Thread: Hunter Wants Open Season for Cats

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Hunter Mark Smith welcomes wild birds on to his property, but if he sees a cat, he thinks the ``invasive'' animal should be considered fair game.

The 48-year-old firefighter from La Crosse has proposed that hunters in Wisconsin make free-roaming domestic cats an ``unprotected species'' that could be shot at will by anyone with a small-game license.

His proposal will be placed before hunters on April 11 at the Wisconsin Conservation Congress spring hearings in each of the state's 72 counties. ``I get up in the morning and if there's new snow, there's cat tracks under my bird feeder ... I look at them as an invasive species, plain and simple,'' Smith said.


Smith's proposal has horrified cat lovers, but is seen by others as a way to stop cats from killing wild birds. University of Wisconsin-Madison wildlife ecology professor Stanley Temple, who trapped more than 100 cats and analyzed their stomach contents during a four-year study, has estimated that between 7.8 million and 219 million birds are killed by rural cats in Wisconsin each year.

``It's obviously a very controversial proposal,'' Temple said, but added, ``I think there really is a basis for having a debate about it.''


The Conservation Congress is a five-member elected body whose duty is to advise the Department of Natural Resources and the Legislature on natural resources issues.


DNR attorney Tim Andryk said the vote would simply be ``an advisory recommendation'' to state lawmakers. ``We (the DNR) don't have authority to regulate domestic animals. Legislation would have to be passed to accomplish this,'' Andryk said. ``You might also have to amend laws relating to abuse of domestic animals.''


But Temple said he thinks legislation is not needed. He said the department does have the authority to declare rural cats an unprotected species - because unclaimed cats can be considered nonnative wildlife species like house mice, Norway rats, pigeons and starlings. ``If they are not a pet, if somebody doesn't claim ownership, they become a nonnative wildlife species and not entitled to protection by the state,'' he said.


Cat enthusiasts Cheryl Balazs, Ted O'Donnell and Adam Bauknecht are trying to organize opposition to Smith's proposal. O'Donnell, a co-owner of MadCat Pet Supplies, recently set up a Web site, dontshootthecat.com, to inform people about it.


O'Donnell said Smith's proposal ``is a callous response'' to the problem of cats preying on wild birds. ``There's more humane solutions,'' he said. ``We as citizens should step up and solve the problem humanely.''


Sheri Carr, senior humane officer at the Dane County Humane Society, said the group has not yet taken a position on the proposal, but wants cat owners to abide by their local ordinances and not let their animals roam. ``I would hate to think that tame, owned cats who happen to slip out would be at risk of being deemed a wild, unprotected species,'' Carr said. ``It's a delicate (ecological) balance out there, but does that mean people should be able to shoot their neighbor's cat? Probably not.''


On the NEt : Information from: Wisconsin State Journal, http://www.wisconsinstatejournal.com



03/07/05 13:49

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/sto...1349587729.htm

Wis. Considers Legalizing Cat Hunting

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Feline lovers holding pictures of cats, clutching stuffed animals and wearing whiskers faced-off against hundreds of hunters at meetings around Wisconsin to voice their opinion on whether to legalize cat hunting.

Residents in 72 counties were asked whether free-roaming cats - including any domestic cat that isn't under the owner's direct control or any cat without a collar - should be listed as an unprotected species. If listed as so, the cats could be hunted.

The proposal was one of several dozen included in a spring vote on hunting and fishing issues held by the Wisconsin Conservation Congress. The results, only advisory, get forwarded to the state Natural Resources Board.

Statewide results were expected Tuesday.


La Crosse firefighter Mark Smith, 48, helped spearhead the cat-hunting proposal. He wants Wisconsin to declare free-roaming wild cats an unprotected species, just like skunks or gophers. Anyone with a small-game license could shoot the cats at will.


At least two other upper Midwestern states, South Dakota and Minnesota, allow wild cats to be shot - and have for decades. Minnesota defines a wild, or feral, cat as one with no collar that does not show friendly behavior, said Kevin Kyle with that state's Department of Natural Resources.


Every year in Wisconsin alone, an estimated 2 million wild cats kill 47 million to 139 million songbirds, according to state officials. Despite the astounding numbers, Smith's plan has been met with fierce opposition from cat lovers.


Critics of Smith's idea organized Wisconsin Cat-Action Team and developed a Web site - dontshootthecat.com. Some argue it is better to trap wild cats, spay or neuter them, before releasing them.


In Madison, about 1,200 people attended the Monday evening meeting at the Alliant Center - more than the 250 or so in a typical year, but less than the 3,000 or so who took part in a debate in 2000 over whether to allow hunters to shoot mourning doves.


One of the attendees was Katy Francis, who wore cat ears, whiskers, a cat nose and a sign that read, ``Too Cute to Kill.'' For Francis, ``The cat hunting thing brought me out because it was very extreme.''


http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/...0050409CODZ115


On the Net:


Conservation Congress: http://dnr.wi.gov/org/nrboard/congress/


Wisconsin Cat-Action Team: http://www.dontshootthecat.com



04/12/05 08:07

I think it would be the most humane solution. Before anyone starts fireing at me know that I am a HUGE animal lover, that's WHY I say that. If you have lived in the country and seen the dogs and cats that run wild, slowly starving becomming diseased, and breeding rampantly then you know what I mean. Anytime you have an imbalance in species, like what is going on with the cats there, it WILL affect the wildlife in the area. So it is very possible that they cats could wipe out some species of birds and small rodents as well.

Originally Posted by janelle

News flash---people spend more on their domesticated cats then they ever will on wild bird food and accesories. Tell the madcat people to get the pet shops in to fight that law. It won't pass. And who says cats are exterminating bird species? Geesh.

Bigger news flash....my DH spends anywhere from $100.00-$150.00 a WEEK on his wild birds...we have 3 dogs and they are cheaper to feed then wild birds. I am NOT a huge fan of cats but wouldn't never shoot one nor allow my DH or anyone shoot them on my property. Something should be done to control the cats from breeding, its cruel to allow them to just populate and starve to death. If treating them like they are wild then shooting them would be the kindest thing. Its just a shame that people dump their animals like that. I just know that they need to do something, just don't know the answer.

Yankee Mary, there is a concern that these feral cats are causing more problems because they are killing off the wild bird population. They do not want to kill domestic cats but those who are carrying disease and feral. NPR did an entire story on this last week. Yes, there are people who object but at the same time these animals were not meant to live in the wild.

Originally Posted by schsa

Yankee Mary, there is a concern that these feral cats are causing more problems because they are killing off the wild bird population. They do not want to kill domestic cats but those who are carrying disease and feral. NPR did an entire story on this last week. Yes, there are people who object but at the same time these animals were not meant to live in the wild.

I wish I could have seen that program. My DH would freak if the wild bird population was endangered.

WISCONSIN SETS HUMANITY BACK WITH PROPOSED POLICY ON FERAL CATS
April 20, 2005
By Georgie Anne Geyer

WASHINGTON -- It is not the cat that has been let out of the bag in events in Wisconsin over the last two weeks, but something far more feral -- the increasing unwillingness of many Americans to act humanely toward animals.


It may be, as Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle has said, that the state will not pass proposed legislation making it legal to shoot cats. But that will never hide the degree to which this shameful episode has revealed the cruel underside of too many "humans" in America.


What will happen if such legislation -- now encouraged by votes across the state at county levels -- comes to pass? I'll tell you what will happen:


Cats will be half-killed and left to die or suffer indefinitely. Beloved house cats who happen to get out of their houses will be shot. Undisciplined or cruel children will torture animals and even skin them, assured they are protected by the law. Some ethnic groups will eat them -- after all, cats and dogs are widely eaten all over Asia, and there are many Wisconsinites of Oriental birth.


Perhaps most awful, a generalized attitude will come into the state -- and then perhaps into the nation -- that it is all right to shoot animals that most civilized people consider pets, and to turn back the centuries of humane -- and humanizing -- work of responsible men and women with animals.


All right, let's be fair: What is the other side of the story?


There seem to be roughly three groups in Wisconsin that supported the advisory votes -- and they are still advisory -- to take cats out of the protected species designation. These are: 1) People motivated by the fact that feral or wild cats kill millions of songbirds and other small animals; 2) people who find them a general nuisance or hate cats; and 3) people who just like to kill small animals for sport or the "joy" of it.


State officials estimate that as many as 2 million wild or feral cats roam Wisconsin and that they kill between 47 million and 139 million songbirds a year. But what was shocking to many animal-lovers was that this issue -- over the animal that is the No. 1 favorite pet of Americans -- received such widespread support.


In meetings in 72 Wisconsin counties within the last two weeks, about 57 percent of those who attended supported the advised change, which would still have to go to the state legislature and then get the governor's signature. But there is an entire world of organizations, beginning with The Humane Society of the United States, that has taken steps to solve the problem of feral cats in the most humane manner. Contrary to the thinking in Wisconsin, these groups are not at all against controlling the feral cat population; they just want it done in responsible ways.


There are innovative and successful programs in place all over the country where feral cats are humanely euthanized, where they are captured, spayed and neutered and let out again (no more rise in population), where lost domestic cats are taken back to homes, and where responsible households take in abandoned cats or kittens, nurture them and find them homes. But what was so disturbing about the Wisconsin news is that such a civilized approach apparently never came up in those meetings. The only approach was, "Shoot to kill! Get the cats!"


Indeed, the Wisconsin animal-protection attitude becomes even more distasteful when one realizes that the state's cat-hunting scandal comes on the heels of the mourning dove hunt set for Sept. 1 for 60 days. Each hunter is legally allowed to shoot up to 15 birds a day.


Mourning doves? The most beautiful, harmless, sweet creatures in the world? They are birds that offer no food for humankind, and they bother no one. The hunters, perhaps the same ones who complain about cats killing birds, want to shoot the doves for moving target practice.


Wisconsin was always such a progressive state -- what has happened to it? Has it, too, been taken into the cruel mood of so much of the country? Have our institutions for the humane treatment of animals given way to uneducated, unfeeling slaughter?


The great anthropologist Margaret Mead said she rated the level of civilization of societies by the way their men treated their women. Today we can rate that by the manner in which we treat the vulnerable animals God put in our midst to nurture and protect.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...&e=14&ncid=742