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Conference misery::feline_v1

Title:	Meower Power is Valuing Differences
Notice:	FELINE_V1 is moving 1/11/94 5pm PST to MISERY
Moderator:	MISERY::VANZUYLEN_RO

Created:	Sun Feb 09 1986
Last Modified:	Tue Jan 11 1994
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	5089
Total number of notes:	60366

2860.0. "ANOTHER REASON TO CONTROL YOUR CAT" by IOWAIT::WILDE (Ask yourself..am I a happy cow?) Thu Sep 14 1989 13:49

One additional consideration to encourage controlling the domestic
and ferel cat population in your area:

Cats are such efficient predators that introducing them into wooded
areas or other natural wildlife refuges can endanger the balance of nature
by effectively removing certain animals from the environment.  This not
only endangers the species being hunted, but has driven out other
"natural" predators from the areas.

This was in a report on PBS a few weeks ago.  In some areas of the U.S.
southeast and on certain coastal islands where the study was taken, certain
animals are being driven out by both domestic cats which are allowed to roam
and ferel cats...even to the point of extinction.  It is easy to forget
that cats are not native to vast areas of the world and are never a 
"natural" part of these habitats.  The species most damaged by the
introduction of cats are birds, many species of which are endangered in
the U.S.

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
2860.1	Stricter Enforcement is Needed!!	COORS::Y_GREENOUGH		`Fri Sep 15 1989 18:14`	15
	I am not familiar with the term "ferel" but I do know we have a serious overpopulation of the domestic cat in Colorado. Granted, the newspaper ads to give away dogs far outnumbers the ads to give away cats in this area, however, still I always hear that hundreds of cats are destroyed at the Humane Society every week. I feel like there should be tighter enforcement and responsibility of pet owners or potential pet owners and fines for them "turning their pet over to the Humane Society" should be drastically increased so it is so expensive they will be forced to reconsider at live up to their responsibility. Maybe if they had to pay a higher price, they would think twice next time and we reduce the total number of lives destroyed every year nationwide. Yvette/Colorado Springs
2860.2		CIRCUS::KOLLING	Karen/Sweetie/Holly/Little Bit Ca.	`Fri Sep 15 1989 19:04`	4
	The problem with fineing people who turn their pets into the humane society is that then they will just dump the animals in the wild, where they will be hit by cars, starve to death, etc.
2860.3		CRUISE::NDC	Nancy Diettrich-Cunniff-I wanted it all	`Mon Sep 18 1989 07:59`	4
	Education is the key! Perhaps you can help the local humane society to get the message out. Nancy DC
2860.4	If only it were that easy.	GENIE::KRINER	Dad to 20 or 21 cats, I'm never sure	`Tue Sep 19 1989 11:56`	44
	Re .1 I like Yvette's sentiments, I only wish it worked that way. The feliners in this file are the responsible kind of people that love their pets. Then there are the people that take cats to the humane societies, giving the animal a chance to be treated humanely, and possibly find a new home. Then there are the other kind of people... (Excuse me folks, this is one of my hot buttons, I'll keep it restrained) Unfortunately, the number of cats destroyed by the humane societies represents only a small number of the total number of "unwanted" cats destroyed. A large number of people (and I use the term loosely) can't be BOTHERED with humanely taking their animals to the shelter. Several of the cats we now have, were acquired through "rescue"... Lelia, was one of six, 8 week old kittens, found taped inside a box in the dumpster at my grocery store. Isis was thrown from a moving car in a shopping center parking lot. Minx and Max were going to be put in a plastic garbage bag along with a couple of bricks, and tossed into the river, when they were rescued by the now ex-girlfriend of the guy who didn't want them (the kittens now live with us, the guy is lucky that no one will tell me who he is). There are worse cases, many cats are thrown into dog kennels at the shelter to get rid of them, there's one case in which the kitten was tortured before throwing it away, which I'd better not go into here (for my own sanity). As heartbreaking as it is to know that so many cats are killed by the humane societies, we can at least be thankful that they exist in order to help some of the poor furfaces. I'm not sure where I started going with this note, but it felt good to vent a little bit with people who share the love of cats. All we can do is to keep loving them, and teach others to love them too. Paul P.S. I know that it is illegal (at least in some states) to abandon or abuse pets. Does anyone know any details of such laws?