind of person that these people are. And he is supposed to be some kind of expert on this. He is not.
Corey thank you for this article. Your facts are right on and informed about both group types with respect. No name calling just facts along with your in site and opinions. It’s to bad that the unwanted cat advocates need to lie about there cause so that they can get things done there way. Every time I read information on this topic the bird watchers ( sorry not sure the proper name), they have all there stats and scientific values in order and correct. They rarely turn thing into a name calling match and most important, willing to listen to any ideas on what can be done to help the situation work for both groups. But sadly the bird watchers are pretty much bullied or cancelled by the unwanted cat advocates. It’s also sad that here they have an organization ally cat allies that with the never ending amount of funds they receive they could and should be able do a lot of good things for these unwanted cats. I’m not an expert on those things but I’m sure there are a lot of thing they could be for them to help remedy this problem. I feel they don’t really do what they do for the sake of the unwanted cats but rather to line there pockets. The lies that are told by them about t n r so that no unwanted cat dies is purely selfish and pretty much in humane. Anyone who thinks it safe for a unwanted cat to free roam is just plain mean. Side track here. Curious what Bonnie had for dinner