Remember forgotten felines on National Feral Cat Day
Happy National Feral Cat Day! A time to remember the countless numbers of dumped, abused, unwanted cats who, through no fault of their own, are forced to survive in the wild.
Remember forgotten felines on National Feral Cat Day
Amy Worden, Inquirer Staff Writer
Happy National Feral Cat Day!
A time to remember the countless numbers of dumped, abused, unwanted cats who, through no fault of their own, are forced to survive in the wild.
Many communities are not kind to feral cats. They are labled nuisance animals and targeted in mass roundups, like the one going on right now in North Charleroi, Pa., that will likely result in mass euthanasia.
In Alabama, the state veterinary medical board fearing competition, recently tried to outlaw low cost spay/neuter clinics - the very charitable facilities that help control feral cat populations and help prevent future ferals by treating those cats in homes where families cannot afford the retail rates. A national outcry halted that plan.
The American Bird Conservancy used a University of Georgia study that tracked outdoor cats via "kitty cams," to claim that cats are responsible for wiping out songbird populations.
The figure used by the anti-cat lobby is one billion birds a year.
Joel Best, a sociology professor at the University of Delaware, used that very example in a recent seminar aimed at encouraging reporters to be more critical about faulty statistics.
Here's how he explained it:
There are 71 million cats in the United States. In order to account for one billion bird deaths, each cat would have to kill 14 birds a year - including those cats that live indoors.
Elsewhere they are cared for and nurtured in healthy colonies like the celebrated cats of the Atlantic City boardwalk. The borough of Steelton, east of Harrisburg, received an award from the national feral cat advocacy group, Alley Cat Allies for their humane treatment of feral cats.
Alley Cat Allies created National Feral Cat Day® in 1991 to promote humane care for these forgotten animals.
This year National Feral Cat Day participants are helping more cats than ever, promoting 370 events nationwide focused on changing communities for cats.
Because virtually all feral cats who end up in shelters are euthanized, ACA supports the strategy of Trap, Neuter and Return (TNR). That means using a humane live trap to catch cats, take them to the vet for shots, spaying or neutering and returning them to the place where they lived.
Caring for TNR cats, which entails little more than providing some type of shelter, food and water, is easy with community support. (I'll take a minute here to plug a nifty new - and affordable - outdoor cat house I discovered by K&H products. It's made of heavy duty nylon, so it's light and waterproof and easy to put together. It comes with a sleeping pad and two openings so a cat won't feel trapped by a predator. A heated version also is available.)
To learn about caring for feral cats, community support services, webinars, events, research and awards, check out Alley Cat Allies' National Feral Cat Day website.
Comments (25)
I celebrated Feral-Cat Day this year because every last one of them are gone from my land for over TWO YEARS now. NONE have returned. Much to the chagrin of those fools who believed the manipulative TNR-LIE of cats' "vacuum effect". Simple reason being: cats attract cats. Get rid of every last one and there's none there to attract more of them. NATIVE predators and NATIVE wildlife returns once you rid your land of disease-infested invasive species predator cats. You really can't celebrate until you've accomplished getting rid of every last stray and feral cat. And doing so without violating every invasive species law in existence, which is exactly what TNR violates. Cats are listed in the TOP 40 WORST invasive species of the world in the "Global Invasive Species Database". If you've not managed to get rid of every last stray and feral cat then there's absolutely NOTHING for you to celebrate.
All wildlife on my land is now returning to normal. Native predators are no longer starving to death from cats destroying their only food sources. No prey animals are being tortured to death for disemboweled twitching play-toys for invasive species cats. No longer are cats spreading their deadly diseases to all animals and humans. Not even cats themselves are suffering to death by dying of "attrition". You know, that candy-coating feel-good term that TNR advocates love to wrap themselves in to enjoy their immense bliss of self-inflicted ignorance. All their TNR'ed cats dying from disease, exposure, attacks, road-kill, environmental poisons, starvation, etc. TNR-advocates' practices clearly violating all animal-abuse, animal-abandonment, animal-cruelty, and animal-endangerment laws everywhere. Plus their direct violation of all invasive species laws in existence. There's a reason all these laws exist -- to prevent EXACTLY what TNR has caused -- an ecological disaster on a global scale.— Woodsman001- FACT: The most ecologically damaging non-native species on
planet earth is the human being, most specifically, the
white male. You are not native to the land on which you live. You are an invasive species of the worst kind.
Your ancestors wiped out the native buffalo population to
near-extinction, leaving their carcasses to rot on the plains, just for the joy of killing something. Your ancestors hunted certain raptors to near extinction. We are currently living through the planet's fourth great extinction period, with one quarter of all mammals on earth at risk of extinction. This is primarily due to habitat loss by the invasive species of humans. You are not native to where you live. Your species is the most ecologically damaging. If you care for the land on which you live as much as you profess, then don't be a hypocrite. Do your land, the world, and the rest of us a favor, and take yourself out. I know you have the firepower to do it.— the_rest_of_us - While it is true that overpopulation of humans is the #1 problem that we and all other species face today; this doesn't excuse all the responsible, wise, and intelligent people from cleaning-up and stopping all the ecological disasters caused by those phenomenally stupid and criminally negligent people that should have never been born in the first place.
Cats are a man-made (through selective breeding) invasive species. And as such, cats being a product of man's intervention, are no less of a man-made environmental disaster than any oil-spill, radiation-fallout, chemical-spill, or other environmental disaster _caused_by_man_. Cats are _not_exempt_ from having to be removed from every natural environment, wherever and whenever they are found away from supervised confinement. Just as you would do all you can to remove Zebra Mussels from any waterway where they don't belong. Or Burmese Pythons and African Cichlids from every habitat where they exist in N. America today. Burmese Pythons and African Cichlids started out as pets too. Many of our destructive invasive species pests started out as PETS discarded by criminally-irresponsible humans. (Or from pets' habitats, e.g. Eurasian Watermilfoil that is annihilating native aquatic life in many regions of the USA came from people irresponsibly dumping their pet-fish aquarium water into lakes and streams.) And guess what happens to all those other non-native pets that became destructive invasive species? They are destroyed on-site by any means possible -- no questions asked -- none required.— Woodsman001 - Cats are even worse than an oil-spill of multi-continent-sized proportions. They not only kill off rare and endangered marine-mammals along all coastlines (just as all oil-spills do) from run-off from the land carrying cats' Toxoplasma gondii parasites, they also destroy the complete food-chain in every ecosystem where cats are found today. From smallest of prey that is gutted and skinned alive for cats' tortured play-toys (not even used for food, just for senseless play), up to the top predators that are starved to death from cats destroying their ONLY food sources. (Precisely what cats caused on my own land not long ago.) They don't destroy just birds. They destroy everything that moves -- directly or indirectly. They will even destroy valuable native vegetation by destroying those animals that are required pollinators for those plants or those that act as seed dispersers for those plants (as many smaller rodent and bird species do) or those that act as pest-control for those plants. Cats can and will wipe out whole ecosystems eventually -- animal and plant.
Cats need to be made to disappear from all non-native habitats -- PERMANENTLY. And the sooner the better. They are breeding out of control at an exponential rate. The reason for "the sooner the better" is that you can only hope you can halt the problem before it is beyond the reach of any method you eventually choose. Luckily, I caught the problem in time where I live. It seems nobody else is faring as well -- their time is being wasted by cat-lovers trying to stop them from doing the right thing. Asking or listening to any deranged invasive species advocate for advice on how to clean up the ecological disaster that they created and perpetuate is about as useful as asking your local career thieves for advice on where to hide your valuables from their daily activities. Ignore anything they might say and you too will solve the problem where you live.— Woodsman001 - Here's my standard issue prepared reply for bible-home-schooled people like you:
H0M0 sapiens (o's transposed to zeros due to moron-moderators) is NOT an invasive species ANYWHERE, you freakishly stupid moron. Since humans have the genetic code to give them the capability to travel/migrate to ANY part of the globe, this means they are native to any area that they have traveled to on their own. Just like birds that have this capability and can travel to different continents and islands. Those that have the flight-range required to do so are NATIVE to those areas that they are capable of traveling to ON THEIR OWN.
(And for the love of all that's good in the world, PLEASE don't display your further ignorance and stupidity by trying to claim that Europeans, Native Americans, and Asians are different "species". That's usually your next huge omelet-on-the-face move that you astoundingly ignorant fools make.) (edit: OOOPS! You already did! Like that's any surprise.)
Whereas, an animal genetically engineered through selective breeding, such as CATS, are NOT AN INDIGENOUS SPECIES ANYWHERE. They are no more natural to any native environment anywhere on earth than some genetically engineered insect that was invented in some lab, that once released out into nature will destroy all native wildlife, JUST AS CATS DO. Someone once kept a "pet" bee one time. He too selectively bred this pet. After he selectively bred it it was called an Africanized Bee. It accidentally escaped his supervised confinement, and look what happened.
If you phenomenally stupid cretins are going to use ecology, biology, speciation, and genetics in your arguments, the very LEAST that you could do is have a base comprehension of what you are talking about. Don't you think?
No. And that's the problem with terminally ignorant morons like you, you CAN'T think.
If ONLY there was a legal cure for "stupid".— Woodsman001 - Actually, if science had not intervened, humans as we know them today would have ceased to exist long ago and been replaced by something more advanced and evolved than any of us. We as a species have gone into a state of artificial selection and not natural selection by curing disease and dealing with things such as gentic engineering and embryo transfer and all of that. We actually are artificially selecting for a weaker human being rather than a stronger one these days. A perfect example is the rise of peanut allergies in children these days. In years passed, unfortunately, these children would have died before being allowed to reach reproductive age. Now with the advent of science we have been able to protect those children to pass those what some would term "flawed" genes on to the next generation. Don't get me wrong, if I had a child suffering from something that could be treated or cured knowing the risk of it being passed on to his/her children...of course I would go for it. I'm looking at this from a purely scientific angle. It is not survival of the fittest anymore.
I do agree feral cats pose a danger to "some" wildlife populations, and that humans also play a huge role in habitat loss as well. There is no easy answer to this problem. As a shelter vet I run a very successful TNR clinic, and it has shown positive effects in the community and in the number of unwanted animals in the area.
I'm not sure I completely buy your "genetic code" allowing humans to kind of do what they want and go where they want argument. No one completely understands the humane genome, gene therapy, or other species genomes enough to make any kind of rational scientific argument on that one. Humans ability to travel and become "native" whereever they end up has also lead to far more disease spread than the cat could ever possible be blamed for.— Bryan Langlois, DVM - But of course you support all the inhumane deaths of all those cats that you TNR -- IT PAYS YOUR BILLS. Do you think we're all as stupid as you are? Not to mention putting a healthy bank-account into the pockets of all the drug companies and cat-food companies that give you your hefty TNR grants.
FACT: THERE IS ABSOLUTELY _NOTHING_ HUMANE ABOUT TNR. Nearly every last TNR'ed cat dies an inhumane death by road-kill, from cat and animal attacks, environmental poisons, starvation, dehydration, freezing to death, infections, parasites, etc. And if very very lucky humanely shot to death or re-trapped and drowned (the two most common methods employed on all farms and ranches to protect their gestating livestock's offspring and valuable native wildlife dying from cats' Toxoplasmosis parasites). This doesn't begin to count the thousands of defenseless native animals that cats skin alive and disembowel alive for their daily and hourly play-toys. The only difference in destroying cats immediately and humanely instead of trapping, sterilizing, then releasing them to an inhumane death; is that money isn't going into an HSUS or SPCA board-member's pocket, veterinarian's pocket, cat-food company CEO's pocket, or a drug-company CEO's pocket. And that's the ONLY difference!
Any vet that supports, condones, or participates in these inhumane and ecologically destructive TNR practices needs to have their licenses and sheepskins stripped from them A.S.A.P.— Woodsman001 - Actually, if science had not intervened, humans as we know them today would have ceased to exist long ago and been replaced by something more advanced and evolved than any of us. We as a species have gone into a state of artificial selection and not natural selection by curing disease and dealing with things such as gentic engineering and embryo transfer and all of that. We actually are artificially selecting for a weaker human being rather than a stronger one these days. A perfect example is the rise of peanut allergies in children these days. In years passed, unfortunately, these children would have died before being allowed to reach reproductive age. Now with the advent of science we have been able to protect those children to pass those what some would term "flawed" genes on to the next generation. Don't get me wrong, if I had a child suffering from something that could be treated or cured knowing the risk of it being passed on to his/her children...of course I would go for it. I'm looking at this from a purely scientific angle. It is not survival of the fittest anymore. I do agree feral cats pose a danger to "some" wildlife populations, and that humans also play a huge role in habitat loss as well. There is no easy answer to this problem. As a shelter vet I run a very successful TNR clinic, and it has shown positive effects in the community and in the number of unwanted animals in the area. I'm not sure I completely buy your "genetic code" allowing humans to kind of do what they want and go where they want argument. No one completely understands the humane genome, gene therapy, or other species genomes enough to make any kind of rational scientific argument on that one. Humans ability to travel and become "native" whereever they end up has also lead to far more disease spread than the cat could ever possible be blamed for. (HTML deleted) — Bryan Langlois, DVM
- FACT: Here's a little history lesson. Cats were domesticated
by the Egyptians because cats protected their grain supply
from rodents. The ancient Egyptians were very intelligent.
They built pyramids and revered cats for protecting their food. Then a Roman burned down the great library of Alexandria taking with it much knowledge, including our history, so humans don't properly understand who we are or from where we came. Thus mankind became less knowledgeable for a very long time. In the middle ages, mankind became so stupid that they sought to eradicate all cats because they thought they were possessed by evil spirits, witches' familiars. They were so successful in their cat eradication project that the rodent population exploded in Europe. This resulted in the spread of bubonic plague, the black death, that wiped out most of the human population of Europe. Europeans in the middle ages didn't understand ecology they way the the Egyptians did. They didn't understand that cats keep the rodent population in check, and they paid for their ignorance. Some of us human beings are still as stupid as those witch-burning, cat killing people of the middle ages who took themselves out by killing cats.— the_rest_of_us - More than a bit off. They collected them from other regions and brought them back to Egypt. They were killed at a young age and mummified. They were ONLY used as sacrifices to their Gods. This is the ONLY value they had to Ancient Egyptians. This is the proper way to "worship cats" in Ancient Egypt. Very few were allowed to actually stay alive very long. This is why, for a population of about 100,000 to 150,000 people, they found 300,000 young mummified cats buried there.
Today when a cat-lover likes to tell me how they worship their cat as much as the Ancient Egyptians did, I tell them they're not doing it right. Then explain why and what they must now do if they want to worship their cat properly. :-)
And please explain to the class how an animal (the cat in this case) which carries and spreads the plague ALL BY ITSELF could have prevented the plague? LIE MUCH?
A FEW examples.
Cat-Transmitted PLAGUE:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8059908
www.pagosasun.com/archives/2011/07July/072811/webplague.html
www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/oregon-man-suffering-plague-critical-condition-article-1.1094782
www.daily-times.com/ci_20849462/health-department-said-taos-cat-has-plague
Totally disproving that oft-spewed myth that cats in Europe could have prevented the plague. No rats nor fleas even required. Cats themselves carry and transmit the plague all on their own.— Woodsman001 - You should really just stick to the facts
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/science/genetics/2008-06-09-science-of-cats_N.htm
instead of making stuff up, pulling it out from wherever you pull your ideas from. I think you just want a justification for killing cats because they add flavor to your possum stew.
— the_rest_of_us - How interesting.
NOTHING on that page that you cite refutes ONE THING that I stated.
And you have yet to explain how the cat can prevent the plague when cats themselves carry and spread it all by themselves.
Now add in the FACT that cats' Toxoplasma gondii parasite's strange life-cycle is meant to infect rodents, thereby causing all rodents to lose their fear of cats and actually be attracted to anywhere that cats urinate.
scitizen.com/neuroscience/parasite-hijacks-the-mind-of-its-host_a-23-509.html
Now cats attract rodents to your home with their whole slew of diseases -- INCLUDING ANY THAT MIGHT CARRY THE PLAGUE. The plague will be far far worse this time around. Cats will be attracting the plague RIGHT TO YOUR DOOR. If you want rodents in your home keep cats outside of it to attract diseased rodents to your area. I experienced this phenomenon (as have many others), and all rodent problems disappeared after I shot and buried every last cat on my land.
The time has come to destroy them all whenever spotted away from supervised confinement. There's no other solution. We have nobody but cat-lovers to thank for this health and ecological disaster. Stray-cats, the very source of all feral-cats, need to be euthanized too or you'll never be rid of the feral-cat problem.— Woodsman001 - There's much to celebrate since cats are all gone from my lands. Not only do I celebrate "Feral Cat Day", but so too do all the amazing native wildlife that finally returned that visits my yard and enriches my life every single day. They all celebrate an ACCOMPLISHED "Feral Cat Day" year round. As do I -- as long as they do.
On advice of the sheriff I managed to accomplish this by shooting every last one with a good .22 outfitted with a laser-sight and good illuminated-reticle scope for precision aim, day or night. This method is as humane as it gets. A well-aimed bullet is by far the very MOST humane death that ANY stray or feral cat could ever hope to look forward to out of all the other ways that they WILL die. One moment the cats are enjoying intently stalking more defenseless animals to cruelly torture and rip the skins off of them for play-toys, the next the cats are dead and don't even know what happened. They don't even have enough time to know they've been shot nor even make a sound. I urge everyone to rid their land of this devastating invasive species this way. It's the ONLY method that can catch-up to and actually surpass cats' breeding rates. If not, you'll be trapping them for an eternity as they continue to breed faster than your reach. Plus the next generations will have learned to evade traps and won't even be able to be trapped. That's so smart, isn't it.
Don't bother celebrating until you have actually accomplished getting rid of them all. Otherwise you're just a major fool, jumping around like an idiot -- acting glad that you've accomplished ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.— Woodsman001 - How are you confirming death in these cats? And how are you confirming that it is quick and as painless as possible?
Bryan Langlois, DVM "My opinions are my own and do not represent those of any Humane Organization that I may be affiliated with."— Bryan Langlois, DVM - I can guarantee you one thing, EVERY LAST ONE OF THE CATS I SHOT DIED FAR MORE HUMANELY THAN EVERY LAST CAT THAT *YOU* TNR'ed.
I didn't waste even one bullet on the hundreds that I was forced to shoot to stop them from destroying all life on my lands. One bullet per cat was all it took. This is why I outfitted my rifle with the laser-sight and excellent scope. I can thank cats for one thing. Due to my insistence that NO ANIMAL should suffer to death (UNLIKE WHAT YOU CAUSE DAILY), I made damn sure that each and every shot mattered. Shooting cats as humanely as possible rapidly turned me into an expert marksman. This is the ONLY thing that cats are good for these days -- honing the rifle skills of every last human on earth.
And it may take that many humans shooting cats today to get the problem under control now as they exponentially breed out of control. By using population growth calculus feral-cat estimates will be in the 1.8 to 2.5 BILLION in the USA alone in just one year. This means that EACH AND EVERY CITIZEN OF THE USA which can wield a gun would have to shoot AT LEAST 31 cats this year, EACH, just to catch up to their breeding rates -- all thanks to fools like you that only exacerbated and compounded the problem we all face today. Just because you are blinded by those TNR grants that line your own pockets.— Woodsman001
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Amy Worden is a politics and government reporter for the Inquirer. In that capacity she has explored a range of animal issues from dog kennel law improvements and horse slaughter to the comeback of peregrine falcons and pigeon hunts. From hamsters to horses, animals have always been part of her life. To pass along a tip or contact Amy, click here.
Reach Amy at aworden@phillynews.com.
Amy Worden
Inquirer Staff Writer
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