cat shootings

[missydog1]

Well, I grew up in a more tolerant climate where no one freaked out if someone's cat cruised through the yard or occasionally went potty and buried it. It was just not something people ever complained about. It's very hard to fence in cats, because they can climb, as we all know.

I suppose it is possible that cats can hurt chicks, but here is my experience.
A year ago, one hen and a rooster wandered onto our land. A land populated by hundreds of mongoose, a herd of wild boar, two pet cats, and several feral cats.

The chickens were not put in a shelter or coop. They had to raise their young in the unprotected wild. So there are now about 20 of them, which is an exponential increase in one year. The cats stay far away from mama chickens, and the chicks stay with mama.

I also have had koi and carp in open ponds with the cats for ten years, and they have never attacked one of the fish. What they do is they kill rats, lots of rats.

My neighbor in Hilo to me (of an old established Japanese Hilo family) said yes the cat cruised his yard occasionally but he was glad to have a rat killer around.

If anything is hurting the chicken population, it would be the mongoose.