Thulsa Doom said:
No they are talking about ANY cat that happens to walk into their backyard. Collar or not: “any cat not under its owner's direct control, OR which does not have a collar” If a house cat slips outside and walks ten feet onto your neighbors yard then you are free to shoot the cat.
Why wouldn't a responsible pet owner provide their pet with a collar just for such circumstances? Why shouldn't cat owners be in direct control of their cat like all other pet owners are supposed to be? Too many cat owners don't exhibit any control over their pet. Mostly because they are lazy and see cats as low-maintenance animals that allow them to be irresponsible. I don't see why it's acceptable for your neighbors to deal with your pet in their yard.
Do you really think youll have hunting parties go drive out to the country looking for wild feral cats in the forest?
I don't recall saying that.
They will be shooting cats in backyards.
If the cats don't have collars, and that's where they go, you're right. They probably will.
And what a great excuse to legally kill the cats of that damn neighbor who always puts their trash half way on YOUR lawn. All you gotta do is shoot em and throw away the collar and sit on your porch and smile every time they come out of the house for the next ten years. Maybe make a few meow sounds for full effect.
Do you have some issues with your neighbor's garbage that we don't know about?
And you do realize there would be no size, season or bag limit on this. That means you could pick off kittens that come within your sites and youd be perfectly in the right despite the fact that kittens cant catch wild birds yet.
Wild kittens grow into wild cats that kill wild birds. They learn when they're kittens. Get rid of the kittens and they won't breed more wild cats.
So your solution is shoot the cats? What??
Where did I say that it was my solution? I don't recall saying that either.
Theres a MUCH better solution to this which is trap-neuter-return by groups WILLING to do this kind of stuff for the welfare of the animals and for the good of society at large.
Where are they returning wild cats to? The wild? So they can continue to kill birds? How are stray cats with no owners helping society?
Refusing to fund these groups and instead advocating shooting of any cat you see without a collar is simply disgusting.
Who's refusing to fund them? Do you fund them? Do you volunteer your time or money, considering you feel so strongly about this?
Groups like
Alley Cat Allies have been advocating for this for years but they don’t get a whole lot of funding. Killing potential pets (and yes you will certainly have plenty of legitimate pets being killed if this goes through) should really not be acceptable.
Potential pets? If you believe every stray or wild cat can be adopted as a potential pet, you have no idea how bad the overpopulation is.
Would people be as inclined to not care if they said we should be able to shoot dogs too? Under the same conditions?
No, because it is not "publicly acceptable" for a dog to roam around wherever they want. Dogs require more care and responsibility than cats do. Good dog owners are more apt to keep their animal indoors or on their own property, or at least put a collar on them. And I don't remember ever seeing a dog stalk and kill a bird.
Listen, I never said I agreed with what they're proposing. I'm playing devil's advocate because it's obvious that you're not considering the other side of the argument and posted an article that is extremely biased.
Here's what I really think. Cute furry animals or not, I think that cats should not be allowed to run around wherever they want. Whether they are pets or otherwise. If they are pets, they should have a collar even if they spend their entire lives indoors. I think a dinky collar is the least an owner can do. I think that since cats are self-reliant by nature, that they make a great pet for lazy people.
The overpopulation of cats and dogs is a problem, that we both agree on. But they have been doing the trap-neuter-adopt, education on what a pet-owner should be, spay/neuter campaigns, shelters that attempt to get these unwanted animals adopted for years and years and still the problem is as bad as ever. There needs to be a new idea. I'm not saying this is it, and I'm not saying I agree. I see merits on both sides of the issue.
Maybe if they do put this law into place, cat owners will be more responsible on what they allow their cat to do. And maybe the owners who don't really care all that much if their cat comes back from their daily jaunts won't have to worry about feeding it anymore. But what will definitely happen is that it will decrease the cat population, even if only in that state.
Believe what you want about "domestic" dogs and cats, the evidence says otherwise. I agree that there is definitely a stray pet problem, and killing may be the only effective answer. No such thing as wild/stray cats and dogs? Be realistic, we aren't smart enough to make that happen. They'll be here long after we're gone.