Letter of the Week
Jim Anderson (tSW 5/22) has a long list of reasons to be alarmed about the killing of indigenous animals by non-indigenous cats, but he ignores one very critical fact. Countless indigenous populations have been decimated not by cats, but by non-indigenous humans who have irreparably altered or destroyed their natural habitats, or just plain killed them off. It’s not the fault of feral cats that they were tossed out of someone’s window and are just trying to survive. There is a bigger issue here. If you insist on playing judge, jury and executioner, at least make sure that you’ve got the right species on trial.
Dave Ryan, Bend
This article appears in May 22-28, 2008.
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Of course it’s not the cats’ “fault” — they’re just doing what comes naturally to them, i.e., killing birds and small mammals. Jim is trying to encourage a rational policy toward feral cats, and to get cat owners to behave responsibly. I don’t see how pointing out that human beings have killed off humpback whales or polar bears has anything to do with this.
Excusing or dismissing bad behavior by pointing out other bad behavior misses the point entirely. Presumably, according to Ryan, if we observe a feral cat doing it’s thing, we are to immediately kill off any nearby humans. But, that could create more problems than it solves. Considering that the prior ownership of a feral cat is difficult to determine, my suggestion would be to kill off the cat instead of trying to locate and euthanize the former owner. Plus, even after one has executed the former owner you still would have a feral cat to deal with.
It seems this issue is best dealt with from the bottom up rather than from the top down as Ryan suggests.
Twixt the Poodles and feral cats, i notice the the coyotes [pronounce kay-yotes] are well fed. Survival of the fittest, evolution, all that.
I have cats, I love my cats. My cats are always spayed or neutered. I have also had to deal with feral cats, harassing my cats, spraying my house, and generally being a small terrorist that efficiently evaded any attempts to trap him. I do advocate shooting them. Quickly and cleanly. (out in the country of course, in town that’s not exactly an option but I’ve never had the problem in town). In town it’s the racoons and the damned barking dogs whose owners are not responsible enough to keep quiet.