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+--- Thread: DLNR cat killing apparently to ramp up on Kauai (/showthread.php?tid=18610)
DLNR cat killing apparently to ramp up on Kauai - MarkD - 07-25-2017
Attached is a highly interesting, detailed (2016) article on the problems caused by Hawaii’s feral cats--not just to our seabirds, but to monk seals, through transmission of the parasite toxoplasmosis, which cats apparently spread.
https://www.outsideonline.com/2127956/hawaiis-crazy-war-over-zombie-cats
Monday night the TV news reported that DLNR on Kauai is getting the go-ahead to begin killing feral cats. (Could not find a link today, unfortunately.)
No doubt the animal rights activists will be out in force objecting. When Australia announced its giant cat kill proposal, activists decried the pending “massacre of 2 million small Cecils the Lion. “A devastating attack on these innocent animals,” one activist lamented. (Of course we are supposed to ignore the heavy toll on Australia native species. And our native species re a Hawaii cull.) Moronic.
The story, with its provocative descriptor zombie cats, takes major issue with the TNR people—trap, neuter, return. Focusing on prominent TNR advocate Basil Scott, the article states:
“The problem with Scott’s arguments...is that the majority of the evidence doesn’t support them. “Basil’s an engineer, so he knows all the lingo,” says Bill Lucey, who heads up the Kauai Invasive Species Committee... “But basically he takes a lie and he repeats it over and over. ‘TNR works, TNR works, TNR works,’ like if he says it enough it will come true.”
(Same thing with Hawaii’s shark protectors, who famously claim culling does not work. In other words, fewer sharks do not equal fewer attacks, regardless of how much the shark population is reduced. Just repeat the same thing over again. And again. And again. The public will believe your message. [To people with specific knowledge here, yes I am referring Wetherbee, et al.’s 1994 paper.]).
Hope we can ramp up a feral cat killing program on Hawaii Island. A lot of TNR people are feeding cats near UH-Hilo. If you love cats (and I do) get one and keep it as a pet. The article explains why TNR is harmful and has a record of failure.
(My recent commentary on animal rights extremists inexplicably drifted off into strange territory, with one poster somehow interpreting that I was predicting that we would soon be forced to be vegetarians. Another poster noted major changes regarding killing animals was probably 100-200 years away. He is correct--insofar as hunting for food goes (or maybe longer).
The topic at hand was animal rights activists’ intense antipathy for people who kill animals as pests. Feral chickens. Peacocks. Pigeons. Feral cats (which only DLNR authorized personnel should be killing.) The activists deem it as cruelty and are increasingly badgering the cops to make arrests (with the Hawaii Humane Society cheerleading such prosecutions.])
A final comment to irritate animal right fanatics: Writing about successful efforts to eradicate cats from some islands, “rangers target cats with fast-acting kill traps, or they live-trap and then shoot them in the head (methods deemed humane by the American Veterinary Medical Association)...(and)...some combination of leg-hold traps, cage traps, dogs, poison, hunting, fumigation in holes, and, according to one scientific article published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), “clubbing with sticks.”
Yes, clubbing with sticks. As humans have killed animals for.......oh, say for about 200,000 years.
RE: DLNR cat killing apparently to ramp up on Kauai - Eric1600 - 07-26-2017
TNR does work well but only if the county requires sterilization in all adoptions and all pets must be licensed. Only breaders are allowed to have non-sterilized pets via a breaders license.
Only then will TNR work. I've seen it many times in many location. In only about 1 to 2 generations the problem is gone.
However getting the state and public to do something that costs political capital, forget it. They are just going to send DLNR out with guns. And guess what, in 5 years the problem will be back.
Just going out and killing them is reactionary and a very short term solution.
There will be a public meeting about this tomorrow: Hilo State Building Conference Room, 75 Aupuni Street, Hilo, HI 96720 on July 27, 5:30-6:30 p.m.
RE: DLNR cat killing apparently to ramp up on Kauai - HereOnThePrimalEdge - 07-26-2017
They are just going to send DLNR out with guns. And guess what, in 5 years the problem will be back... a very short term solution.
In less time than that, maybe a year or two, there will be a massive surge in the rat population.
Four people are in a room and seven leave. How many have to enter again before it's empty?
RE: DLNR cat killing apparently to ramp up on Kauai - kalakoa - 07-26-2017
getting the state and public to do something that costs political capital, forget it
Feral cats can't vote. Simple as that.
RE: DLNR cat killing apparently to ramp up on Kauai - Kapoho Joe - 07-26-2017
Good. Feral cats are a dangerous invasive species.
RE: DLNR cat killing apparently to ramp up on Kauai - punaticbychoice - 07-26-2017
Some would say, so are humans.
And the cats, rats, pigs and so on that we brought with us.
My spayed and neutered cats proudly show me about 10-15 rats and mice they kill each week- probably more I don't see.
So think this issue over carefully.
RE: DLNR cat killing apparently to ramp up on Kauai - alaskyn66 - 07-26-2017
All I see feral cats doing is sleeping in the shade or waiting to be fed..
RE: DLNR cat killing apparently to ramp up on Kauai - terracore - 07-26-2017
I'm sure Monsanto or Oxitec can come up with a solution.
RE: DLNR cat killing apparently to ramp up on Kauai - HereOnThePrimalEdge - 07-26-2017
I'm sure Monsanto... can come up with a solution.
GMO cats. Genetically sterile. Only available direct from Monsanto Pet Division. All colors, shapes, & sizes available. New! Now in Green Tiger Stripes!
Four people are in a room and seven leave. How many have to enter again before it's empty?
RE: DLNR cat killing apparently to ramp up on Kauai - Kapoho Joe - 07-26-2017
quote:
Originally posted by punaticbychoice
Some would say, so are humans.
And the cats, rats, pigs and so on that we brought with us.
My spayed and neutered cats proudly show me about 10-15 rats and mice they kill each week- probably more I don't see.
So think this issue over carefully.
What you aren't seeing are all the birds that feral cats eat which are the issue here not your pets.