Now, I must point out that I was not raised a cat person. Indeed, I was raised with a certain amount antipathy towards stray and feral cats. That’s because cats kill birds and squirrels, which were the animals that my grandpa liked to preserve on his property. Now, he taught me most of what I know about nature and wildlife, and most of it I’ve read repeated in scientific wildlife journals and publications. He had a deep hatred of feral cats and opossums. For some reason, he regarded opossums as a non-native species. It didn’t really matter. He saw both as mortal threats to game birds, song birds, and squirrels.
Now, he always kept dogs. His preferred breed was the Norwegian elkhound, especially the black breed of Norwegian elkhound. He liked them because they had enougn variation of hunting instincts to be used on a wide variety of game. His dogs, as a result, were very fierce cat hunters. However, that often caused a problem whenever he took them to the small animal vet for vaccines and check-ups. These dogs had to enter through be back door, because they would go so crazy at the sight or smell of a cat that they would forget all of their training and go berserk.
Well, today, the number of cat hating dogs on the property is zero. My golden retriever thinks cats are just very strange looking dogs, and she wants to play with them. My skunk-killing golden boxer had a penchant for cat hunting, but since her death from osteosarcoma last year, we’ve been without cat control.
Ah, but mother nature has decided to help keep the cat numbers low.
In the past few years, a weapon of feline destruction has established itself in my part of the world.
We now now have a healthy population of coyotes, and they have a taste for cat meat. When they first arrived here, people complained that they would kill all the deer. That’s nonsense, because the deer population is higher than it ever was, even with some predation from coyotes (mainly on the fawns). They also complained that it would be the end of foxes, but I see foxes of both species rather regularly. And the bobcats seem to be doing fine, despite some competition from the coyote for prey.
The only animals that seem to be affected by coyotes are cottontail rabbits, which nearly disappear in the winter months, and feral cats. The coyotes more easily pick off the rabbits when the ground becomes bare in the winter, and the rabbits lose their hiding places in the dense weeds.
Feral cats don’t last long around here. The coyotes must hanker for cat meat. I don’t know what it is, but the coyotes eat lots of them. In fact, cats must be such a delicacy for coyotes that I’ve known people to lose cats off their front porches. One local was feeding his cat off the back deck. He poured the cat food out one morning and went inside to turn on the coffee pot. He hadn’t been gone 30 seconds when he heard his cat screaming. When he rushed out to see what was the matter, he just caught a glimpse of the coyote rushing off with the cat in its jaws.
So mother nature has figured out a way to keep the feral cats under control. However, I don’t think they are the main solution to the problem everywhere. Even though coyotes live very well in urban and suburuban environments, I don’t think they can exist in enough numbers to really control the cat population. That’s not because the coyotes can’t live well there. It’s just that cats, as domestic animals, can live at even higher densities in those environments than do in rural areas. In that case, the best solution is to have euthanize feral cats. In rural areas where coyotes can’t make a dent in their populations, I suggest hunting them.
I’m not an advocate of trap, neuter, and release. I’m sorry. I know that not PC.
But cats are major hazard to the ecology of so many species. They are currently the most widespread carnivore on the planet, and while they do keep pest rodent numbers in check, they have been responsible for extinctions, like the Stephens Island Wren, which once thought to have been wiped out by predation from a single cat.
Now, I think what we have to do is have a licensing system for cats. That’s going to be necessary if we are ever going to do the cat control measures that are going to be necessary. We need some way to prevent killing owned cats. Currently, only one state has a licensing system for cats, and that’s Rhode Island. When a similar bill was proposed in the West Virginia legislature, the legislators meowed at the legislator who proposed it.
However, I don’t think this is a laughing matter. We dog owners know that there are lots of laws that prevent our dogs from running at large and from trespassing on property of others. We know that a dog can be shot if it wanders on to a farmer’s property and even looks like a threat to his livestock.
In most jurisdictions, the laws for cats are far more lenient. Cats can do whatever they want. It doesn’t matter how many species they kill. Many people would like to shoot cats that kill birds and squirrels.
But because proving ownership is so hard with cats, one would be worried about doing something like that in this day and age. Consider the case of Jim Stevenson, founder of the Galveston Ornithological Society. He was tired of cats killing native bird species, so he took matters into his own hands. He shot a cat with a .22, and he was charge under a felony animal cruelty law and faced up to two years in prison. The cat was about to kill a piping plover when Stevenson shot it.
However, the prosecution said that he had shot an owned cat, even though the cat was a stray. A toll booth operator had been been feeding the cats and even providing bed for them under a bridge. The operator caught Stevenson and yelled at him. It was the operator who called the police and got the whole criminal proceedings started.
The jury could not come to a consensus on convicting Stevenson, and a mistrial was declared. And then, as a result of the Stevenson case, Texas passed a law making it illegal to kill feral cats– an incredibily stupid law.
Now, if every state would license cats, we would be able to prove ownership, and it would be okay to have cat controls. If every state would also pass laws allowing municipalities to regulate free roaming cats, we could solve this problem.
But most states and municipalities let cats have free range. Dogs do not get the same liberties. If we would start regulating cats in just a few ways we regulate dogs, we might be able to end the feral cat problem.
Otherwise, the coyotes are our only hope.
(I’m not against cat ownership. I’m against the blasted things killing all the birds and small mammals. I’m also not opposed to keeping barn cats to control rodents around agricultural enterprises. I am opposed to letting cats roam, but in my area, this problem is largely solved by Canis latrans.)
First, I love your blog. I started reading it after we were acquired by a retriever mix. I’ve 20 years experience with Borzoi and Deerhounds and this was a very different dog. I grew up with Norwegian Elkhounds and like reading your insights on them.
On to the cats. I live on 29 acres, mostly in hay. I also have 8 barn cats. We don’t cut our hay until mid Jun and I have an unbelievable variety of meadow birds. The biggest danger to our song birds is housing developments and our insistence on manicured lawns. No cover plus no food equals no birds.
Barn cats aren’t the problem. Feral cats are. I’m not opposed to having a few barn cats, especially if you have corn or grain in the barn or are growing it nearby. Rats and mice are easier for cats to catch than native animals, and they will hang out there.
And I very much agree with you on cover. In fact, I’ve been told that in parts of Ohio, the deer really are affected by coyotes, simply because the does can’t find good places to hide their fawns. No problem of that sort exists on this side of the river. What used to be farmland is now mature forest.
You might find this interesting:
http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2004/09/cats-as-predators.html
You can still keep barn cats and be ecologically sound.
My experience is that the coyotes in this area eat a lot of cats, contrary to that Wisconsin study. Maybe ours just like cat meat more.
Most Canadian cities have a mandatory registering of cats as well as dogs…although getting people to follow through is a problem. Also, the city I live in will lend out cat traps for free, and once the cat is in animal services, the owner is required to license (and pay a fee) prior to release of the cat.
I am not sure about licensing in the local rural areas, though. With the harsher Canadian winters, it is probably less likely the true feral cats would survive, that’s for sure.
My cat is an indoor cat who is trained to be leashed up (yes, this is possible!). And she is only tied up outside if I am close enough to ‘rescue’ her from dogs, other cats, kids, etc. I have lost cats from my childhood because they were used to roaming free…it’s not just what’s best for the wildlife, it is better for the cat!!
I do understand that barn cats can be a necessity, but if it is a pet, and doesn’t need to be roaming free outside, is it really worth it?
The past winter was bad enough here to reduce some of the cat population, but I’m sure it was nothing like Canada.
Here, cats are not taxed or licensed, and they can run at large. So we wind up with large numbers of feral animals, although almost always in urban and suburban areas. I’ve yet to come across any feral population in the deep woodland areas– probably because the predators won’t allow it.
People think cats are disposable. They turn them out when they tire of them– “They can take care of themselves.” And they can to certain extent, and that is precisely the problem.
The argument I hear for TNR is that ‘catch and kill’ doesn’t actually affect the feral cat population much at all, because while you’re away killing the ones you catch, the rest are still reproducing. They can replace cats faster than people can neutralize them.
To be honest, the feral cat population in the U.S. is so immense (http://www.alleycat.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=650) I really don’t know what would be the best way to deal with it.
The best way to deal with it is regulate cats the way we do dogs.
In Romania, dogs were unregulated for the first decade after the fall of communism, and they have dog problems exactly as we have cat problems.
The unfortunate thing is that you would have to have massive cat control measures, and that would tick off some people. In Australia, the army was called in to kill cats. I’m not suggesting that, but something like allowing people to shoot cats on their own property is a fairly good proposition. Where I live, if a dog is caught trespassing, it can be shot. Not so with cats.
I’ve been trying to justify to people for years why I personally think the TNR program is one of those bleeding heart “I can’t get up the nerve to kill the fluffy thing myself in a safe, humane manner, so I’ll let nature do it in a cruel and (often) bloody fashion” kind of things. That is the exact same counterargument I get, is that other cats will just move in.
I like that finally this is coming out into the open. It’s the same reason us in the suburbs have a few hunters take out the excess deer (and donate the meat to the homeless shelter) rather than do the bleeding heart thing and feed them Bambi Birth Control, which isn’t even permanent. I’ve heard cities talk about doing the BC thing with pigeons, and I have a better idea that involves a pointer (or setter or cocker) and birdshot. For some reason, MAINTAINing the population at a steady-but-overcrowded number never really made sense to me as much as CULLing portions of it to a more reasonable and controllable population.
Come to think of it, can we extend these policies to certain members of the human species? :P
I live in West Virginia, where the deer are so numerous and so tame that you won’t find many bleeding heart comments about killing them. When you find all of your vegetable gardens and flower beds eaten down to the root, you won’t be thinking of bambi. You’re thinking of rats with antlers. And in this economy, a deer and healthy is a cheap source of protein. The DNR gives people crop damage permits, so that nuisance deer can be killed.
As for pigeons, the pigeon sport shoots are under attack from AR fanatics, and provided they have a few weeks of quarantine and a healthy diet, can be used to train bird dogs. A pigeon is an excellent thing for a retriever pup to learn to carry, although I wouldn’t use a freshly caught city pigeon– there’s no telling what diseases they are carrying. I kept a few homing pigeons as a boy, and I liked them. However, I know that the feral pigeon is a nuisance.
Of course, you can always hope that the peregrine falcons make nests in urban areas, and then it gets interesting.
I live in NCWV, I have been decon-ing the neighborhood cats, we have strict laws as to my dog not being allowed outside, but the cats are free to tear up my garbage and spray it and make my German Shepherd bark all night. So, that is a felony? Opps?
This is the pasty white suburban area of central Ohio and despite that, I was raised with a farmer’s view about animals and the earth. It’s hard to be a dissenter in the midst of white-collar suburbia, but I know I’m not the only one out there. We joke that it took years for the city to put up “Deer Xing” signs because they didn’t want to admit that there was such wildlife HERE. Never mind that years ago, we had coyotes running through our back yard.
Honestly though, the deer aren’t the big problem, nor are even the numerous cats in this area. Since the cat next door (he kept our yard free of rodents) was PTS, it’s the rabbits. Where I used to live in Hardin county, there were cats EVERYWHERE. I hit one with my car on my way home from work one day: stopped to make sure it was dead and not suffering, had no collar, put it on the side of the road, nothing else I could do. (I’m probably a cruel soul now that I’ve said that…)
We don’t have a rabbit problem at all. They do breed up in the summer months, but as soon as the tall weeds and brush die off in the fall, the coyotes and foxes have a picnic. In the dead of winter, you rarely see a rabbit.
In the old days, we had the beagle people come by and run them, but that’s no longer necessary.
That is the whole problem. The amazing reproductive rate of feral cats. They reproduce almost as quickly as mice – but lots of creatures eat mice.
Here if you have a feral cat problem there are organisations that will come and trap and remove them. (But not kill them). My dogs have removed at least 2 cats (and I worried in case an owner came looking), but I don`t advocate Papillons as cat control.
Elizabeth
Regulate cats? not gonna happen! the cat lobby is stronger than the wild horse and gun lobby.. put together.
The cat people want (and get) it both ways: feral cats are “wild” and not subject to animal control laws such as licensing. But they are also “owned” and not subject to control as predators, pests or as regulated wildlife.
I read somewhere, but I cannot quote the exact numbers, that the pet overpopulation problem as it is exists right now is mostly a cat overpopulation problem. That’s because we dog people have accepted regulation and regulate ourselves.
oh and p.s. There are many places where if a dog kills a cat, it can be declared dangerous and be subject to being seized and destroyed.
I know. I have relatives whose dog killed a cat, and they nearly lost their homeowner’s insurance because of it.
They live in the suburbs. I live in a rural area, where cats aren’t thought of as cute, cuddly pets.
I’m not going to blast cat owners here. But it seems to me they have missed out on a bunch of memos here.
A ferret or a terrier can do the work of a cat– they are not indispensable. In fact, ferret droppings are an excellent rodent repellent.
Oh, and about the feral horses, their main advocate is T. Boone Pickens. He’s been responsible for protecting them and ending horse slaughter. Never mind that the North American grassland ecosystem is no longer suitable horse habitat– and we know this because virtually the same species of horse went extinct in North America at the end of the Pleistocene.
I will agree with you that the cat culture in this country is a bit screwy. If only because letting cats roam free outdoors without collars is still seen as pretty normal in most places still.
If we had a bounty on every cat without a collar, I think that would change.
It’s not that I even hate cats. I actually like them, but they need to have boundaries and regulations, just like every other domestic animal.
I was raised with a strong respect for our wildlife and our responsibility to manage and protect it. My dad was raised soon after the depression when your ability with a rifle or shotgun often meant the difference between meat in the pot, or a mess of wild poke salat. His interest in later life translated into protecting his quail and other game from the feral cats and he used the same shotgun.
Outside of a barn cat or two he had no tolerance for them, and I agree with that philosophy. I have had to to confine my activity to using a Havahart trap in the yard. It breaks my heart to say it’s been years since I’ve seen a covey of quail or a Meadowlark, both ground nesting birds. t’s about time I took a trip to the country, away from those damn cats, and looked some up.
I used to hear stories about bobwhite quail, but I’ve never seen a wild one in my part of West Virginia.
I blame the changing habitat more than the cats on that one. Our old farm fields are now mostly mature forest. That’s good habitat for ruffed grouse and woodcock.
But the cats have even bee known to kill turkey poults.
Now, I don’t mind gray foxes killing turkey poults. Gray foxes are native.
But an introduced Mesopotamian wildcat, well, that’s a different story.
I see we are talking cats in the comments again. More fun!
Paraphrased and combined: I actually like …..( them cats, but) …..coyotes are our only hope. LOL!
Never found out what happened to Stevenson? Probably not a good idea to think you are smarter than the state of Texas, especially if you live there.
I have to admire someone who thinks they are smarter than the government, that’s how change and improvements are made, but it isn’t usually too bright to actually do anything against it. Stevenson should NOT have shot the cat.
And using a dog as a rifle, is no excuse in Texas. Your rifle has to obey the laws, and so must your dog. The law lets cats run loose for a reason, 2 reasons really; mice and rats, or rodent control. Cities can get infested with rodents very quickly once cats are gone. The law (tries to) protect cats for a reason.
Oh, but if YOU and YOUR family want more squirrels to hunt or preserve then the law ought not apply to you? LOL.
In your “about” you say to feel free to disagree with you when you are being polemical so as to keep you honest.
Okay, I will: I think you are straying a bit off the path there with the anti-cat bit. Wouldn’t it just be better to come out of the cat-hating closet, and admit that you hate cats? just say it! You will feel better, and people wont doubt your words.
Oh, I like just about every other topic you write on, and you do write well, but cats seem to riley you up, yet keep you from coming right out and saying how you feel. Cat got your tongue?
I am opposed to any invasive species that causes extinctions.
I am against pollution, illegal poaching, and habitat destruction.
I am opposed to dogs killing native species in New Zealand and the Galapagos. I am also opposed to the vast packs of feral dogs in Romania.
I would be in favor of lethal controls in those situations.
It is a non-sequitur to discuss this from the perspective of liking species.
Coyotes are a good control on cats.
Do you think I hate ferrets?
I think ferrets should be legal and so should ferreting.
I don’t think ferrets belong running around in the woods of New Zealand, where they crossed them European polecats to make them go wild more readily. They were introduced for rabbit control.
I don’t live in New Zealand. Talk about non-sequitur!!!!! We are talking about the area YOU hunt in, and your wanting to shoot cats! New Zealand has nothing to do with it! Neither do ferrets!
And on another cat post, under discussion right now, you mention the idea of using ferrets to control farm rodents instead of cats! Now you are against both? Or you want barn ferrets but not hunting ferrets? If you are going to argue like that, bone up on your own writing first, or just admit that hatred of cats is motivating your words.
Ferrets turned out in a granary and then collected after they have ratted– that’s what I meant.
In my state, if a cat is your property, you can shoot it. Same with dogs.
If we introduced brush-tailed possums to the US and they caused as much damage, would you be saying that we should just leave them alone?
Retrieverman, I am NOT talking about any impact you might have on the Galapagos or Romania. I am wondering about your impact on your own neighborhood,
and things you might say on the web that might seem to give permission to people to shoot cats – encouraging an illeglal activity?
It is not non-sequitur to discuss your feelings about cats, if those feelings motivate your actions.
It’s not illegal to shoot cats.
It was only illegal because the cat was supposedly “owned.”
And Stevenson was acquitted.
You must live in a nuclear zone if you’re unable to acknowledged birds of prey among the tall buildings, endangered frogs living underneath the sidewalks, salamanders at the bottom of your ponds resides in your neighbourhood, the rare “pest” ground squirrel living in the city parks and so on.
Like I said, just because you never see them, doesn’t means they’re not there.
I can go out at 2AM at night, and wait for an threatened or endangered frog or salamander species crawl out of the sidewalks. If I am not actively looking for them, I wouldn’t know they were there.
I like you but your unwillingness to be honest about how you feel bothers me. You could just not mention cats.
On March 20, 2010 on the pet connection blog, a retrieverman, who writes like you do said:
“I really hate feral cats and “wild” horses”.
Was that you?
Yes. I do hate what they do.
They are like pollution.
Do you like extinction?
Do you like destroying ecosystems?
Horses may have evolved here, but they died out because of climate change at the end of the Pleistocene.
But you should know that I love horses.
I don’t like unattended horses on our public lands.
I am not a fan of feral pigs either, and I question the wisdom of my state for intentionally stocking wild boar from Europe.
Pheasants aren’t native– and they generally aren’t bad, except the pheasant hens do lay eggs in Lesser Prairie chicken nests, which prevents the hen Prairie chickens from nesting.
http://www.audubonmagazine.org/incite/incite0909.html
I am the biggest fan of Native American culture. But animals are animals. At one time North America had wooly mammoths – elephants. Yeah, it is sad the mammoths are gone, but we have deer now, and that is the way it is.
What is all this stuff about if an animal is native or not? I understand endangered species, the desire to preserve a species from extinction, the barred owls or spotted owls or whatever they are/were and the manatees and polar bears and all.
People cut back the number of bobcats, so the feral cats took the empty niches. Wolves were hunted to near extinction, so coyotes took their niche, if coyotes die off, feral dogs will take there place.
It is like in the city, where there is garbage, bird seed, and dishes of dog food, mice and sparrows thrive. You can’t have an empty niche – if nothing else flies would take their place.
You can’t turn back the hands of Time. Native animals are whatever is native now.
The ecological equivalent of a domestic cat is not a bobcat. Some populations of bobcat prey heavily on deer. Ever hear any feral cats hunting do?
Cattle are not the equivalent of bison. The various bison species evolved in northern Eurasia and colonized North America. They are able to handle both arid and frigid conditions better. Because of this, bison move a lot more as they forage. They don’t concentrate around sources of water and defecate in them month after month. And they don’t erode areas as much because they don’t stay in just once spot all the time.
Cattle are derived from south Asian ancestors (the Aurochs). They need a lot more water and are far less cold tolerant than bison are. If snow covers the grass, cattle will do poorly, because they don’t have the motor pattern that allow them to brush the snow off the grass. Bison have it. You see them knocking snow off with their beards.
Why would a cat hunting deer make it a better cat than a cat which doesn’t hunt deer?
Bobcats kill rodents, maybe some deer. Feral cats kill rodents but not deer.
It reads like the bobcat niche has been divided: people hunt it’s deer, and feral cats mop up it’s rodents.
Just like the changes from wolves hunting everything to people hunting deer, and coyotes moping up the rest.
We share the old wolf niche with coyotes, people kill the deer, coyotes get the rodents, and small stuff. Now we share the old babcat niche with feral cats, again we get the big animals and most rabbits, and the cats get the get the rodents and small stuff.
You aren’t with save-the-little-mice are you?
Animals that are native are better adapted to ecosystems. Granted, we have destroyed these ecosystems, but that is no excuse to continue do things that degrade them further– like letting all sorts of invasive species run riot over everything.
BTW, you should take your arguments to Florida and start a Save the Python campaign.
And when they get done laughing at you, you’ll see what the problem is.
Pythons are an introduced predator that is killing endangered species, just as feral cats are.
We want Burmese and African rock pythons out of there, and so if we’re being honest, we should feel the same way about feral cats.
You must really be in the mood to debate! That is just to easy. I am almost a tad insulted, a little – way way too easy, and I know you can argue better.
If native species do better in the ecosystem than introduced species, then there would be no need for people to work to get rid of the introduced animals, because the natives ones would out compete them. -too easy.
It is that the introduced ones out compete the native ones which causes the problems.
Save the python? They don’t need my help, they are doing fine!
But admit it, isn’t it just a teensy bit cool to have giant pythons in the Everglades? Would you love to go there (if it weren’t so full of blood sucking bugs) and come across a giant python?
Why have a zillion alligators, when you can have 3/4 a zillion alligators, and giant pythons, and a whole host of weird wildlife?
Wow.
HDP: you must be the dumbest human being I have ever encountered over the internet. congratulations.
If dem dere wild thingers don’t live up against dem introduced uns den dey deservins to dies!!
Seriously, you argue in circles and don’t acknowledge facts. YOU are the problem. Not the cats, not the dogs, not the birds or even the pythons and ferrets…
its YOU
and other human filth like you.
Get an education and a goddamn dictionary you deep south scum bag.
Sincerely,
a disgusted northerner
BOB WHITE
I don’t hate cats but the feral cat problem is unbelievable in some areas. You are not even allowed to protect your own property. County Gov. want help. So many people think they are harmless kitty cats. I lived in a area that was almost devoid of birds. It was perfect quail hapitat but I never heard even one whistle. The number of feral cats was incedible. After seeing the scratches on my cars & having them tear the insulation from under my mobile home where some where living. The CO. would loan me a trap but for only 1 wk. & if it was lost or STOLEN I had to pay $ 500.00. This problem has been ignored for too long.
well it’s been a while since anyone has commented but i have the same problem. i trapped our local feral cat and took him to the shelter but they said all they’ll do is T, N & R. Just found out that’s already been done so they told me ihad to re-release him back in my neighborhood but that shit is killing my baby squirrels! i’m a massive animal lover so i feel guilty and don’t know what to do…