The scourge of the earth......CATS!

lets see....birds that do not migrate....Crows? Buzzards? what types of birds were they destroying anyway?

donsgal

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Life is what happens while you are making other plans. (John Lennon)

Actually, the ecosystem will support a fairly fixed number of preditors. The cats may not be indigenous to your area, but they are simply preplacing preditors that are/were such as weasels, foxes, etc. So saying that the ecosystem cannot handle it is really not true, if the feral cat population increases beyond what the wild food population can support they will just starve out naturally - except for the people who are feeding them, of course, which people do not do for weasels or foxes.

All reputable feral cat programs that I am aware of require catch,spay/neuter/release. It is so wrong to feed them and then allow them to breed causing, not only the problems you mention, but their SUFFERING as well. If these people are animal lovers, then they should understand the importance of NOT perpetuating the problem by allowing litters. That really ticks me off. Our area is just rife with people who let their animals breed indiscriminately and then they abandon them to "who knows what" kind of fate.

grrrrrrr

donsgal

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Life is what happens while you are making other plans. (John Lennon)

Domestic Cats are a none native species there fore the eco systems are not designed to handle them its that simple .
In closed systems such as islands Cats have cause the extinction of many species.
Its pretty simple if you own cats keep them penned .
regardless of how unpopular it is wild or feral cats should be destroyed as should feral dogs and hogs . they serve no purpose in the natural eco-system. Frankly I dont enjoy killing cats or for that matter any creature but if it meaows and doesnt have a collar it gets the 3 s treatment

She claws only on her scratching post, has never once missed the litter box even times I have forgotten to clean it when I should have
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a tray of poop kept in your house....sorry I never could understand this!!! Vicki

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Vicki McGaugh
Nubian Soaps
North of Houston TX
www.etsy.com/shop/nubiansoaps

A 3 decade dairy goat farm homestead that is now a retail/wholesale soap company and construction business.

We fought mice and packrats here and they were winning the battle until we got our cat. She's the bomb-diggity! She's an indoor only cat right now, though, because she's not yet spayed.

Then recently we acquired our first barn cat. Well, she will be when she gets a little older and has been spayed:

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Our homestead-in-the-making: Palazzo Rospo
Eating the dream

Aww, turtlehead, that is the cutest baby! How old is she? I see a bottle, so I'm thinking pretty young?

I have 6 indoor/outdoor cats, love them, they are part of the family. I see them outside chasing each other a whole lot more than birds. I don't doubt, though that they could do some damage if they were allowed to procreate freely and overrun the local countryside. All are spayed or neutered to prevent that. I've never seen them off our property (and the clearcut next to us, undeveloped property). Wish I could say the same for my dog.

There is, however, a visiting tom that I'd like to get a bead on, as he stalks and attacks MY cats!

Not sure about the age. She and a sibling were accidentally shipped in a box of parts and the woman opening the box found them, eyes still closed. The woman cared for them a bit but then had a stroke... the woman's daughter knows one of our children, and we took the kitten. I estimate her age to be 3.5 weeks when that photo was taken. She's now about 6 weeks old and eating canned cat food and formula out of a bowl - no more bottle. AND I get to sleep all night again

It's a miracle she survived shipping. We named her Postal.

Sorry for the thread drift. Back to why cats are good/bad...

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Our homestead-in-the-making: Palazzo Rospo
Eating the dream

On the thought of the domestic cat having no counterpart in the wild, what about bobcats(which we have here) and lynx? Both are a vital part of the system, and they'll attack housecats too. Sure there's a LOT of feral cats, but it's been my observation when they are truly out in the wild (with other natural predators present), they sure don't last long at all! Sorry, I just think there's more to the equation than simply saying there's too many cats. And no I'm not a bleeding heart cat collector.

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THE BEGINNING IS NEAR
5-star double-rated astronavagatrix earth girl

Think of it as a sawdust toilet for moggies.

Lets see, I will make a small list.
Cardinals
Robins
Nuthatches
Bushtits
Creepers
Wrens
Thrushes
Mockingbirds
Thrashers
Sparrows
Starlings
Waxwings
Gulls
Doves
Flickers
Woodpeckers
Chickadee
Titmouse


This is just a small sample of the birds the cats were destroying. The area was where many birds migrate to. Lots of native birds remained all year round.

I would not call them evil, rather an underutilized source of snapping turtle/fox bait. They also wear out the back cuffs of your trousers by rubbing against them.

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"Only the rocks [and really embarassing moments] live forever"

"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands..." tick-tick-tick

There ya go geneticly alter cats to only hunt starlings and you can have as many wild cats as you want as starling are another introduced species thats gone from bright idea to disaster.

Whats gotta be done, has gotta be done.
If anyone wants to stop by and pick up a few, come on over - otherwise -
two go out, one comes back. Simple, cost effective, and quick.
Can't see how it's irresponsible. It a humane way of controling the overpopualtion of cats without spending huge amounts of money. They also make great fertilizer for trees.

I just recently got my first cat, from a friend who started with two "side of the road delivered in a box variety" a year ago and now has dozens! Up until I brought this one home, I frequently looked out the window to see birds everywhere, often 6 or 8 red birds sitting in the bushes by the back door. Within a week after getting that cat, the birds disappeared. My friend said that the cat just scared the birds away, I think he ate them, but either way, with just one cat...no birds. Now to figure out a way to dispose of "cat" without offending my cat loving friend!

No, the humane way would be to spay/neuter.

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I'm running so far behind I thought I was first!

http://hickahala.blogspot.com/

I think this thread has gone on long enough for the Homesteading Questions forum (what was the question?) If anyone would like to see this discussion continued, PM me. If there is enough interest, I'll ask the GC moderators if they would like to host the thread.

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This is the government the Founding Fathers warned us about.....