Do You Know the Value of Stray Cats ?

[HereWeGoAgain]

We get stray cats showing up a lot. Mostly it's assholes just dropping them off on the road. We normally have 12-15 barn cats so I shoot the strays to keep the pop. at a managable number.
I feed my cats just enough to keep them here ,they have to hunt for the rest of their food. They kill rats,mice,bugs and a lot of birds. They don't get all of the pests but they do help.

Dudley would expect you to corral all the cats and have them spayed and neutered.

I had to thin out the cats at my place,they were killing all the native wildlife many of which are endangered.
I treat em the same as feral hogs.

The administrators of this forum should turn this guy's Identification in to his local police department, and use this forum as evidence for prosecution. He's already submitted a open, public confession.

Knock yourself out. Sounds to me like you need an education on feral animals and the laws pertaining to them.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

I don't like shooting strays either, but it's a job that needs doing. Mainly I do it for disease control, when you get to many cats around pretty soon they get sick and it wipes out most of them at once. I wish people would quit dropping them off on the road.

Cats create disease control. without them, you get the vermin that spread the disease. What do you think caused the bubonic plague of the 14th century that killed millions of people in Europe ? Rats. And it was cats that brought it to an end.

Nobody is saying cats are bad. We're saying to many cats are bad,just like any invasive species they have to be thinned when they become a threat to the ecosystem.

I dont understand liberals. They'll deny someone the right to property to save a salamander,but dont care if a bunch of stray cats wipe out native wildlife.

I read a study that showed that except for island, cats do not impact wildlife populations.

You're an asshole who can't spell but the one thing you've been correct about is that numbers matter. If we allow cat populations to multiply out of control, we'll look like Australia. "Thinning" or culling does not work. More are born and/or more are dumped. Spay/neuter, the colony stabilizes and vermin is controlled.

Meanwhile, criminalize dumping animals and subsidize spay/neuter.

If you object to your taxes being spent to subsidize spay/neuter, keep in mind you already pay taxes for county animal control. Why not use that money to address the root cause of the problem?

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

Cats create disease control. without them, you get the vermin that spread the disease. What do you think caused the bubonic plague of the 14th century that killed millions of people in Europe ? Rats. And it was cats that brought it to an end.

Nobody is saying cats are bad. We're saying to many cats are bad,just like any invasive species they have to be thinned when they become a threat to the ecosystem.

I dont understand liberals. They'll deny someone the right to property to save a salamander,but dont care if a bunch of stray cats wipe out native wildlife.

I read a study that showed that except for island, cats do not impact wildlife populations.

You're an asshole who can't spell but the one thing you've been correct about is that numbers matter. If we allow cat populations to multiply out of control, we'll look like Australia. "Thinning" or culling does not work. More are born and/or more are dumped. Spay/neuter, the colony stabilizes and vermin is controlled.

Meanwhile, criminalize dumping animals and subsidize spay/neuter.

If you object to your taxes being spent to subsidize spay/neuter, keep in mind you already pay taxes for county animal control. Why not use that money to address the root cause of the problem?

Sorry..stopped reading when you brought up some imagined study saying cats dont kill wildlife.
What a dumbass.....

And if you thought I was driving over a hundred miles round trip to go and get 23 cats spayed and neutered you're fucken nuts. And forget the fact that if you tried to lay a hand on em they'd shred the shit out of you.
We wouldnt have this problem if you so called "cat people" would take care of your fucken cats in the first place.
You dont see my dogs out in the middle of the night shitting in the neighbors yard and screwing strays. If people would keep their damn cats inside and spay and neuter the dam things we wouldnt even be discussing this.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Nobody is saying cats are bad. We're saying to many cats are bad,just like any invasive species they have to be thinned when they become a threat to the ecosystem.

I dont understand liberals. They'll deny someone the right to property to save a salamander,but dont care if a bunch of stray cats wipe out native wildlife.

I read a study that showed that except for island, cats do not impact wildlife populations.

You're an asshole who can't spell but the one thing you've been correct about is that numbers matter. If we allow cat populations to multiply out of control, we'll look like Australia. "Thinning" or culling does not work. More are born and/or more are dumped. Spay/neuter, the colony stabilizes and vermin is controlled.

Meanwhile, criminalize dumping animals and subsidize spay/neuter.

If you object to your taxes being spent to subsidize spay/neuter, keep in mind you already pay taxes for county animal control. Why not use that money to address the root cause of the problem?

Sorry..stopped reading when you brought up some imagined study saying cats dont kill wildlife.
What a dumbass.....

And if you thought I was driving over a hundred miles round trip to go and get 23 cats spayed and neutered you're fucken nuts. And forget the fact that if you tried to lay a hand on em they'd shred the shit out of you.
We wouldnt have this problem if you so called "cat people" would take care of your fucken cats in the first place.
You dont see my dogs out in the middle of the night shitting in the neighbors yard and screwing strays. If people would keep their damn cats inside and spay and neuter the dam things we wouldnt even be discussing this.

That's pretty much what I've written in several different threads as well as here. but, of course, you would have no way of knowing that because you stopped reading after the first sentence.

Fact is, you're on a tear and you want to blame libs. Its stupid but that's where you are. You use cats for target practice and pretend they're all libs because everyone knows that all rw's are responsible pet owners.

Like I said, you're an asshole.

 

[farmer]

put up a sign that says you will shoot cats on sight.

people will stop

???? Stop what ?

PS - shooting cats is a crime.

Do you really think that a sign will stop someone from throwing a cat from their car?
It's against the law to abandon your animals out in the country hoping some farmer will take care of them because you don't want to.
I don't know about where you live but around here it is 100% legal to shoot strays.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

put up a sign that says you will shoot cats on sight.

people will stop

???? Stop what ?

PS - shooting cats is a crime.

Do you really think that a sign will stop someone from throwing a cat from their car?
It's against the law to abandon your animals out in the country hoping some farmer will take care of them because you don't want to.
I don't know about where you live but around here it is 100% legal to shoot strays.

They seem to think everyone lives in the city.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

I read a study that showed that except for island, cats do not impact wildlife populations.

You're an asshole who can't spell but the one thing you've been correct about is that numbers matter. If we allow cat populations to multiply out of control, we'll look like Australia. "Thinning" or culling does not work. More are born and/or more are dumped. Spay/neuter, the colony stabilizes and vermin is controlled.

Meanwhile, criminalize dumping animals and subsidize spay/neuter.

If you object to your taxes being spent to subsidize spay/neuter, keep in mind you already pay taxes for county animal control. Why not use that money to address the root cause of the problem?

Sorry..stopped reading when you brought up some imagined study saying cats dont kill wildlife.
What a dumbass.....

And if you thought I was driving over a hundred miles round trip to go and get 23 cats spayed and neutered you're fucken nuts. And forget the fact that if you tried to lay a hand on em they'd shred the shit out of you.
We wouldnt have this problem if you so called "cat people" would take care of your fucken cats in the first place.
You dont see my dogs out in the middle of the night shitting in the neighbors yard and screwing strays. If people would keep their damn cats inside and spay and neuter the dam things we wouldnt even be discussing this.

That's pretty much what I've written in several different threads as well as here. but, of course, you would have no way of knowing that because you stopped reading after the first sentence.

Fact is, you're on a tear and you want to blame libs. Its stupid but that's where you are. You use cats for target practice and pretend they're all libs because everyone knows that all rw's are responsible pet owners.

Like I said, you're an asshole.

Nope...like iv'e said numerous times. I dont mind a few barn cats if they've been fixed.
But I refuse to let twenty of them kill all the wildlife and make barns and garages smell like a giant litter box.
Add to the mix that there is noway to catch and transfer all these cats without considerable expense....? Sorry,the old owners should have taken them with them. Instead they just dumped them for me to deal with....and I did,in the most humane and cost effective way I could.
And the wildlife sure appreciated my efforts.

 

[farmer]

I don't like shooting strays either, but it's a job that needs doing. Mainly I do it for disease control, when you get to many cats around pretty soon they get sick and it wipes out most of them at once. I wish people would quit dropping them off on the road.

Cats create disease control. without them, you get the vermin that spread the disease. What do you think caused the bubonic plague of the 14th century that killed millions of people in Europe ? Rats. And it was cats that brought it to an end.

Didn't read my first post huh. I said we normally have 12-15 barn cats . That is good,any more and they get sick and dye off. I'm sure someone will say something about taking them to the vet but you have to remember these are barn cats . If you try to pick one up you better be wearing welder gloves and a face mask.

 

[gallantwarrior]

We get stray cats showing up a lot. Mostly it's assholes just dropping them off on the road. We normally have 12-15 barn cats so I shoot the strays to keep the pop. at a managable number.
I feed my cats just enough to keep them here ,they have to hunt for the rest of their food. They kill rats,mice,bugs and a lot of birds. They don't get all of the pests but they do help.

Dudley would expect you to corral all the cats and have them spayed and neutered.

I had to thin out the cats at my place,they were killing all the native wildlife many of which are endangered.
I treat em the same as feral hogs.

No hogs around here-to damn cold. I do shoot every stray dog I see. Had one about ten years ago chasing my cows and I will not put up with that.

Amen to that. I helped a neighbor's dog to the rainbow bridge last year after she killed six of my kids, gutted one that wasn't even a week old. I can not tolerate a livestock killer.
The barn cats are different, though. I've caught them snugged up in the kidding boxes with new kids. I even watched one queen play with some rambunctious kids. And they do a fine job of keeping the vermin in check.

 

[gallantwarrior]

When I was a wee lad of about 9 years in age we lived out in the country. Mom and dad both worked full time jobs but we also had a garden and raised sheep, goats and fowl for food on the table (when I got older, we had hogs to). Dad didn't like cats because he thought they would mess with the fowl. One day, a pregnant cat showed up. She wasn't feral because she was people friendly. Dad wanted to get rid of her, but he couldn't resist the pleas of four children wanting to keep her. We named her Mama Cats.

She gave birth on my sisters bed at 2:00am, it was the first time I ever witnessed live birth. She had five kittens. The runt of the litter died within 24 hours. It was the first time I experienced death with enough comprehension to understand it. 4 kids, 4 kittens, we all had our own favorite and our own pet. Over the next few months, Mama Cats taught her kittens to hunt, and guess what they hunted. It was the mice and rats that were getting into the feed for the goats and sheep that were hunted, never the fowl. Even a well fed cat will hunt mice and present them as a gift to the family. Dad didn't have such a negative outlook on cats after that.

When the kittens were about 9 months old, Mama Cats disappeared. Was she a gypsy that trained her progeny then left? Did a coyote bring about her demise? Was she run over by a car on the country road? Regardless of that, she delivered four kittens to four kids that loved them, and she delivered a rodent control solution. The kittens became cats, dead mice and rats appeared regularly on the doorstep although fewer offerings as the population of rodents dwindled.

It was about year after Mama Cats disappeared that she reappeared again. Checking up on her kids perhaps. But she showed up at the homestead. We were all surprised to see her. Where had she been? Why did she leave? She was healthy so obviously somebody had been taking care of her. A cat shows up, gives birth, sticks around for about 9 months, disappears, than shows up again a year later acting like she was never gone. Quite the mystery.

A few months later, my parents decide to host a cookout for our distant neighborhood. A whole goat cooked in a pit, kind of a Hawaiian luoa style. Kids running around being annoying, adults enjoying some adult beverages as they solve the worlds problems and eat good food. We're all eating and enjoying company when Mama Cats wanders into the party.
This is where it gets real fun.
The Davis's lived 2 miles from us and Mrs Davis looked at the cat and says, "Mama Cass, where have you been? I've missed you."
The Stead's lived a mile in the other direction, Sarah Stead (13 years old) picked up Mama Cats and said "Cassie, Cassie, your alive, I love you, we'll take you home.

Three families, one cat. Cassie, Mama Cats, Mama Cass, how crazy is that that we all gave her similar names? She also delivered kittens to each family. The Davis's were the ones that had her spayed after she delivered a second litter of kittens to them. The adults decided that kitty Cass would decide where she lived. Mama Cats remained the eternal gypsy, traveling from family to family, staying a few months, then moving on to the next family. She did that for a few years then nobody saw her again.

I still have a soft spot in my heart for cats.

I believe that cats have secret names, "jellicle names". Sometimes, the cat will reveal their name to you, sometimes they will just endure whatever you call them. I suspect this cat's secret name was probably "Cass".

 

[Pogo]

There's a wide gap in the way people see stray cats in their neighborhood. Some people hate them and try to get rid of them. Others feed them, make shelter boxes for them with soft towels inside, and even take them to veterinarians.

Lots of people though, from both sides of this spectrum don't realize how valuable stray cats are to them. Few factors in their residence (and businesses) areas do more to reduce the spread of disease and vermin, than these cats. By killing huge numbers of bugs, snakes, and other harmful animals, cats engage in a 24/7 constant pest control service to us, free of charge, that no professional pest control company could ever match, and they do it without any poisonous chemicals.

The biggest and most productive part of this is the containment (repellent) of rats and mice. These nuisances can smell a cat from 100 yards away (length of a football field), and when they do, they will not go there. In the apartment complexes I've lived in, I have never seen a single rat or mouse. But there's always lots of stray cats around. And THAT'S WHY there are no rats. Better to have cats than rats.

The next time you see a bunch of stray cats congregating around outside (typically near trash bins), put some dry cat food out on a paper plate or two for them, along with a small bowl of water. In my complex, we not only feed our little pals, we take them to veterianarians to be spayed and neutered also, so they don't overpopulate. It's good to have some of them around, but not too many.

In a few cases, the homeless cats are not all feral ones (born outside wild). Some are former housecats which were abandoned by callous owners who just dumped them out, and these cats will come right to you and let you pet them. If you can, you might take one or two of them in and make them your pet (take them to vet first). I did that and it's one of the best things I ever did.

Also, whenever feeding them take some precautions to put their food where they won't get run over by cars, since some drivers are careless, and cats are distracted when they're eating.

Indeed, that's what we bred them for -- rodent control. That's why I keep one here in the old farmhouse in the woods where mice used to be common. Used to be. Not any more.

When I lived in a city there was one stray I fed who would come running at the sound of my car pulling up. She knew that sound from the others. Dry food is not good for cats though, and tends to be grain-based, especially the cheaper stuff. At the very least put a little water in it for some moisture, as cats tend to not hydrate themselves enough. They are fascinated by running water though.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

When I was a wee lad of about 9 years in age we lived out in the country. Mom and dad both worked full time jobs but we also had a garden and raised sheep, goats and fowl for food on the table (when I got older, we had hogs to). Dad didn't like cats because he thought they would mess with the fowl. One day, a pregnant cat showed up. She wasn't feral because she was people friendly. Dad wanted to get rid of her, but he couldn't resist the pleas of four children wanting to keep her. We named her Mama Cats.

She gave birth on my sisters bed at 2:00am, it was the first time I ever witnessed live birth. She had five kittens. The runt of the litter died within 24 hours. It was the first time I experienced death with enough comprehension to understand it. 4 kids, 4 kittens, we all had our own favorite and our own pet. Over the next few months, Mama Cats taught her kittens to hunt, and guess what they hunted. It was the mice and rats that were getting into the feed for the goats and sheep that were hunted, never the fowl. Even a well fed cat will hunt mice and present them as a gift to the family. Dad didn't have such a negative outlook on cats after that.

When the kittens were about 9 months old, Mama Cats disappeared. Was she a gypsy that trained her progeny then left? Did a coyote bring about her demise? Was she run over by a car on the country road? Regardless of that, she delivered four kittens to four kids that loved them, and she delivered a rodent control solution. The kittens became cats, dead mice and rats appeared regularly on the doorstep although fewer offerings as the population of rodents dwindled.

It was about year after Mama Cats disappeared that she reappeared again. Checking up on her kids perhaps. But she showed up at the homestead. We were all surprised to see her. Where had she been? Why did she leave? She was healthy so obviously somebody had been taking care of her. A cat shows up, gives birth, sticks around for about 9 months, disappears, than shows up again a year later acting like she was never gone. Quite the mystery.

A few months later, my parents decide to host a cookout for our distant neighborhood. A whole goat cooked in a pit, kind of a Hawaiian luoa style. Kids running around being annoying, adults enjoying some adult beverages as they solve the worlds problems and eat good food. We're all eating and enjoying company when Mama Cats wanders into the party.
This is where it gets real fun.
The Davis's lived 2 miles from us and Mrs Davis looked at the cat and says, "Mama Cass, where have you been? I've missed you."
The Stead's lived a mile in the other direction, Sarah Stead (13 years old) picked up Mama Cats and said "Cassie, Cassie, your alive, I love you, we'll take you home.

Three families, one cat. Cassie, Mama Cats, Mama Cass, how crazy is that that we all gave her similar names? She also delivered kittens to each family. The Davis's were the ones that had her spayed after she delivered a second litter of kittens to them. The adults decided that kitty Cass would decide where she lived. Mama Cats remained the eternal gypsy, traveling from family to family, staying a few months, then moving on to the next family. She did that for a few years then nobody saw her again.

I still have a soft spot in my heart for cats.

I believe that cats have secret names, "jellicle names". Sometimes, the cat will reveal their name to you, sometimes they will just endure whatever you call them. I suspect this cat's secret name was probably "Cass".

I would never have taken you for a T.S. Eliot fan.

 

[protectionist]

Yep. Cats kill a shitload of wildlife. After thinning the herd so to speak,rabbits,roadrunners,horntoads,painted buntings,squirrels,turkey and a host of other wildlife returned to my property. Hogs mainly destroy crops and create erosion problems.
Wild hogs do costly damage,cats kill native species. Not sure I can say which is worse. You can make up your own mind.

Where I live the only things cats kill are nuisance vermin that we don't want around or in our homes (snakes, rats, mice, palmetto bugs, lizards). They don't kill toads, or even touch them, because toads have poison glands in their skin, and cats can smell it. To us, th cats are round the clock pest control workers working for free (except we pay them by feeding them)

So you train feral cats not to attack native wildlife where you live?
Sounds like utopia.......

Prime example of where the quoted post answered the post itself, which therfore never needed to be posted.

 

[protectionist]

put up a sign that says you will shoot cats on sight.

people will stop

???? Stop what ?

PS - shooting cats is a crime.

PS. No it's not. Thats like saying it's illegal to kill feral hogs.
As they say...Location,Location,Location.
I had around twenty five scrawny cats on my property the previous owners left.
They decimated the local wildlife. Killed all but three,the wildlife came back and the three remaining cats are well fed.
All perfectly legal.

I don't know where you live, but in every state in the USA, killing cats is animal cruelty > a crime. Here's an example (in Florida)

Statutes & Constitution :View Statutes : Online Sunshine

 

[protectionist]

I don't like shooting strays either, but it's a job that needs doing. Mainly I do it for disease control, when you get to many cats around pretty soon they get sick and it wipes out most of them at once. I wish people would quit dropping them off on the road.

Cats create disease control. without them, you get the vermin that spread the disease. What do you think caused the bubonic plague of the 14th century that killed millions of people in Europe ? Rats. And it was cats that brought it to an end.

Nobody is saying cats are bad. We're saying to many cats are bad,just like any invasive species they have to be thinned when they become a threat to the ecosystem.

I dont understand liberals. They'll deny someone the right to property to save a salamander,but dont care if a bunch of stray cats wipe out native wildlife.

If you really think native wildlife are in jeopardy, you should notify your state or County wildlife agency and let them assess it. If they think it needs attention, they'll attend to it. If you do, you might wind up in jail. In Florida, what you said you do varies from a 1st degree misdemeanor (1 year in County jail) to a 3rd degree felony (5 years in a state prison).

 

[MisterBeale]

Feral cats, indeed, even cats that roam outdoors and have contact with rats, are a danger to human sanity.

Anyone ever hear the term, "Crazy Cat Lady?" Well, there is a reason she is crazy. Parasites that cats carry make people a little nutty. Anyone happen to view that video that was posted near the beginning of the thread? Cat people are lunatics, for good reason.

How a Cat-Borne Parasite Infects Humans

Scientists have a new theory to explain the brain-controlling parasite.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/01/220113-sneaky-cat-parasite-takes-over-human-brains-science/

A colored transmission electron micrograph (TEM) of Toxoplasma gondii parasites (green), which cause toxoplasmosis.

What's Toxo Doing to Me?

In 1990, Flegr happened to find out he had toxo himself—a colleague who studied the parasite had developed a new diagnostic test and decided to try it out on Flegr. The news that he carried the parasite gave him an idea. He knew the parasite reduced fear in rats so they'd be more likely to get eaten by cats. And he'd also recently noticed a certain lack of fear in himself. "I would cross the street in traffic and not jump when the cars honked," he said. He wondered: Could the toxo be responsible?

Over the next 15 years, using experimentation and analysis of public health data, Flegr discovered a series of fascinating links between toxo and human behavior. A toxo-infected person is more than twice as likely to be in a car accident—which Flegr attributes to the parasite's tendency to reduce reaction time—and has a higher than normal risk of developing schizophrenia. Other scientists have shown a connection between toxo and an increased risk of suicide.

How toxo might cause these changes remained a mystery. Then in 2009, scientists in the U.K. discovered that toxo has two genes for making l-DOPA, the precursor molecule to dopamine. Elevated levels of dopamine are associated with schizophrenia. This research told a piece of the story but left many questions.

This is a great video about how parasites control much of the behavior in the animal world, and how rats and cats are responsible for the biggest one that affects human behavior. This problem is very real. It is why dogs really ARE man's best friend. Cat's literally DO make you psychopathic.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfqO1U6lfDs"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfqO1U6lfDs[/ame]

It would be nice if we could find a cure for this parasite. . . .

 

[MisterBeale]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d4XMUYj-9k"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d4XMUYj-9k[/ame]

 

[MisterBeale]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ywjpbThDpE"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ywjpbThDpE[/ame]

 

[MisterBeale]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65g_MKdPQmc"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65g_MKdPQmc[/ame]

 

[Politico]

If I catch you jail time would be the least of your worries.

Bring it skippy.

I've done it before. Trust me I would have no problem.