cat shootings

[unknownjulie]

In the paper this morning, there is an article about a 5k dollar reward from the Kauai Humane Society- for info about the numerous night time cat shootings on that island. Anyone have any thoughts on this, or other info?

[terracore]

"However, Kauai police say they aren't aware of any alleged crimes.

Kauai Humane Society Director Penny Cistaro says they are seeking solid information because they have nothing concrete to go on."

The flyer is here: http://www.kitv.com/blob/view/-/26026844...-flyer.pdf

The "cat murder" flyer mentions shootings and poisonings, but there is no reason to believe this isn't just routine predator control. Farmer poisons rats, cats eat poisoned rats, cat dies. A single feral cat can kill several hundred brooding chicks in an evening, many farmers don't "wait and see" if a cat is going to attack their poultry or not, if they see a cat, they dispatch it. So long as it is on their property it's legal. This group wants them trapped, vaccinated, spayed/neutered, and then released. Farmers aren't going to do that.

I don't know any farmers who waste ammunition on small predators. Usually they use pellet guns, which contrary to what their flyer says, is not "prosecutable under firearm laws".

My guess, and that's all it is, is that this $5k reward for a non-existent crime is a publicity stunt to raise awareness and money for the group running the catch-and-release program.

[steve1]

It seems like we humans have very schizophrenic and widely different views of acceptable behavior towards animals depending on whether the animals are pets, livestock, working animals, or pests, and many animals fit into all categories.

Some people keep cats as pets, but in our fragile island ecosystem they as a species are often considered non-native invasive pests because they decimate native bird populations.

Some people looking for compromise participate in spay and release catteries but the cats are still returned to the wild. Can you imagine feeling bad if someone started a spay and release coqui frog or rat program and then feeling bad if someone else started killed sterile rats or coquis?

Granted, nobody wants their personal pet killed because someone else has a personal agenda or gripe, but have you noticed how irresponsible some cat owners seem to be?

[MarkP]

The "Cat Murder" rhetoric is pretty standard hyperbole. I find it utterly amazing that in Hawaii, the endangered species capital of the world, that there aren't laws in place that would make intentionally promoting such an invasive predator in the wild illegal. The laws as they exist today guarantee that there will be a certain amount of "extrajudicial" control. As a person who has loved and been loved by cats and whose family and friends all have cats, I am aware of the potential for great unhappiness should a loved pet get taken out in such a cull, but absent the vitriolic rhetoric of the cat people the risk of that is small compared to the risks all cats face when wandering outside. I have never been one to compare pets to children, but many pro-cat people do. Imagine lamenting how bad some people can be to children, but still letting your child wander unsupervised? Your complicity in whatever harm came to the child would be universally recognized. Solution: Keep your cat close to home. As for feral cats, take them home with you or don't quibble about what particular fate they meet after you have re-abandoned them.

My parents still let their cats roam, a policy I disagree with, but then they live out in the country and there are relatively few cars and I am not about to get down on them for the harm their cats may be doing to wildlife. Shame on me for that as I know they have killed rabbits. My brother's family has learned their lesson since the first two outdoor cats died on the street, one run over and one poisoned by anti-freeze. I was the one home at the time when the neighbor found the poisoned cat, face frozen in a rictus of agony. The last two cats were strictly indoors although the male sometimes gets out. Last time he came back all scratched up by another cat.

[missydog1]

The only way to keep a cat at home all the time is to lock it up. They are exploratory by nature.

My cats have been around people doing rodent control for ten years now on this island. Never have gotten sick. They don't eat dead rats, and they don't hunt sickly rats. Their instinct teaches them to hunt the lively rats it would seem.

After interacting with a pet for a decade, with all the affection, care, money spent on it, yes I feel sick to think of people shooting cats who might take out a pet.

I've lived around cats as pets my whole life. It was always accepted that cats roam a little and guess what, they don't understand that a fence means it's a different property. Typically they are looking for rodents.

There aren't any noticeable native birds where I live, and haven't been for years. There are mynah birds, doves, cardinals, standard finches. There are many cats around my area that are feral, and my two domesticated ones. The bird ratio to cat is more than 1000 to 1. The bird population is incredibly healthy. Of course it is bad to have feral cats in sensitive habitats, but most people don't live in those.

Cats are much higher in the intelligence level than rats and coquis. I can't stand this one feral cat that is trying to invade my house. It's simply not a nice cat at all and don't think it could become one -- but I would never shoot it.

Cats are not children, but they reduce stress and make better company than children, honestly. Having had both ... Love my kids, but pets have a whole other companion function that is extremely important to many people. And they love you unconditionally and don't talk back. [:p]

[terracore]

"I feel sick to think of people shooting cats who might take out a pet."

They are only "pets" when they are confined in such a manner as to not affect the ecosystem, defecate/urinate on people's property, and chase/injure/kill livestock. All the other times, the law defines them as pests.

[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.

[dayna]

I had to rehome our cat. I watched it kill several chicks (chickens). The last one was the final straw and I rehomed it with a punawebber. So mongoose were for sure not our problem. Since I rehomed the cat I've got TONS more chicks living.

I'm a cat lover, terracore doesn't hate cats. We are however practical and will protect our livestock. Our property is 100% fenced in so if an animal comes on our property it had to of come over a barrier. If one of our animals leaves our property I assume it to be a pest to someone else.

Dayna

http://www.FarmingAloha.com
www.E-Z-Caps.com

[missydog1]

The problem is that a pet cat doesn't understand that a fence is a barrier. It's just a climbing structure.

My neighbor's cats come cruise by all the time. It doesn't bother me at all. When one decides to live under my house and starts fights and wounds my cats, it becomes a problem, but I would still never kill it. I would not kill a cat, period.

If I had chicks, I would put them in something.

Not all cats are chick killers. My cats are well fed, and they have showed zero interest in bothering the chicks walking all around the yard. They sit and watch the other animal life go on around them.

A starving or hungry feral cat is a different story.

To kill someone's pet -- you could damage that person for a very long time. That person might not get over it ever. That's how serious an act it is to kill someone's pet.

[missydog1]

Helpful guide to cat ownership: [] Be forewarned.

http://stuffistolefromtheinternet.com/wp...ng_you.jpg

http://s256.photobucket.com/user/Angleae...u.jpg.html

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aZXd_tNfHP4/UR...ll-You.jpg

http://blog.indigo.ca/images/stories/oatmeal_4a.jpg

http://librarina.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/bobcats.jpg?w=500&h=360

http://i.imgur.com/QnpXV.jpg

[:p]