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Did you find yourself hip-deep in cats the last time you left the house?
No? Neither did I. But if the so-called "facts" about feline reproduction that humane organizations, animal lovers and the media spread with zeal were true, we'd need feline-resistant biohazard suits just to cross the street.
Take this statistic, once published by the Humane Society of the United States and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and still zealously spread by many local animal welfare organizations and cat spay/neuter advocacy groups: The offspring of a single unspayed cat will, within five years, add up to 420,000 cats.
Four years ago, pet columnist Gina Spadafori ran those figures past Carl Bialik, the Wall Street Journal's "Numbers Guy." He has a degree in mathematics and physics from Yale University, and his column routinely examines the basis of statistics used in the media.
"The numbers didn't add up to me," Spadafori said. "And it turns out they didn't add up, period."
If I go put in the yard and there are cats in the trees instead of squirrels and I catch a glimpse of a cat jumping out of my trashcan, and one is sitting on my bird feeder yowling, I'm just fine with that. I like cats.
It does my heart GOOD to know that people are starting to WAKE UP and catch those damn lies! This world feeds on good old fear to keep people running in dead end circles. Thank GOD the truth is beginning to come to the surface!!!!
That 240,000 is the theoretical maximum. It would never be reached in practice because an unspayed cat won't be instantly impregnated at every opportunity, and in in any case many of the kittens would not survive long enough to be counted. That being said, I'm absolutely, completely and fanatically in favor of spaying and neutering.
And javelinas. And coyotes. And scorpions. And rattlers.
But OH NO! Everybody's gotta pick on the puddy tats. I smell conspiracy from the dog people. (Though I do spay and neuter my own little fur balls.)
The dog people have good reason to harbor their hateful grudge against cats. You would too if you would have to follow some big smelly dog around three times a day watching him do it and then picking up dog poop in a plastic bag and putting it in your pocket.
Its cat envy. They look out the window and see the cat taking a dump in their garden and munching on a chipmunk and go into fits. I recommend cat therapy for all dog persons.
I don't know about the math and statistics and all that but I do think there is a crises of feral cats in many if not most communities as well as a crises in the pet cat community. Non ferals are being warehoused and euthanized, ferals are everywhere.
I'm not sure what dead end circles the fear an lies have us running in but I doubt saying - oh well they produce few numbers, we had the math wrong is going to change anything. Primarily because the people who cause the problem aren't listening, they don't give a damn about the statistics or message right or wrong.
Legislation and licensing is the only thing that's going to solve it.
I don't know about the math and statistics and all that but I do think there is a crises of feral cats in many if not most communities as well as a crises in the pet cat community. Non ferals are being warehoused and euthanized, ferals are everywhere.
I'm not sure what dead end circles the fear an lies have us running in but I doubt saying - oh well they produce few numbers, we had the math wrong is going to change anything. Primarily because the people who cause the problem aren't listening, they don't give a damn about the statistics or message right or wrong.
Legislation and licensing is the only thing that's going to solve it.
The problem is not going to be resolved through legislation. This problem, and I am speaking regarding the feral cat "problem", is so complicated, in so many ways. I admire people who trap these animals to have them speutered, because it is extremely hard and mostly unrewarding work.
Yet, I have to think and say to myself, what did these very same cats do without people interfering with them in the first place? IN MY OPINION, people are usually the reason for the problem. And you are very right, they are not listening, those people who are creating the problems. Which makes it all the harder for those of us who truly care about these cats and their welfare and who are fighting for them.
So, we go round and round, and basically get nowhere. Yet, I must believe that every little bit all of us do to help cats, will somehow, and does, make a difference. We cannot depend on legislation to fix the "cat" problem. It begins with you and me, and how we take care of our own cats, and pray that by our example others will follow suit, and also, do the right thing by helping feral cats.
The dog people have good reason to harbor their hateful grudge against cats. You would too if you would have to follow some big smelly dog around three times a day watching him do it and then picking up dog poop in a plastic bag and putting it in your pocket.
Its cat envy. They look out the window and see the cat taking a dump in their garden and munching on a chipmunk and go into fits. I recommend cat therapy for all dog persons.
Cats rule, dogs drool.
LOL@ Wilson. You do have a way with words, and you do have a way of making me laugh! Thank you!
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