Nēnē Gosling Death Points To Disease Carried By Feral Cats

[MarkP]

This is a compassionate and wonderful person. Saving lives. She is NOT a criminal. She feeding them out of goodness of her heart ( and pocket )

Basically assuming role of mother and taking care of those that cannot.

I bet her citation is a shock to her heart.

.Mongoose in the trough as well..

Poor Lady .. Now cat's foods she delivery after dark.

She is NOT saving lives if she is adversely affecting native species to the point where they are dying. Furthermore that one gosling is only the tip of the iceberg. It is the nature of disease that for every outright death there are more animals that are made sick and vulnerable in other ways. This lady is subjecting a vulnerable population to a potentially lethal disease so that she can indulge in her hobby.

The bit about delivering food after dark is relevant. Anything that can have an impact on our environment should be done while keeping a close eye on costs vs benefits. There is the temptation to think that "every little bit helps". In the case of trying to control a population through sterilization this is not true. There is a threshold below which, if not enough animals are sterilized, the population continues to grow. That threshold is about 75% of the animals that need to be sterilized. As such for TNR to be effective the program must be conducted with ruthless efficiency or you are just spinning your wheels. The sterilization must be the top priority.

The problem is that TNR as it is currently practiced is mostly about feeding the cats. To make the program work you would need hard-nosed individuals willing to get the job done. Instead you have disturbed individuals who, to avoid criticism but still get their way, blow through the park at midnight, roll down their window, and dump cat chow in a big messy pile for rats and mongooses to eat too. This sometimes causes grief for relatively responsible TNR types who are trying not to feed the cats on a Friday so they can conduct effective trapping on Saturday and Sunday and take the cats to the vet on Monday. Their efforts are thwarted because so many others who "answer the call" are unable or unwilling to control their selfish and shortsighted impulses and just feed the cats indiscriminately.

It is my understanding that the original proponents of TNR in England in the 1950s advocated not feeding the cats, only sterilizing.