Trap/neuter/release debate (cats) - Page 3

Renofan, thank you for the info, I'll let her know!

Hope this dog finds a home.

Moons, we do that around here. Wild cats get trapped then taken to the vet to get shots and fixed. There's 2 vets to choose from here who do it free of charge if you turn the cats loose at a backside racetrack. Just thought I'd mention it.

In reality, these wild cats all become friendly once fed and in the barns for awhile. I think altering them makes all the difference. Then usually people who visit the backside and need a good mouser they pick and choose from these free of charge also. If you ever get a pass to visit a backside racetrack, there is always more cats running around than horses stalled. It's also another way to spook proof a racehorse.

I think it's a great idea. JMO.

OGBS,
Peta can kill all the dogs and cats they please, as long as they stop trying to legislate over everyone else.
They are radicals and want the rest of us to be under their rule.
This argument is very similar to the abortion issue with similar radical methods of operation and similar motives driven by emotion and much propaganda.

Jackal,
Bold letters don't impress me.
Tell me, once this so called niche is filled, where do the extra cats go?
This works?   Where?
Maybe in a city where there is no wild life to be harmed, but in the open country the niche you speak of already belongs to native species.
I don't see this being less expensive either.
Cats are domestic, same as dogs, would you release dogs into the wild?
Invasive species are already in places they do not belong at a great price to those environments.

BabyEagle,
A farm, a stable, how many cats can inhabit a place before they over run it?
How many can be released in a given area before they move on to other territories in search of more food and space?
Searching out a new niche.

Some of this thinking makes no sense to me at all.
Then again, neither do most humans I encounter.

Not in bold letters,
Moons.

Moons, if altered cats over run a 30 barn (40 horses each barn) area .. believe me it's a good thing concidering there's tens of thousands of pounds of grain and horse feed stored. Without the cats, there would be far more disease with rats and mice over running the place and contaminating the feed. Even the skunks keep the population of mice and rats away from the barns. Before the Vets would do this, almost every barn would have contaminated feed with each bag chewed open the night after feed deliveries. Who wants to feed their horses mice and rat crap after paying top dollar for feed ?

I think it's a good thing. Concidering horses forage backside, shedside and in shedrow ... D-CON isn't an option. JMO.

I agree BabyEagle,
But thats not what I take issue with.

"Moon's,
You crack me up! Again your views on the cat issue coincide with PETA."

That's ridiculous.  You don't know what you're talking about.  Moons is saying the opposite of PETA.  PETA thinks that dogs and cats SHOULD be returned to the wild, that most of them will die, but then we'll be back to the "balance of nature" as it was intended.  PETA would never say, as Moons did, "But why return them into the wild to fend for themselves? Thats cruel in itself."  PETA wants to do exactly that.

Sorry to hijack the thread, but couldn't let that pass.

Moons, the feral cat problem is a suburban problem, too. It is as Jackal describes, probably the kindest and cost efficient way of dealing with the overpopulation of homeless cats. The life of a feral cat is not great or very long. They generally do not make good pets. Some cats are super killers, true and can be murder on the songbirds, an animal I gather, you much prefer. It is not a perfect solution but preferable to poison and random killings by irate gardener's and the like.

The niche theory is used in deer population management debates, too, by the way.

Bold letters don't impress me. (Two moons)

I happen to like using bold as a way of showing who one is addressing, otherwise it gets confusing when there are a variety of posters all chatting to each other in a thread.  I use italic if I'm quoting someone, too, just to make things a little clearer.  It wasn't intended as some sort of crack at you or anyone else.  If this board had a "quote box" option I'd use that instead, but since it doesn't I'm just trying to use different font styles to make my posts a little clearer. 

Tell me, once this so called niche is filled, where do the extra cats go? (Two moons)

They move into occupied territory, or starve, or are predated,  or die from exposure or disease just like any other animal left to fend for itself -- but if they move into adjacent territory they can't breed because there aren't any fertile partners available.  This really does help keep feral populations in check. 

As for the rest, yes, they are a plague on the environment, but keeping a population of non-reproducing individuals relatively stable has less of an impact than continual boom-bust cycles.  There are only two other alternatives: do nothing, and let the animals overpopulate, decimate the environment, and generally suffer bitterly from starvation and disease before numbers crash and the balloon again, or sink endless funds and manpower into a continual cycle of eradication (which I can promise you most agencies don't have the ability or the desire to do).  The middle path between these extremes (neutering and re releasing) is both the most cost effective and humane, and agencies don't usually maintain feral colonies in places where they're damaging to the environment or fragile native species. The reality is that management is often a compromise where there are no completely good or right answers, and it's not just cats -- there are a host of other species (such as large mammals in game parks) where birth control is being used as a viable means of maintaining populations while conserving the environment.  At least with feral cats the managers can hope that continued education of the public will eventually stem the tide of new animals being released, at which point the feral populations would die out and the cycle would end.  The issues around maintaining endangered species of large land mammals are unfortunately much more complex and there's no end in sight (unless we allow wholesale extinction, which is another tricky ethical area).

Any updates on Heidi's situation, GSDtravels?  I hope there's someone who can take her in and find her a good permanent home.  (Also my apologies for going on about current trends in animal management in a thread that should be about helping one particular dog.  If you would like I can try to dig up some references on management techniques for you Two Moons that would answer your questions probably better than I can.)