07-27-2017, 03:53 PM
There is a blueprint for "solving" a feral cat problem that has worked well on dozens of small islands around the world where, similar to putting a man on the moon, a one-time investment of money, resources, and effort can get you there as long as you don't stop part way. The feral cat problem in the rest of the world is vastly different. It is doomed to be an ongoing maintenance problem forever. As such there can never be a solution in the way some people define it. The closest thing we can come to is a lifestyle change. Over the last couple of human generations as people have moved off the farm and distanced themselves more and more from nature, a counterproductive wrinkle in human behavior has developed in which some people dedicate large amounts of time and money to pumping cat chow into the environment. Given that even modest estimates of how quickly cats can reproduce would have the cat population reaching into the billions within 20 years of initial inoculation of the environment and given that 200 years after cats arrived in Hawaii we still only have maybe a few million, if that, it is obvious that something has been limiting the population. In Hawaii there are no predators so that something is primarily a lack of more food and to a lesser degree medical care. The above mentioned practice of pumping cat chow into the environment and vaccinating against disease is resulting in the only possible consequence, an increase in the feral cat population. Sterilization can be a good thing but is almost never done at a great enough rate. It must furthermore be viewed separately from feeding. Sterilizing good if enough of it is done. Feeding bad no matter how little is done. TNR or more accurately FFFFFtnr is the worst combination of compulsive overfeeding and hoarding hidden behind a smokescreen of emotion and rationalized by marginal efforts to sterilize. It is like letting your kids decide when to have dessert or when to do their homework.
I was active in the Civil Air Patrol for many years teaching cadets to fly. Senior members of CAP had criminal background checks so were unlikely to be criminals or pedophiles. However any organization that deals with kids has a risk factor and so there was something called Cadet Protection Program Training. It consisted of a videotape produced by and borrowed from the Boy Scouts where we were admonished not to let non-vetted people volunteer to help out. If someone wanted to help they could darn well go through the proper channels. So that was two nationwide organizations that went out of their way to call attention to the fact that there was one way that they were creating a risk factor so that the risk could be responsibly addressed and mitigated. You wouldn't think that any organization would go out of their way to point out "Hey, what we do actually gives pedos ideas and opportunity" but two major kid oriented organizations do because it is the only way to be responsible and deal with the risk. Now contrast this with feral cat groups. There is no central organization to set any kind of standards. In most instances TNR actually violates ordinances against littering, abandonment, trespassing, and various public health laws so the participants already see themselves as not beholding to the rest of society. Most people would agree that there are cat hoarders in the world meaning people who live in unacceptable conditions with dozens of cats confined in a house with no sense that there is a problem. However if you suggest that TNR programs would attract such individuals like youth programs attract pedos (how could they not) and ask what measures are being taken to prevent hoarders from infiltrating and taking over, the concept is ridiculed and rejected. That right there is proof that the inmates are already running the asylum.
There is only one way to cut through this miasma. The DLNR may finally be finding the spine to do it.
I was active in the Civil Air Patrol for many years teaching cadets to fly. Senior members of CAP had criminal background checks so were unlikely to be criminals or pedophiles. However any organization that deals with kids has a risk factor and so there was something called Cadet Protection Program Training. It consisted of a videotape produced by and borrowed from the Boy Scouts where we were admonished not to let non-vetted people volunteer to help out. If someone wanted to help they could darn well go through the proper channels. So that was two nationwide organizations that went out of their way to call attention to the fact that there was one way that they were creating a risk factor so that the risk could be responsibly addressed and mitigated. You wouldn't think that any organization would go out of their way to point out "Hey, what we do actually gives pedos ideas and opportunity" but two major kid oriented organizations do because it is the only way to be responsible and deal with the risk. Now contrast this with feral cat groups. There is no central organization to set any kind of standards. In most instances TNR actually violates ordinances against littering, abandonment, trespassing, and various public health laws so the participants already see themselves as not beholding to the rest of society. Most people would agree that there are cat hoarders in the world meaning people who live in unacceptable conditions with dozens of cats confined in a house with no sense that there is a problem. However if you suggest that TNR programs would attract such individuals like youth programs attract pedos (how could they not) and ask what measures are being taken to prevent hoarders from infiltrating and taking over, the concept is ridiculed and rejected. That right there is proof that the inmates are already running the asylum.
There is only one way to cut through this miasma. The DLNR may finally be finding the spine to do it.