The case of what doctors are calling bubonic plague that hit the headlines recently in Bend opens some nasty doors.
From the time it was first identified as the scourge it is, in 1347, it has killed millions of people throughout the world.
In the beginning everyone said it was spread by people coughing on each other, so everyone scattered to get away from the agony of death. That didn’t work because no one had figured out that the horrifying disease wasn’t spread by people coughing on or touching one another, but by a tiny flea that lives on rats. And rats are still trying to live with us.
The disease is transferred the same way today. The Oriental rat flea (Xenopsylla cheopis) is a parasite of rodents, primarily of the genus rattus, which includes the brown rat, black rat, and wharf rat—all of which are found worldwide. However, it is also found on our lovely golden-mantled ground squirrel, belding’s ground squirrel, bushy-tailed packrat, white-footed mouse, etc., etc. And that opens the door to feral and outdoor cats.
The feral cat that bit Mr. Paul Gaylord of Prineville, who is now a thin thread away from dying, must have had the plague, which means the flea(s) that carry the plague may still be around, living on the rodents under or near his home.
History has shown that cats are a key ingredient in the spread of the disease.
People were keeping cats in and around their homes as so-called “pets” when the plague ravaged the Byzantine Empire during the reign of the emperor Justinian in 542 AD. Cats probably hauled dead rats infested with hungry fleas into the people’s homes. Ultimately, 25 million people died of the plague—and they (literally) didn’t know what hit them.
Whether we like it or not, the oriental rat flea is on the periphery of our domesticity. Back in the ’50s and ’60s I worked with some very brilliant scientists who were trained in the field of epidemiology and studied how wildlife transmits diseases to humans. They were looking for rabies in the local bat population and found none.
But they did find plague fleas in our rodent populations. We also searched packrat middens and ground squirrel borrows and found the flea there, too.
According to the American Society for the Prevention for Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), the number of feral cats in the U.S. is estimated to be in the tens of millions. The ASPCA endorses Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) as the only proven humane and effective method to manage feral cat colonies. I disagree most strongly.
It makes no ecological or health-oriented sense to place a feral cat back into the wild to fight for food and predation. It only comes out as another health threat to us, because outdoor cats transmit wildlife-borne diseases that contribute to the death of hundreds of thousands of indigenous wildlife.
To all you wonderful, good-hearted people who love cats and want to see them live a happy life, I’m sorry to say this, but feral cats should be humanely euthanized.
They have been eliminated from many parts of the world because they were out of control, killing indigenous wildlife and spreading disease. Even with motor vehicles, coyotes and great horned owls, they’re out of control here too.
Cats—whether the people who love and keep them like it or not—are killers by instinct. They have genes that force them to be curious about anything that moves, which usually ends with them killing it. The people who “put the cat out” are not only sending it to kill our birds, reptiles and small mammals, they are endangering their cats and endangering us.
Not too long ago I was asked to help a man in Sisters who had bats in his home. During the time we discussed his dilemma, I noticed he had two very beautiful house-cats whom he was worried about with bats in his home. I asked him if he let his cats out and his response was, “Oh, no! I love my cats too much to let them run outside.”
OK, cool down cat people and please think for a moment. How many times have you let your cats back into your home in the morning and found a mouse, bird, lizard or even a nice, big juicy June Bug on your doorstep? Cats kill things. Like it or not—that’s what cats do.
If there happens to be a flea needing a blood meal on the dead mouse on your door-step, that may be a serious problem—for you. That’s not my imagination speaking, that’s reality. A few years back, a dear young child let her cat in one morning and the cat came in carrying a dead ground squirrel. A flea leaped off the ground squirrel onto the child for a blood meal and left the child to die from the plague.
The reality is that plague is here in our rodent population. It does not reach epidemic proportions because man and flea don’t usually mix. But with the cat population growing—in part because of the good-hearted people of “Spay and Save” letting them loose, the potential for more contact with plague vectors is, literally, at our doorstep.
It is way past time to manage cats the same way we manage dogs. As nonsensical as it sounds, there should be a “leash-law” for cats as there is for dogs. My neighbor’s cats come over and kill my wild cottontail rabbits, chipmunks, lizards and birds—and I can’t do anything about it.
I do not want them leaving anymore dead mice on my back porch for me to take care of, not with the chance I might end up in the hospital slowly dying of some disease brought into my home by someone else’s cat.
Cats should be registered the same way dog are registered, and identified with a collar and name tag, so everyone knows who the cat is supposed to belong to.
That way, we can capture an unwanted outdoor cat in a live-trap, call the owner to come get it and talk about “pet responsibility.” If it has no tag, it is a feral cat and can be humanely euthanized. If we catch the same cat again, we talk to county animal control about it.
It’s time for cats to not only be managed, but pay their own way as dog-owners do.
This article appears in Jul 12-18, 2012.
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F***ing hell people, THE UNIVERSE IS INDIFFERENT how long is it going to be before you realize this? What is with the over management of common domestic animals? Cats hunt, that is what they do. Just like the geese in Drake park they are aggressive and they crap, that is what geese do. I thought this story was about the plague and cats not cats being treated like dogs, NICE AGENDA. I once had a neighbor that went next door and bit off the head of his neighbors parakeet. It seems to me that we need to manage ourselves and quit worrying about things that are taking their own course. Everything happens for a reason, and one thing I know for sure is that we are saving far to many lives in this world. Get rid of the leash law, maybe dogs will marry cats. Its just as crazy as thinking we can control nature.
cheers,
viewmaster,
You might consider attending a class in logic since your post makes no sense. First you state (actually scream in all caps) that “the universe is indifferent” but follow that up with “everything happens for a reason”. So which is it? You, like our current crop of far right lawmakers, can’t have it both ways.
The universe does not give a crap about any of us, animals included and screaming is okay. Let me be clear that when I say everything happens for a reason I am talking about feral cats spreading the plague, nature things. Who cares about lawmakers? Your right you can’t have it both ways, but far right and far left are the opposite extremes favoring one extreme over another seems odd and should also be discussed in the class on logic which I will be attending.
thanks,
Jim,
THANK YOU!!!
Thanks for having the nerve to write and publish this article. The evidence that feral cats are destructive has been clear for decades. Can we get a plan for feral horses too?
I thoroughly enjoy fertilizing my trees with feral cats. I put up bird feeders and I call them that, not “feral cat bait stations.” One time I caught the neighbor’s cat and returned it to them. Then, when I caught it again, it went under another tree. They asked me if I had seen their cat, and I said “No, have you seen my birds?”
Your information is wrong. ANY animal, including humans, that can contract the disease can transmit it after infection. The plague was primarily spread by human to human transmission in Europe. No rats nor fleas even required. Cats alone can spread the plague to each other and then to humans and other animals. While fleas are the most common animal to transmit it to other animals, any animal susceptible to this bacterium, once infected, can spread it again.
There is also no difference between the pneumonic, bubonic, and septicemic forms of the plague. They are all caused by the very same bacterium. The only difference is how it manifests itself in the infected organism, and thereby how it is retransmitted. An animal infected and develops the pneumonic form can retransmit it by just coughing in your area. (How it spread so far and wide so fast in Europe. The source of the saying “Bless you” for sneezing. Thinking that praying someone’s airborne sputum away would save your life. A simple handkerchief fad could have saved millions of lives, instead of their ineffective prayer.)
Cat-to-Human Transmitted Fatal Pneumonic Plague
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8059908
If an animal instead manifests the symptoms as bubonic (in lymph nodes) or septicemic (in the blood), then contact with either of those infected fluids will also retransmit it.
The bacterium can also manifest itself in more than one way in the very same organism after infection, and transmit it again in up to all 3 ways.
Your information is wrong. ANY animal, including humans, that can contract the disease can transmit it after infection. The plague was primarily spread by human to human transmission in Europe. No rats nor fleas even required. Cats alone can spread the plague to each other and then to humans and other animals. While fleas are the most prolific animal to transmit it to other animals, any animal susceptible to this bacterium, once infected, can spread it again.
There is also no difference between the pneumonic, bubonic, and septicemic plague. They are all caused by the very same bacterium. The only difference is how it manifests itself in the infected organism, and thereby how it is retransmitted. An animal infected and developing the pneumonic form can retransmit it by just coughing in your area. (How it spread so far and wide so fast in Europe. The source of the saying “bless you” for sneezing. Thinking that praying someone’s airborne sputum away would save your life. A simple handkerchief fad could have saved millions of lives, instead of their ineffective prayer.)
Cat-to-Human Transmitted Fatal Pneumonic Plague
(I posted a link as proof, but it wouldn’t post, so instead Google for (include quotes): “Cat-transmitted fatal pneumonic plague”)
If an animal instead manifests the symptoms as bubonic (in lymph nodes) or septicemic (in the blood), then contact with either of those infected fluids will also retransmit it.
The bacterium can also manifest itself in more than one way in the very same organism after infection, and transmit it again in up to all 3 ways at once.
As far as feral-cat management goes … Shot & buried HUNDREDS of these invasive species vermin on my lands over 2 years ago. All gone in less than 2 seasons and less than the price of couple cups of coffee for the ammo. (5000 rounds of .22s on a close-out sale for $15. With a laser-sight and good scope didn’t waste even one bullet.) This was before I learned of all the deadly diseases they are spreading today (the plague being but only one). They had destroyed the complete food-chain on my land. That alone was reason enough. (Invented and found some extremely unique ways to get rid of every last one of them. Information available if needed. And you MUST get rid of every last one of them. Cats attract cats. Leave even one on your land and it attracts more of them. My land has been 100% cat-free for over 2 years now.)
Interesting note: One winter I tried feeding one of the shot-dead cats on my land to the last few starving opossum (all the rest of my larger native wildlife starved to death from cats destroying all their food sources). Those opossum promptly died from some disease in that cat-meat. Alarming — in that opossum, due to their cooler body temperatures, cannot contract nor transmit many common diseases, not even rabies. They are one of the most disease-free animals in N. America. Yet … something in that cat-meat was able to kill them all. Cats truly are complete and total wastes of flesh. They can’t even be used to feed wild animals safely. Leaving any of these invasive-species cats out in nature, alive OR dead, is no better than intentionally poisoning your native wildlife to death.
Clearly Mr. Anderson is against any cat roaming free outside.I agree.If you have a cat or cats why not keep them safe from predators,disease,cars,accidents,and most of all cat haters.Either build or have built an enclosed outdoor run for your cats.If your a renter make it portable.Making sure your cats are spayed or neutered will ensure they won’t add to the terrible overpopulation problem should they be lost.Most if not all feral cat populations we’re started by lost or abandoned tame cats.Although the plaque cat was NOT a feral cat.It was a cat that became a stray when abandoned by the bitten man’s neighbor.The cat was friendly.You would never be able to get close enough to a feral cat to try to get anything out of their mouth!It appears that Mr.Anderson is calling the cat feral in an attempt to avoid upsetting cat lovers too much.He’s also hoping it will cause hysteria over the plaque and get people killing cats.Extermination of cats is the true agenda here.Just ask his neighbors that he never allowed the opportunity to keep their cat safe.By not warning them their cat would be killed if it ended up in his yard!If he really cared about keeping people safe he would have mentioned frontline(flea/tick control)to dramatically decrease the likelyhood of getting plaque from a family pet.Yes,dogs can get plaque too.
The risk is very low as it is,think of all the people who have pets with a high prey drive and they aren’t dying of plaque!
Jim, just curious–You mention “That’s not my imagination speaking, that’s reality.”
What town and what year did this occur where the “dear young child let her cat in one morning and the cat came in carrying a dead ground squirrel. A flea leaped off the ground squirrel onto the child for a blood meal and left the child to die from the plague.”
Again, wanting to know where and when this occurred.
Marguarita said, “Most if not all feral cat populations we’re started by lost or abandoned tame cats.”
EXACTLY why I shoot and bury ALL stray cats, collared or not. Every last one of the cats I shot and buried weren’t sterilized (were they even vaccinated? Doesn’t matter at all now now). I checked before dumping each one in their well-deserved hole in the ground. I’ve a box full of collars from stray cats that weren’t sterilized. If you don’t destroy EVERY last stray cat you see, you’ve done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to solve the problem.
BTW: Destroying cats is NOT hating cats nor even a fear of cats.
Why do mentally-unbalanced and psychotic cat-advocates always presume that if someone is removing a highly destructive, deadly disease spreading, human-engineered invasive-species from the native habitat to restore it back into natural balance that they must hate that organism? Does someone who destroys Zebra Mussels, Burmese Pythons, African Cichlids, or any of the other destructive invasive-species have some personal problem with that species? (Many of which are escaped PETS that don’t even spread any harmful diseases, unlike cats.) Your ignorance and blatant biases are revealed in your declaring that people who destroy cats must somehow hate or fear cats. Nothing could be further from the truth.
It is people who spread an invasive-species that tortures-to-death all other wildlife that have zero respect for life. They don’t even care about their cats dying a slow death from exposure, animal attacks, diseases, becoming road-kill, environmental poisons. etc., the way that ALL stray cats suffer to death. They don’t even respect their neighbor. This speaks volumes about your disgusting character.
If people have LEARNED to hate cats today, you have nobody but yourself to blame. THIS IS YOUR FAULT and THE FAULT OF EVERYONE JUST LIKE YOU.
You can take that all the way to the very last shot-dead cat’s grave.
Margarita said, “Just ask his neighbors that he never allowed the opportunity to keep their cat safe.By not warning them their cat would be killed if it ended up in his yard!”
You can warn cat-owners until you are blue in the face. I tried to reason with them for 9-10 years, even giving them gifts to befriend them. Thinking that, when asked later, they’d stop releasing their cats. Another 4 years arguing. Another 2 years warning them their cats would be shot. Even the Sheriff warned them that I had EVERY RIGHT to shoot their cats.
Still that did no good. And after those 15 years of trying to reason with idiots, JUST LIKE YOU, I looked around one day and realized I hadn’t seen any owls, fox, turkeys, grouse, hawks, snakes, spring-peepers, chipmunks, raccoons, songbirds … I hadn’t seen nor heard ANY OF THESE for 15 YEARS! ALL GONE! NOTHING BUT CATS HERE. ALL other wildlife DESTROYED by cats. From smallest of prey skinned-alive for cats’ play-toys (not even eating them) up to the top predators that starved to death from cats destroying their foods.
That’s when I realized I made a foolish foolish error. I was trying to reason with delusional invasive species lovers to protect valuable native wildlife — just as you don’t ask your local career thieves how to protect your valuables. It was time to give them the exact same amount of respect and consideration in return — NONE.
So on advice of the Sheriff the shooting started and didn’t stop until EVERY LAST ONE OF THEIR CATS WAS GONE — HUNDREDS OF THEM. Even when shooting their cats they released MORE cats. Come to find out they don’t really even care about cats in the first place!
Thanks for posting Margarita. You’re an EXCELLENT example of why people should ignore ANYTHING that fools like you say. Instead just do what needs to be done. Destroy every last cat you see that’s away from supervised confinement. If you waste your time listening to these cat-lover morons you can kiss all your amazing wildlife good-bye.
why don’t we just kill all humans we are a far bigger problem then cats,dogs or any living animal. why don’t we look at reality just open your front door walk out to the street and look for a peace of trash i bet your not going to have a problem finding some then think to your self about how little a problem cats are vs us.
Mr Anderson, you should be very proud of yourself, spreading your spin, misinformation and venom. You’ve fueled the flames of a very unstable man, who posses fire arms. During one of his shooting sprees intended for cats, a stray bullet could end up killing a child! I fear for anyone living near this maniac. Your, and his justification of killing (or ‘culling’ if it makes you feel better) a species, reminds me of the Nazis’ justification for killing 6 million jews, filthy sub-humans that carry disease and need to be eliminated. “Nature Advocate” admits that HUMANS are to blame for the cat problem and other invasive species increasingly creating problems and yet, his and your answer is to punish the cats, rather than educate and hold the IRRESPONSIBLE cat owners like his neighbor, responsible! How about some spay/neuter laws! With penalties! I would encourage others to research the facts regarding Europe’s plague – after outlawing and ‘culling’ cats, they learned the hard way it was cats that kept the rodent population down so when the cats were gone, the rats and the plague flourished. Also, nearly ALL national animal welfare organizations support TNR, including the largest most respected, HSUS. You’re obviously misinformed about TNR – it’s not about dumping cats into wilderness to survive off of small wildlife. It’s sterilizing ALL cats of an area, stopping the reproduction cycle and vaccinating, so that by attrition, the numbers decrease. Caregivers MUST provide daily food, water and shelter. To “Nature Advocate”, I compassionately urge you to seek mental help, sooner rather than later and PLEASE… put the gun down.
Just to let you folks know that “Nature Advocate” posts under the name of “Woodsman001, Forest Smith, and dozens of other names on EVERY on-line article that deals with feral cats. He/she posts the exact bogus information on every site. Sometimes he will use two or more identities on one site, either supporting or questioning the other identity. Once other commenters begin to see through his tactics, he becomes angry and starts to spew nastiness. Many other sites have blocked him from posting any more comments. Google: Woodsman, Nature Advocate or any of his other names. He’s all over the internet spreading his love of killing cats.
Have you lost your mind? It was “culling” the feral cat population that made the plague worse. They are what keep it in check today by keeping the rodent population in check. Sure, some cats contract the disease themselves, but unlike rodents, feral cats do not chew their way into your house to live in your pantry. Housecats should be treated for parasites as always, to eliminate the risk of bring the disease inside the home.
Cats are animals like any other, with a role in the food chain. They are what we call a beneficial pest. It makes no sense to eliminate them anymore than you would kill all the worms crapping all over your yard. Do not get confused just because some have been tamed and kept as pets. Dogs were historically controlled and licensed because they will kill your livestock, whereas everyone wants a cat around, it only kills pests which eat your food and pests that spread disease. I tell you these things as a pest control business operator. Leave the cats be, do not upset the cycle of life, nature knows best.