iowa town shoots feral cats
courtesy carnivoraforum.com

Stray cats — the non-singing kind — are just that. Someone’s pet that slipped the surly bonds of domestication. Cities have ways of dealing with those, usually involving a shelter or pound and sometimes eventually sending them to the great scratching post in the sky if they aren’t claimed. Feral cats, though, are a whole other kettle of fish, so to speak.

We’re not talking about Aunt Betsy’s tabby that got loose. Feral cats are a  different species than domestic kitties. They’re actual wild animals that have and will attack people and domesticated animals. Which is why cities and towns develop strategies to deal with them.

One of those towns is Jefferson, Iowa.

Under a city ordinance, residents could request traps from the police department and then notify the department when the cats had been captured. The officers picked up the traps and cats and, if they’re feral, kill them.

That’s right. Jefferson cops were trained to recognize a stray pet from a wild animal. Whey someone caught a feral feline, they used parabellum power to dispatch the critters. Or they did, until an “animal welfare organization” caught wind of what was going on.

Josh Colvin with the Animal Rescue League of Iowa, said shooting the feral cats isn’t necessary.

“There are best practices out there, and this definitely is not,” Colvin told Des Moines station KCCI.

It was that kind of haranguing that caused the city to stop the practice and “review” their animal control polices.

City administrator Mike Palmer said Friday that Mayor Craig Berry told council members Tuesday that he’d discussed the practice in a meeting with officials from the Animal Protection and Education organization and the Animal Rescue League of Iowa. The decision to suspend the shooting of feral cats came soon after that.

Even in tiny Jefferson, a town with a little over 4000 people, the gears of government grind slowly.

The city review could take 18 months to complete, Berry said. In the meantime, the city is looking to temporarily house up to 30 cats and raise money for a new animal shelter.

Sounds like that’s going to cost a lot more than a few boxes of Speer Gold Dots, no? Let’s hope feral hogs don’t become a problem in Jefferson any time soon.

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134 COMMENTS

  1. Cats are killing machines…birds…mammals…insects…reptiles…amphibians…pretty much anything and everything.
    It’s what they do. and are VERY good at it.
    Keep your cats indoors if you want them safe and sound.

    • Keep your cats indoors regardless. You feed it, there is no need for it to hunt.

      “Cats that live in the wild or indoor pets allowed to roam outdoors kill from 1.4 billion to as many as 3.7 billion birds in the continental U.S. each year, says a new study that escalates a decades-old debate over the feline threat to native animals.”

      Buy it toys, torment it with a laser pointer, but keep it indoors.

      • You guys saying people need to keep their cats indoors at all times are fucking retards. Cats keep farms clean of snakes and mice, also cats are not meant to live their life in a box, I understand if you live in an apartment in the city, but you idiots that think all cats need to live indoors are hilariously unintelligent.

        • I own 3 farms with several old barns and there are nasty feral cats in the barns, and plenty of rats and mice everywhere. I wish I could get rid of these invasive songbird killing machines called cats. You are 100% wrong to believe that cats will control rats, mice, and snakes. Their preferred kills are native birds. Snakes and native predators are far and away the best rat/mice killers. Cats should not be allowed outside unattended to kill birds. Google the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Dimestic/Feral cat study and you will see it’s a scientific fact nasty cats have decimated songbirds populations in North America.

        • grew up on a farm, my brother has a sever cat allergy and nearly died from feral cats moving into our barn.
          strange thing is, when they were there , the rat problem got worse. The only thing I could figure was that they killed the snakes that used to kill the rats. I think they find birds much easier to kill than rats too.
          all cats should be kept indoors at all times .

        • Do you keep your cat on a leash? Have you trained them like you would dogs so they dont run off and will come at commands? My guess is no, you do the typical lazy human thing and open the door and when they come back they come back. My closest neighbor always let her cats outside for whatever reason and whenever I caught one stalking animals on my property it was quickly dealt with. Pretty soon I think she got the idea and no more outside cats…

        • You’re a braindead dipshit of the first order! I own a small farm in a moderately populated area where neighborhood idiots let their cats roam free. Those domestic cats spend a lot of time coming to my farm and killing chicks and ducklings as well as the wild cottontails, so I shoot the bastards! Don’t fret though, their carcasses don’t go to waste as I skin them, boil them up and feed them to my dogs and pigs, and the viscera goes to the chickens.

          Instead of planned parenthood we need planned cathood! And by the way, I have a cat, who is allowed outside regularly – BUT he has a large shiny bell on his collar that makes his presence know to the native wildlife, and he is neutered!

          The only problem vermin in this country worse than feral cats is LIBTURDS!

        • hahaha I have never heard of a cat killing a snake. I used to live more rural than I do now, and there were a shitload of cats on our property. There were also a shitload of snakes, mice, and other things cats are supposed to kill. I guess they forgot to learn how to take care of that?

      • I read a similar statistic from a bird-watching group in England a decade or so ago, to which some one replied, and I will update it for your U.S. figures:

        “Do we really need another 3 billion birds in this country?”

        • My cat has no shortage of food, water, toys, or attention. She’s still a beautiful walking death merchant who views my bird feeders as her own personal vending machines. Its not possible to subdue those instincts if they want out.

      • I find copperheads everywhere, except where the barn cats are. Not to mention birds aren’t doing shit to keep the pest population down and they spread a laundry list of diseases. I got bit my a rat earlier in the year, yay, another bill!

        There is also a distinct lack of grass hoppers and locust where the cats are.

    • It is interesting to see everyone’s “cat hating/anti cat” statements. (Which I pretty much agree with)

      On the other hand, I wonder if a lot of folks would be freaking out if the same thing was done with feral dogs. (and it probably should)

      I don’t have a dog in this fight. We have both a cat and a dog, like them both, and always keep the cat inside.

      • My basset hound would never run away from home. He’s a big blubbering baby. In fact, he’s blubbering at me right now trying to get me to give him some steak.

        If a feral dog came after me and I had no other choice, I’d shoot it, same as a coyote or a wolf.

      • I have both as pets, and no sympathy for feral animals… or people for that matter.

        Oftentimes, feral cats are not native to an area, especially in the numbers caused by people. So once again we have some stupid hippy do-gooder who is willing to mess up an entire ecosystem just for feelz.

        • And some actually feed them outside while keeping their housecat in. My mother is one such example.
          Imagine my sheer, outright laugh in your face delight when she called one evening to report a possum eating the food she had put out for the damned feral cats.
          She stopped that practice when I advised the baseball bat remedy.

        • When I had a house in Tacoma I was visited by a single feral cat every day or so. He seemed friendly and would sit at the back door staring into the house, but my indoor cat was a bit territorial so opening the door was obviously not an option. I did slip him a little food now and then, especially in the winter, and made a nice warm box for him to sleep in.

          I bring this up because I named the cat Mitch, short for Michelin, since he was my “spare” cat.

          I should point out that the rat and raccoon problem in my yard went away about this time.

        • FrmrDave : “She stopped that practice when I advised the baseball bat remedy.”

          Which practice would that be: feeding the cats, or calling you for advice?

      • Take a trip to the Havasupai reservation in Arizona (it has some absolutely beautiful waterfalls). There are packs of semi-wild dogs all over the place. When I was there the dogs looked about one meal away from turning on the campers. I saw a few dozen of them fighting over the corpse of a luggage horse that fell while navigating the switchbacks between the valley and the parking lot. And of course, being an Indian reservation, guns are illegal (I of course complied with that law while there).

        It’s also a good example of how the welfare state destroys a culture.

      • Feral dogs are just as bad. As a hunter I do my share by shooting feral dogs in the areas I hunt or around my farm, I’ve even shot neighbor’s dogs who I caught trying to or having killed my farm animals. It’s not even the feral or pet cats and dogs that are the problem, it is the brainless pet owners and activists that think these animals belong running loose!

        Instead of euthanizing these animals with chemicals, they should be sent to rendering plants to make dog and cat food from them!

      • Any elected official supporting a kill on sight policy for cats, dogs, wolves, coyotes, would not receive my vote and would not receive any further donations from me. Legitimate pests like bobcats and hogs that fences can’t keep out, sure, bombs away.

        The biggest problem is the pet owners, as much as I hate expanding government, we need a pet owner license and the ID number needs to be chipped to every pet. Failure to do this should result in a several thousand dollar fine that will turn heads. When you hold people responsible, the problem will clear up.

        This absolutely needs to be enforced on fucking ranchers that refuse to maintain their fences, are too old to raise cattle, and otherwise let their cows escape and terrorize the countryside. Make inaction more financially painful than action and responsibility.

        • oh no, I do infact hate expanding the government, but in reality its often necessary to do things that are utterly detestable.

          People have had decades to police themselves, they either can’t or wont do it, so now we need someone to do it for them. When people want to be responsible again, you can ditch the license. People get the government they deserve.

    • I have a much more cost effective and less man power draining solution. Release a bunch of hungry Coyotes in the town. That’ll wrap up the problem quite quickly.

        • In 25 years of being in Texas, I have never seen a coyote. Only one apparently came up to get cat food because some cunt shot it and didn’t kill it. I hear them as close as 75 meters but they mind their own business. I haven’t seen any missing cats either. The only annoyance is my big boofer dog wants to bark at the singing. Yotes keep the damn deer in check, along with the rabbits.

        • Cats taste like chicken. My friend Meng said so! And in Chinese food a feral tabby will make Chicken-meow-mein.

          Lots of feral cats in my neighborhood. My next door neighbor goes full Rambo on them. He hunts them late at night in the common woods with a Ruger 10/22 with suppressor, night scope and sub-sonic ammo. Wears black clothes so as to not draw attention. He’s harvested quite a few.

      • Yep, coyotes solve cat problems and don’t seem to want to interact in any way with humans, even small children. They also flee from dogs, so, fido is safe.

        • That depends on the dog.
          My current Fido (actually named Mouse) is about 18 lbs, a snack for a coyote.
          Small to medium dogs are indeed at risk from coyotes.

      • As is also the case with feral dogs, feral cats are a rabies threat to you and to your other animals, plain and simple.

    • Pets should have their population controlled and so should people.

      Overpopulation of anything leads to it’s steep and rapid decline.

      Pet cats should be kept indoors or in a fenced enclosure–for their own safety.

      But the only studies I have seen where people collected the animals brought to them by their cats showed that they mostly kill small mammals and insects–not birds.

      My own experience is that while some of mine would catch birds, they were far more likely to catch shrews, mice, moles, rabbits, and squirrels. Preferring to eat them later. Birds usually get caught by flying into the cat’s cage.

      But execution is not the only way to deal with feral cats and many cities deal with them humanely. More humanely than they deal with homeless humans.

  2. Take those feral cats to Josh Colvin’s home and let him deal with them. Maybe next time he will STFU.

  4. If the animal rights folks are so concerned, they should take the cats and deal with them. The city admin should have said “Fine, we’ll catch ’em – You take ’em. Within 24hrs or we deal with ’em.” The city had a working solution at minimal cost and suffering. Let the Mr Colvin bear the cost. Besides I’ve had a few pets put down by the vet and in one case a bullet would have been more humane, given the suffering the animal went through on the way to the vet.

  5. When I moved out to the Farm I had a fair amount of feral cats running around, now it seems the coyotes have taken care of ’em.

  6. I have two cats–one born feral–that I never, ever, allow outside. OTOH, I wish there was a colony of feral cats–or almost any other feral predators–nearby to deal with all the rabbits that devour everything in my yard. Killing feral cats just seems stupid–they help keep down REAL pests.

    BTW, it’s OK to actually read articles that you link. I followed the link associated with the stated claim that “Feral cats are a different species than domestic kitties.” That claim is listed as a “myth”–DUH! What that article actually states is: “the only difference between feral cats and domestic cats is the way they behave.”

  7. “Feral cats are a different species than domestic kitties.”

    Are you clinically or colloquially retarded?

  8. The cat in that picture appears to be saying “You’re next, pal.”

    Cats – those adorable fluffy creatures that will purr happily while they plot your demise…

    • I must be a bigger asshole, given I’d have gone on to suggest that if shooting the feral cats wasn’t an option that drowning them in the traps would be a good Plan B…

      I’ll consider myself in good company, or maybe in the “assholes” scene from Spaceballs.

        • Awwww, why you say hurtful things? So unnecessary, much like wasting money doing anything other than killing feral cats in the most expeditious and humane way possible.

  10. Feral cats in Australia cause massive damage. There is no way to rehabilitate them to domestic.

    I always found the best way to empty a trap was .22 subsonic. In the wild at night .223 with spotlight.

  12. Less mice, rats and bird crap on the car is a good thing . GO CATS!!!!!! F THE lazy cops & town too cheap to call the Spca.

    • Funny you should say that. I frame off restored a 1968 Chevrolet in 2009 and feral cats walked all over it and put some deep scratches in the hood about 2 weeks after it was done. Not a fan.

    • SPCA would just kill them. Domesticated cats can go to a home, feral cats and humans don’t mix.

  13. Shooting them seems a waste. No Vietnamese restaurants nearby I’m guessing?

    Seriously people, show a little responsibility for your pets and livestock. If no one takes responsibility, it’s just a wild animal and you can’t get upset when someone shoots an non-native invasive pest.

    • You can be a dick about it, tiger. But for folks that have actually experienced feral cats it goes like this. They wipe out quail, rabbits and other small, native animals in the area. And I do mean wipe out. And they help to spread rabies.

      So protect your much loved ferals and insult those trying to deal with them. And watch them create a wasteland wherever they are.

      • I bet hes never had to clean cat from his engine compartment after Tabby crawled up their to stay warm in February and you started the engine and surprised him

        • Many times has this has happened here. Block heaters on diesels make it an even bigger issue. I’ve got to where I raise the hood a couple inches when I park so I have to shut it in the morning, thereby scaring the bastards out and avoiding what can be quite costly in terms of repairs.

        • That happened to my brother-in-law. Cat was killed instantly, engine took a fair amount of damage (one of the belts, IIRC).

      • “Public health policies all over the country reflect the scientific evidence: feral cats live healthy lives outdoors and don’t spread disease to people. But advocates of catch and kill programs continue to justify this cruel practice by insisting that feral cats represent a threat to public health and that they do spread disease. “There’s simply no evidence to back up these claims,” says Deborah L. Ackerman, M.S., Ph.D., an adjunct associate professor of epidemiology at the UCLA School of Public Health.”

        https://www.alleycat.org/resources/feral-cats-and-the-public-a-healthy-relationship/

        Not so dude!

        • We rented a farm for our horses. Feral cats were always showing up. While choring one day a feral cat tried to go through the door the same time I was carrying buckets of water through it. I accidentally stepped on the cat and it bit me. I was instructed to confine the cat for 14 days for observation. I was also advised that I could contract ‘Cat Scratch Fever’ (it’s a real thing) and should watch my temperature. If feral cats don’t pass rabies to humans why would I be advised to do these things.

    • Nope, the libturds have been breeding and feeding them for years and now they are becoming a nuisance again – soon the “coon” killin’ will begin! I’m goin’ trophy hunting at the nfl! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

  15. Gee and they useta’ worship cats in ancient Egypt. Sounds quite similar to the pro-coyote lunatics. Vermin dummies…vermin.

  16. In my area of cali we have a pan already inplace that takes care of feral cats

    We call it ‘the Coyote measure’ and it works!

    even works on small dogs and other tasty critters that homeowners leave out at night!

  17. Anytime I hear the term “best practices” I feel so much hatred it gives me energy.

  18. Here on the farm we have a bunch of cats. Estimated population presently about 8-10. You’ll never touch any of them, and if you did, you’d draw back a bloody stub. There is soon to be many more from the looks of about 4-5 of them. By next spring, we’ll be back to present levels thanks to coyotes and the bigger threat from above, hawks. Silent, instant death to Miss Kitty.
    My brother in law in town borrows a live trap from time to time as the ferals in town decimate his coy pond. Sometimes it’s cats, sometimes it’s coons. I have a livestock water tank that is free and reuseable indefinitely for dispatch.

    • It’s one thing to kill a pest, it is entirely another to torture it to death. If it needs to die shoot it. In town? Use a supressed .22 or a bow, or hell, even a slingshot. Torturing animals to death is one of many signs of a potential serial killer and definitely a sign of a disturbed mind. I’m fairly sure there are some fairly large fines as well as potential jail time for animal cruelty, which if a felony, well, you know what happens then….

  19. I’m sure the local farmers would disagree, but I for one would love for there to be a feral hog problem in Jefferson. That’s only 40 or so miles from here and I’d really like something I could hunt over bait in August with the land owners begging me to hunt on their land.

    • If it works like CA those hand wringing, teary eyed farmers will gladly let you ease their pig burden…….for a price.

      Here in CA we get to pay 22 bucks per pig to the state and 400-600 bucks per pig to the ‘suffering’ farmers.

      I ever hit the lottery and I’m going to establish an ‘underground’ railway for pigs. Pay to have them trapped in Texas and shipped live to CA for clandestine release.

      • Well they can keep their little piggies if that’s the case. I was thinking more on the lines of showing up with a cooler full of ice and telling the farmer if he filled it with beer we’d hunt until the beer ran out and then move on to the next farm.

      • And that is why pigs are a problem in many areas.

        If you let people treat them like game animals, there will always be pigs.

        Most hog infestations are from assholes releasing pregnant sows to hunt.

        Many states have levied stiff fines (correctly) on those found transporting pigs for release.

        Several years ago, my neighbor told that he would have sausage for me soon. He had trapped and released a pregnant sow behind my house. (He had two acres).

        I put out some corn and busted watermelons and killed her when she came. Piled on brush and lit her up. Told him he could salvage a ham when the flames dies down.

        If it is on my property, and it not mine or is not a game animal, it is a nuisance and it gets shot. My neighbors goofy lab notwithstanding.

    • Be careful for what you wish for. Unless I’m mistaken, Texas’ hog problem started with a bunch of geniuses who thought it’d be a good idea to start a hog problem so they could sell hunts. A few million hogs later, the idea is looking pretty brain dead.

      Hogs are a blast to hunt, but they cause too much damage to want.

  20. Daughter domesticated a gray 6 fingered feral cat as equine instructor at Girl Scout summer camp with cream cheese. She has domesticated three other semi- feral cats in our neighborhood. I personally think feral animals are a nuisance and we used to shoot them out on the farm.
    I get a lot of former pet now unwanted domesticated animals dumped on me nowadays. I call animal control or a rescue center and some get adopted

  21. i had just recovered the seat on my moto- ski 340 sonic. mama survived the winter by nesting in the foam with her kits. wish i’d known about calibri rounds back then.
    people set food out for these mini savages. they always will.
    tree rats have caused me way more poppity damage, chipgophers and felines are secondary vendettas.
    spring piston air could be quieter, but doesn’t attract too much attention.
    i work with a guy named bobo whose come on line to broads is, “i eat cat.” every dog…

    “kitten thinks of nothing but murder all day.”

  22. Or here in the Nevada desert, we have a big problem with coydogs. Coyote/Dog mixes that are larger than coyotes and have little fear of people. I’d have no problem eliminating then if the need arose.

  23. Our cat died at age 15. She was always fed but was an adopted stray and stayed outside much of the time. A tiny cat but with a major killer instinct for birds, bunnies, squirrels, lizards, mice, you name it. I watched a much large feral cat dispatch a rabbit its own size in the driveway across the street. Not pretty. But seriously, unless the feral cats are attacking domestic cats, what’s the problem with them? If they attack foofie dogs, they are doing society a favor. They eat the excess of birds, squirrels, and rabbits that seem to be everywhere. Meanwhile, my local jurisdiction told me that I could not dispatch a raccoon colony even with a BB gun (much less a real one) because we were within city limits. Expected me to pay a trapper to get rid of the raccoons. Don’t you love politicians always finding a way to spend other people’s money?

    • Typical city dweller nonsense. Cats are only a nuisance if they attack other cats? They kill poultry, absolutely decimate song bird populations and can take the eye out of a German Shepherd, not to mention spread disease to many other animals. Just stay in the city limits and stop worrying what us country folk do to solve problems.

  24. Feral cats are not feral pigs or even feral dogs. I have two pet cat currently… both of them were kittens I kept from a feral litter.

    I currently have 3 feral cats that live in my neighborhood. I see them on my security cameras all the time. They hurt nothing other than helping keep the rodent population down so I don’t get a bunch of mice invading my house. If I come out while they’re around they run and hide.

    If you catch them you can take them to most shelters and they’ll spay/neuter them for you for a price running free to $25 and cut the tip off one of the cat’s ears so it can be identified as a spayed/neutered feral cat in the future. Most will give them rabies vaccines too.

    This way you keep the benefits of having them around without having the kitten problem, and with spay/neutering the population is kept in check easily.

    My problem is the Raccoons… cats won’t rip a hole in your house and take up residence in your attic. But the feral cats are competition with the Raccoons, so the Raccoons only come around when they’re really desperate. I can’t shoot them because I live in town and it’s illegal to discharge a firearm. Animal Control won’t touch wild animals around here (Eastern WA). They expect you to deal with the problem yourself, but it’s illegal to transport live wild animals in WA as well, so you can’t trap them and dump them in the woods someplace, and you can’t poison them without getting sued if some neighbor’s little dog escapes their yard and eats the poison. I had one giant one that was bold enough to come up on the porch when I had the door open with only the screen door to keep him out… cost me over $100 to have him trapped and hauled off.

    If you catch one and you can drown them or build a “kill box” that you hook up to the tailpipe of your pickup truck and gas them to death. The entire time you do this you’re hoping the bleeding heart weed smoking neighbors don’t call the cops on you and press some kind of animal cruelty charges on you.

    I’ll take the feral cats any day of the week thanks.

    • Seems to me that your problem is less racoons and more your pot smoking liberal neighbors.

    • You just dont see the songbird destructiin done by cats in general (domestic and feral).

      They are the most destructive species on other species. Coyotes are next.

      Pig are destructive to other species but mostly they destroy property and habitat.

      A hog family rooted two acres on my property to the point I couldnt drive my 30hp tractor through it.

      In a planted crop, the can go through half an acre a night digging seed and/or plants.

      Releasing hogs should be criminal everywhere.

  25. If you’ve ever stepped in stray cat shit while getting in your car, I got half way to work thought “I smell shit, then spotted cat shit smeared all over my shoes, on the brake pedal, gas pedal, floor mat and my pant cuff……?
    ….. F U C K I N G H E L L !!!!!!!!!!!!! I had to go home, throw my pants and shoes in the trash, clean the shit out of my car.
    OR Step in shit again three months latter entering my house walk into the bedroom then discover I just tracked shit through my hose and smashed it in to my bedroom carpet
    G*D-D*MN MOTHERF****ING LITTLE F***ING, SH*T BAG BASTARDS!!!!!!!!!

    • try walking down the sidewalks in San Francisco.. its bum Sh!t you will have smeared all over…

      • Actually, unlike roaming neighborhood dogs, cats rarely leave feces out in the open. In fact, they are famous for digging”cat holes” and burying it. So much so that the term is widely used by backcountry backpackers, who are encouraged to do the same (unlike the aforementioned human street dwellers.

  26. There’s some feral cats around here. Momma cat is wilder then shit, the only people she’s ever sees is me. This winter got hard and I don’t know if the coyotes was after her or she couldn’t take care of the kittens she had, but she stashed one under my house. It was starving to death so I took it in. I named it Cat. They do get different then a city kitty, Cat hears a car coming down the road and she runs under the house. They’ve pretty much killed off the wild rabbits around here but I don’t eat them stinking bastards anyway. Cats pregnant now, I don’t want anymore cats, I’m hoping the owls will eat most of them……. Easy way to get rid of cats, canned tuna fish and glycol antifreeze, it’s a hard die poison though, their tongue turns blue n swells up and they go nutz until they die

    • Jesus dude, for real? What’s wrong with any of the many, MANY other instantaneous ways of killing small mammals? I have no problem with killing nuisance critters/dangerous animals/invasive species, but I’m not gonna torture them. You’re fucking pathetic

  27. Wild hogs are a real problem in some places. Some friends have a hunting lease on a large ranch and hunt almost every weekend all year round. They shoot all the hogs they see and are losing ground. They breed faster than you can hunt them down.

    They cause major damage to crops, will eat small calves and tear up yards, gardens and flower beds.

    Big boars are not good eating, little pigs are delicious.

  28. Lots and lots of cat hate here. That photo could just be a cat moving one of her kittens. Anybody actually find anything about feral cats attacking someone if they haven’t been cornered and provoked? I worry more about the raccoons and coyotes in my neighborhood.
    OTOH, I’ve seen, heard and read many stories about dogs, wild and domestic, attacking and killing people. Any feral or stray cat I’ve ever seen won’t go near a person.
    Typically, they don’t dump willy-nilly everywhere either. They’ll try to bury their mess under a bush. or cover it with leaves if possible. And if you really want to talk about nasty,
    more than once and too-late, I’ve discovered dog-poop on my shoe, after some retard let their pooch run free, or walked off, leaving pooch’s deposit on my curb-strip when no one was looking.
    As for eliminating them, several years ago one local county decided to round up and dispose of as many feral and stray cats as they could. Then they experienced a delightful explosion in the local rat population!

    DrDKW

    • Dr, look at that picture once more. The cat is an invasive species and the rabbit, not kitten, in his mouth is the victim here.

    • Dogs can be trained more easily than cats. Dogs are more responsive than cats.
      Dogs are (usually) nicer than cats.
      Dogs don’t screw up the environment like cats.
      Finally, owning multiple dogs doesn’t build up chemicals proven to cause mental health issues.

  29. Well, I’m not a fan of shooting strays, but neither do I have a solution to the problem. Cats can be extremely destructive to the environment, and unlike dogs, a feral cat cannot be tamed. They remain feral, no matter how much love you give them. If shooting them is the fastest method of reducing the population, and no other method does the job as well, then I see no reason to hassle the local police, other than to make sure they use .22lr or .22short and make the kill quick.

    • Gralnok, their lifespan in the wild is extremely short, perhaps no more
      than 2 or 3 years.

      We as cat owner (more like servants) do not permit them to leave
      the household, unless it is a fire drill.

      Domestic cats, which are in/out, have a shorter lives and may bring
      diseases back to the household.

      Remember, only you can prevent feral fires.

  30. I love both my firearms and cats!! Owners of one or both need to
    to be responsible. Feral cats exist because people are to lazy or
    cheap to insure that they are rehomed. Just drop them off the side
    of the road and they become some else problem.

    Shooting cats is just a lazy and cheap act by “controlling authorities.”

    Let’s hope that one day, the authorities do not do the same thing
    with “feral” gun owners.

    Remember, that creatures are God’s animals and should be treated
    accordingly.

      • Bob, thank you, sir.

        I laugh at these complaints about towns being overrun by cats.
        One thing for certain, ferals are not anti-gunners nor global warming
        alarmists and are self sufficient.

        What I truly worry about are actions by “feral” humans and their
        consequences.

    • Agreed. Also, people should be very careful if they are going to be that hateful towards defenseless and innocent animals and decide to take the “feral problem” into their own hands. You may run into someone that is not so defenseless or innocent that happens to like kitties. Just sayin.

  31. There have been ferral cat organizations here that trap, humanely, spay or neuter, then adopt them out strictly as barn cats.

    • EJQ, that is what Feline Rescue, of St Paul, Minnesota has done.

      As a no kilt shelter, last year we rehomed over 1000 kitties. We have
      taken in cat from out of the metro and as well as out of state.

      It does require a lot of volunteers and money to do so.

  32. ” Feral cats are a different species than domestic kitties. They’re actual wild animals that have and will attack people and domesticated animals. Which is why cities and towns develop strategies to deal with them.”

    Mr Zimmerman, your link proves just the opposite. You are an excellent
    scribe but you are no cat expert. This is not your best movement.

  33. Bloke, too many cats are not “chip” Ahoy, mate.

    Too many cheap cat owners whom do not want to
    spend the 30 to $40 bucks to chip them.

    If someone can afford a $1000 firearm, they certainly
    could give $100 to a animal shelter or chip their pet.

    It is simply, if more folks cared about animals, this
    problem could easily be mitigated.

  34. Keep you cats inside if you must have them, and don’t let dogs out unattended either.
    Domestic and feral cats destroy native bird populations and are not as good as snakes, raptors, fox, etc at killing rodents. Cats are just nasty bird killing machines if let outside.

  36. I often have a good laugh when cat haters rant against them killing baby rabbits. Many irresponsible dog owners let their dogs roam wild and dogs do indeed kill lots of game animals including deer.

    In Europe they are even starting to register the feces of dogs so that when irresponsible owners let their pets defecate on private property or on city property they trace the dog feces right back to their owners and they get big fines. I am actively encouraging this practice to be adopted here in the U.S. Civilized behavior cannot come to soon to the U.S.

    And Chicago (Czechcago) is now doing it to. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/dog-owners-beware-dna-dog-poop-could-used-track-you-down-180958596/

    • Kid, the way Chirack is losing residents
      the only ones left will be cats and dogs;
      and they do not pay taxes.

  38. “Based on the detection of an average of about 3,325 birds/square mile on the 1973 Breeding Bird Survey, Aldrich et al. (1975) estimated 9.975 billion breeding landbirds for the United States exclusive of Alaska and Hawaii, and concluded that the autumn population was probably about double that figure, or around 20 billion birds.”

    https://birdstuff.blogspot.com/2002/07/how-many-birds-are-there.html

    Up to 2/3 of all bird life are now being genocided by these insidious, murdering felines! Shoot anything that purrs!

  39. This is madness and why this liberal lunacy continues to raise it’s head in Iowa is hard to understand.

  40. Trust me. You’ll be able to tell the difference when you go up to the cage to open the door.

  41. Hello,

    I just had to chime in on this topic. Being a biologist, both in research and college level teaching for approximately 20 years, I believe that some simple education on this subject and possibly some empathy for all of Gods creatures is in order. I actually have 3 “feral” cats that I have brought into my home over the years. One was hit by a car and we nursed it back to health, another was adopted by my father and when he passed away we took her in, and a third simply showed up at my backdoor one evening and strolled on in.

    I can assure you they do not have an evil agenda, they are simply semi-domesticated animals that sometimes take up with us in our homes and bring us years of happiness. One is sitting on my lap right now, happy as a clam.

    Regards and best.

  42. Not sure where Dave got his info, but it’s incorrect about feral cats being a different species. A feral cat, by definition, is a common domestic feline not different genetically from your indoor tabby. It has simply become “feral” either because it was born to a feral queen and was never domesticated, or because it was abandoned by its previous owners and learned to survive without people on its own.
    There are also several genetically different “Wild cats” including the North American Bobcat, North American Lynx, and perhaps the “Wildcat,” (essentially a long tailed Bobcat), that are wild animals native to North America, which are much harder to domesticate (some would argue impossible to domesticate) and which are much more rare and seldom seen. The animals discussed in this article would seem, from their prevalence, to be simple feral domestic cats. Most cities are tending towards trapping and neutering them, then returning them to where they were living. Simply killing, or otherwise removing them altogether, just leads to other feral cats moving into the ecological niche they have vacated.
    I have a registered feral colony on my property, as well as an indoor only cat that used to be one of my ferals. I also have squirrels, rabbits, coons, skunks, possums, and a variety of birds. No rats or mice that I’ve seen (or seen tracks of). The feral cats have been unable to take a squirrel or rabbit, get along quite amicably with the skunks, coons, and possums (they sometimes even eat together), and only rarely manage to kill a bird (usually a dove).

    • Splendid post, Oldshooter.

      We have done a lot of discoveries in city’s codes
      and they are patiently bias against dogs and cats.

      The city code for St Paul, Minn allows for either three dogs
      or three cats and only one single bunny. Intelligent, no.

  43. I have in theory one cat, but two others regularly walk in and take over the house whenever the fancy strikes. Because my own cat is deaf (being white) and also has personality issues, she lives outside, anywhere in the neighbourhood. Most of the neighbours know her. I feed her outdoors because she freaks out when indoors. And once she has had enough, the birds all flock to her bowl and finish it off. The birds line up and glare at me if they don’t get their morning feed. The cats catch mice quite often, and the occasional slow bird, but usually fail in their hunting efforts. There is no lack of birds, and I rarely see mice. I enjoy it when a cat comes along, but they live their lives, and I live mine. I see no harm in what they do. There are more than enough birds around.

  45. Ever think they are actually a Sub-species of Wildcat ! I have 2 of them. They aren’t Domestic cats or Feral. They are North American Wildcats an unknown Sub-species.

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