Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Feral cats. Neuter or kill?

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Feral cats. Neuter or kill?

    Invasive species are a problem - they crowd out native species and alter the dynamics of the ecosystem, sometimes even leading to the extinction of native flora & fauna.

    When it is a plant, or a little, non-cute animal, like carp, lamprey, zebra mussels,kudzu, etc., there's no problem. KILL THE THING! WIPE IT FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH!

    But what if it is a beloved pet species, like kitties?

    Washington, D.C. Has been dealing with its feral cat population through a policy of "capture, cure, neuter, release," the idea being that the cat population can be kept in check this way.

    They are now switching to a controversial policy of "capture, kill" to reduce the population.


    What do you think? "Capture, cure, neuter, release," OR "capture, kill"? Maybe there is another option?

    And... Why do you feel that way?

    P.S. The little calico pictured at the bottom of the article looks just like beloved family pet Ittybittykitty.
    Every moment of a life is a horrible tragedy, a slapstick comedy, dark nihilism, golden illumination, or nothing at all; depending on how we write the story we tell ourselves.


    #2
    Re: Feral cats. Neuter or kill?

    I dunno, it's a tough call. We capture and neuter the strays in our neighbourhood, but we live in a fairly rural city (I know that sounds weird, but it's a weird town). A big city like DC, I would imagine would have far fewer options. I guess it depends on the individual feelings or the person who captures the cat.

    But then, of course, you'll have the issue of someone accidentally catching and killing someone's pet. Which doesn't bear thinking about. *hugs nearest fur baby*
    She is like a cat in the dark and then she is the darkness. ~~(=^._.^)

    I got my war paint on and I'm off to go passive-aggressive all over these socially awkward man-witches. :XD:

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Feral cats. Neuter or kill?

      Couple of things..Feral cats are NOT your sweet kitty that has always lived in your house,and may in fact carry some nasty stuff. I know I am going to get some blow back from people on this,I would prefer catch,snip,inoculate,and release if that takes care of over population. One large problem is if the feral cats become the alpha predator,it may very much upset the local balance. Here they do an annual bear hunt to cull down the bear population. Problem is over building,and pushing the bears into smaller areas and with less food,they tend to come into towns. This is also becoming a problem with deer..Cats are a smaller animal,but can if over populated become problematic. In a larger environment they could fold into the system,but as they get squeezed into smaller spaces,it becomes a matter of too many to be able to survive.
      MAGIC is MAGIC,black OR white or even blood RED

      all i ever wanted was a normal life and love.
      NO TERF EVER WE belong Too.
      don't stop the tears.let them flood your soul.




      sigpic

      my new page here,let me know what you think.


      nothing but the shadow of what was

      witchvox
      http://www.witchvox.com/vu/vxposts.html

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Feral cats. Neuter or kill?

        Kill.

        Feral and stray cats and outdoor/farm cats are terrible for local ecosystems. They are a conservation nightmare.

        We are never going to find a home for all the cats that need to be given a new home, much less the cats that aren't adoptable--since we have cats now, the sheer number of people wanting to know if we would take another is insane (honestly, I'm beginning to develop a really bad attitude about cat owners...when I had dogs, this was never an issue). Feral cats need to be killed...it sucks, its harsh, but its the only thing that has a chance to control their numbers. TNR programs don't work. I could spend hours listing studies and sources of info on the problem, but I'm visiting the hubby in GA .

        Further more, cat owners should be required to keep their cats indoors, unless they are in an enclosure or on a leash. And all pet owners should be required to get their pets fixed. And people that dump pets and get caught should be charged a ridiculous amount of money.
        Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
        sigpic

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Feral cats. Neuter or kill?

          Farm cats may be bad for the local ecosystem (so is farming. Plowing a field or grazing cattle changes a lot of the local ecology), but, to a farmer, they serve the same purpose they served for the Egytians - they keep the critters out of the grain, so it isn't eaten or contaminated & made unusable by mouse/rat poop.

          Do ecosystems need to be pristine? It isn't actually possible...
          Every moment of a life is a horrible tragedy, a slapstick comedy, dark nihilism, golden illumination, or nothing at all; depending on how we write the story we tell ourselves.

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Feral cats. Neuter or kill?

            Where I now live: kill. There are no shelters or groups to do TNR or anything else. They climb my fence and stalk my bird feeders. People dump cats who reproduce, and it just gets worse. The cats themselves don't have healthy or long lives, and for me, bird watching is sometimes the only bright spot in the day. My neighbor stopped feeding birds altogether. I'm not giving up. It's illegal to kill the cats, though. Ugh.

            In more civilized areas, I guess it depends on the volume.
            sigpic
            Can you hear me, Major Tom? I think I love you.

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Feral cats. Neuter or kill?

              Originally posted by B. de Corbin View Post
              Farm cats may be bad for the local ecosystem (so is farming. Plowing a field or grazing cattle changes a lot of the local ecology), but, to a farmer, they serve the same purpose they served for the Egytians - they keep the critters out of the grain, so it isn't eaten or contaminated & made unusable by mouse/rat poop.

              Do ecosystems need to be pristine? It isn't actually possible...
              The problem with farm cats is that farmers tend to let them breed on their own and then their offspring tend to hunt elsewhere off the farm.

              And when it comes to contamination, outdoor cats=toxoplasmosis.
              Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
              sigpic

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Feral cats. Neuter or kill?

                Originally posted by Hawkfeathers View Post
                Where I now live: kill. There are no shelters or groups to do TNR or anything else. They climb my fence and stalk my bird feeders. People dump cats who reproduce, and it just gets worse. The cats themselves don't have healthy or long lives, and for me, bird watching is sometimes the only bright spot in the day. My neighbor stopped feeding birds altogether. I'm not giving up. It's illegal to kill the cats, though. Ugh.

                In more civilized areas, I guess it depends on the volume.
                I don't know if you read the article, but it was a bird conservation group that was behind the change.
                Every moment of a life is a horrible tragedy, a slapstick comedy, dark nihilism, golden illumination, or nothing at all; depending on how we write the story we tell ourselves.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Feral cats. Neuter or kill?

                  I know that here the local animal group tried to stop the yearly bear culling..Now I imagine some people would find bears all cuddly and cute,but you might want to talk to the guy who got mauled by a cute 600 pound black bear. Their weight can range from 150 pounds to over 600 pounds. yeh here yah big cuddly black bear... all a matter of size and temperament..Even a 15 pound cat if it is angry could cut you up some.
                  MAGIC is MAGIC,black OR white or even blood RED

                  all i ever wanted was a normal life and love.
                  NO TERF EVER WE belong Too.
                  don't stop the tears.let them flood your soul.




                  sigpic

                  my new page here,let me know what you think.


                  nothing but the shadow of what was

                  witchvox
                  http://www.witchvox.com/vu/vxposts.html

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Feral cats. Neuter or kill?

                    Captured and neutered. Nature then runs it's course, within years the cat population is reduced.

                    Is that not happening? Then that means two things: 1. Humans are releasing more cats into the wild (which cancels out depopulation efforts, no matter of policy). 2. Not enough efforts are being made to control cat population (which means that regardless of control methods all will end in failure to contain the population).

                    Neutering (and application of vaccines) is simply the more humane solution. If anyone wants to adopt those cats it can happen albeit not all animals will be as lucky. In my family we have always adopted stray/feral cats and dogs - we have never purchased a single animal. Other people however have purchased animals, not bothered to neuter them, and then threw them away as trash. That applies to all pets as well, not just cats. When you have people who considers animals as disposeable objects you are going to get disposeable objects in your town - no matter how much effort you place in eliminating them (by the way, as a side point, the whole "kill them all" thing screams of "disposeable trash" to me and helps foster the throwaway culture, in fact I have seen a group of men who did not want a dog and threw it in a garbage truck).

                    Some animals are also adapted to the environment they live in quite well. Pigeons are considered a plague in many places, but to others they are simply ignored completely. Case in point, pigeons are extremely effective at adapting to urban environments. If we want to reduce pigeon populations, rather than killing the first pigeon in sight you should look at the causes and eliminate those... Pigeons would then be unable to adapt and then their population will drop naturally. Otherwise they will evade certain locations but will continue to adapt and propagate.
                    Last edited by NeoPlatonic; 06 Sep 2015, 18:12.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Feral cats. Neuter or kill?

                      I'll have to come back to this when I'm not on my lunch break....

                      Short answer:

                      In an ideal world kill en masse.

                      In the real world it's not that simple. Depends on your area, because in some urban places capture-neuter-release is actually more effective control.

                      I'll be back at some point with the long answer and some links.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Feral cats. Neuter or kill?

                        Originally posted by Archifenix View Post
                        Neutering (and application of vaccines) is simply the more humane solution... (by the way, as a side point, the whole "kill them all" thing screams of "disposeable trash" to me and helps foster the throwaway culture, in fact I have seen a group of men who did not want a dog and threw it in a garbage truck).
                        Do you advocate "humane" treatment of ALL invasive species, or just the cute ones? Cane toads, giant snails, rats, pigs, gobys, etc.?
                        Every moment of a life is a horrible tragedy, a slapstick comedy, dark nihilism, golden illumination, or nothing at all; depending on how we write the story we tell ourselves.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: Feral cats. Neuter or kill?

                          Here in the US, feral cats, feral pigs, starlings, asian carp....if I wasn't in bed, I'd make a longer list... Open season and an annual cull. We will never kill them all, but if we can give the native species enough of a chance at survival to actually survive, they have a chance to adapt and evolve. Its not a matter of TNR programs being more humane (and actually, the slow parasite ridden, hit by a car or poisoned by rat poison or death by disease or infection, less than half as long of an existence is LESS humane than a quick death), its a matter of poulation control. Whatever keeps the number controlled enough to lessen the damage invasive species cause to native wildlife.

                          I also advocate massive Bradford pear. Garlic mustard, fragmites, tree-if-heaven, and japanese honeysuckle removal...
                          Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
                          sigpic

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: Feral cats. Neuter or kill?

                            Livestream.com Follow TinyKittens’s profile on Livestream for updates on live events.

                            I advocate what they are doing for their feral population. They spay and neuter those they find. And they take the kittens and foster them to good homes after socialization.
                            Satan is my spirit animal

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: Feral cats. Neuter or kill?

                              So...

                              In general, I am an advocate of the large scale culling of introduced feral species (animals and plants), irrespective of how cute and cuddly they are. Feral cats are no exception to that. (Dromedary Camels MIGHT be, given that Australia has the healthiest population of wild Dromedary Camels in the world, albeit we have to cull them or capture and ship them overseas to control their populations).

                              However, in suburban Australia, there is some evidence to suggest that capture and kill is actually not effective population control, essentially because the cats are breeding at a rate that exceeds the kill rate. There have also been studies done that show that the environmental impact of feral and domestic cats in urban areas (the 'urban' part is important here) are not actually as severe as initially reported, and that the majority of species killed by cats (both feral and domestic) are also introduced species. It's possible this is specific to Australia, because we have no native predator species who readily adapt to urban environments except for snakes (who I fully expect kill more cats than are killed by cats!).

                              This is an Adelaide program that advocates capture-desex-release programs, and they have a list of references and to the studies which suggest that capture and kill programs aren't as effective at population control OR reducing the environmental impact of feral cats.

                              Over the years I've found myself having to revise my original statement...

                              I am an advocate for the most effective control methods of invasive and feral species (animals, plants, insects etc), provided those methods are humane (yes, culling is humane) and do not have further detrimental impact on local ecological systems.

                              Essentially, this becomes a case-by-case situation, based not just on species but on location. Large scale culling is the most effective method for some species in some places. Catch-desex-release is the most effective method for some species in some places. In general I'm NEVER a fan of releasing a species' natural predators or diseases in order to control them, because that has all sorts of disastrous environmental effects (Australia has a terrible history of doing this... hence cane toads and myxomatosis).

                              Incidentally, native species can also become invasive and detrimental to the environment if their numbers get out of control, or if they are released in an area they are not endemic to. So I'm also an advocate of culling those species where necessary (as we do here in Australia for kangaroos and koalas in certain areas).

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X