Speaking of strays....... informal poll (eating, vaccine, domestic, cleans)

[=^..^=]

Originally Posted by Lola4

Oh my gosh, that is HORRIBLE! Horrible what the guy did to the kitties, but more horrible that people SHUNNED his young daughters at his funeral.

No one shunned his children at the funeral. No one went to his funeral that I knew of. I had never seen the neighbors so angry over anything. Only the neighborhoods kids made nasty comments to the little girls about their dad, calling him a kitten-killer. One can only imagine how those little girls felt. It died down after awhile. And sadly, he had no life insurance so his wife lost the house. She and her girls had to move back home with her mother. Later they moved into a small apartment and I didn't hear from her again. They had a beautiful home there in Queens NY before he killed the kittens and then himself.

[Ohiogirl81]

So I would like to know how many stray cats have come to your door over your lifetime.

Well, the two that now live inside our house come immediately to mind. Poor little things; it's most likely that they were the last of a litter that didn't get adopted, and were unceremoniously dumped. They were born indoors; that was apparent from the moment we brought them inside. They knew exactly what to do with food dishes, fluffy blankets and litter boxes. Good kitties!

Right now we're feeding two strays; one is an absolutely gorgeous solid grey cat that I'd love to find a home for, but he's incredibly skittish and won't go anywhere near a baited trap. The other is a randy, intact male that won't go into the trap, either. I'd love to get him into a TNR. I don't know what to do with the poor things. There are probably more cats out there, too; we just don't see them.

Let's see ... My childhood cat tolerated no other felines; the only non-human she tolerated was our neighbor's toy dachshund. She was an indoor-outdoor cat and ruled the neighborhood. So, no strays at that house.

[STLCardsBlues1989]

In the past four years, including kittens, we've had 12.

Everything worked out alright, though.

[=^..^=]

Some years more cats are dropped off than others. Most of them don't come up to the house or hang around more than a few days, even when fed. And it's sad but the predators here get some of them I'm sure. Those that become handle-able are vetted and homes found for them. But that's getting harder to do all the time with places like Craigslist full of cute little kittens almost year round. And now the chain pet stores allowing rescues to use their cage space. So few people want an older cat with an unknown history. And the cost of vetting is getting more expensive all the time. Not to mention at least two I vetted and thought, that I believed were going to good homes did not.

Of all the cats I've had dropped here only one was sick. We spent a lot of money trying to save her but had to have her euthanized in the end. It broke our hearts as we had gotten so attached to her. A sweeter gentler cat was never born. I still tear up remembering her. The rest were just generally flea bitten and wormy, thin, but not sick or diseased. A few even looked like they had come from good homes and it made us wonder why someone would decide to dump them out along a country road.

I must admit I'm quite discouraged and feel a lot of anger towards the people who dump these cats and dogs out here in the country and just drive off.

[PacificFlights]

Originally Posted by subject2change

And PacificFlights, it wasn't me asking the question, but I'd never ask anything about anything on the debate forum. I don't need everything to be cutesly but I don't need the polar opposite of that, either. For every thoughtful intelligent poster on that and the politics forum, there are 10 people with an axe to grind that have nothing civil to say.

The Deabate forum is full of those wanting to push a particular agenda but it also has people who give their gut opinions. If asking what is the best coffee while standing in a line at Starbucks, do you think you'll get those saying DD's or McCafe, or Joes Coffee shack? No you will get excatly what you want to hear that Starbucks is best. Now ask that question on any street corner and you'll get answers so diffrent it will shatter your belief in coffee.

Let me give an example, many know I own a restricted hybrid (I'm not talking designer dogs but species interbreeding). As a condition of being named it's caretaker, I have to agree to a whole set of rules and regulations. These rules and regulations were developed to protect the public from this dog. As strict as they are, there are a few people where I live theat are afraid of the animal for a whole host of reasons. I belive 99.9% of their reasons are unfounded because everything is coveed by my restrictions. heck everyone in the same boat as me can't understand their concerns. Even the Sheriffs animal investigations section think they are loons for being scared of something that can't happen. However, these people are the ones who;s opinion i value the most because they are opinions that shed a diffrent light on the situation. By knowing their opinions, I;m better able to function with this animal.

Now on the issue of killing strays and feral cats, we have (as most states have) the A.C.T. for cats. Not everyone loves cats and inorder to make sure nobody is cruel to starys and ferals, ACt was adopted.
A- Annoy. You can annoy these cats off your property through scare tactics, obsticals, chasing, and anything else.
C- Capture, you can use huimane traps to capture in a humane manner
T- Terminate. If they pose a danger to people, other animals, or physical dangers to property, you can terminate in a humane manner.
As hard as it is for many to understand the terminate option, it does exist in all states and there are people who justifiably will use that option when the other two don;t work. isn't it better to know that that can happen than to ignore it and pretend it doen;t exist?

And, i will say it again, there is no state in the USA that makes killing a feral cats or stray absolutely illegal. They may make the method illegal, they may make the manner illegal, they may make the justification illegal, but no state has an absolute prohabition on killing stray and feral cats.

[STLCardsBlues1989]

Not that I agree with it, but I know many people who have shot stray animals before. It's not fair to the animals. However, this is a poor rural area with almost nothing in the way of shelters or pounds. The pounds just put them down anyway. It's easier for some people to do it themselves. Not that I agree with it, but many people feel like they can't do anything else. They're doing the pound's job for them.

To be honest, though, I'd rather the animals get killed than dumped, because getting shot (if it's a good shot) is probably less painful than starving, getting hit by a car, or getting killed by a wild animal.

I try to save the strays that I can. I've never put one down, nor has my family. That is due to the support of my family and friends (some of whom are on this board). However, I know people who have put animals down. Often it's a case of people putting their kids needs before stray animals. Also, living in a hunting culture, finding a wooded area and a gun with a bullet is not hard. I think my grandfather has put down animals before once they were old and dying. The vet would have put them down anyway.

Life is not fair to strays, or often to animals in general. However, at least in my area, people do put animals down a lot. I hate it, but I don't have any solutions to offer them. The government doesn't give a rat's behind and we have very little in the way of rescue groups, so why should people care? I can't give people reasons, other than altruistic ones, as to why they should save animals.

Really people have to have a reason to care about animals enough to sacrifice something, because the average income here is something like $30,000 a year, though my family does alright. Sometimes desperation causes people to not treat animals like they should.

As far as terminating dangerous strays, I know people sometimes kill cats who are bothering their property or their animals. I've also known of a situation where a dog was shot because it was dangerous. Animal Control does nothing. Sometimes an animal is a danger and cannot be controlled. We think animals as small as cats cannot do harm, but they can on occasion, more to property than people. Cats find a way to survive, but sometimes they get in the way of people.

[Wilson513]

There are mentally defective people who shoot cats. We all know that. There are also drooling idiots who eat their own feces and procreate with their kin. Let's put these demented people out of our minds and consider the higher aspirations of mankind: Feral cats are no more a risk to society than feral squirrels and feral possum. Let's all agree to support the feral cat communites and encourage their expansion.

[STLCardsBlues1989]

Originally Posted by =^..^=

I assume by "real world" you mean you kill them in some way rather than take them to a shelter. May I ask which debate forum here on city-data?

We all know cruel heartless people, sociopaths and psychopaths will drown, poison and shoot them, that's nothing new. Look what that kind of person does to his or her fellow human beings. But posts like that really don't belong here on a pet forum where people are not usually heartless sociopaths.

I wouldn't say people who put down strays are sociopaths. It's wrong, yes, but when you have an area with poverty and an uncontrollable number of strays, many people take matters into their own hands. In my area we don't even have a pound, so many people do what the pound would do anyway (meaning to put them down). I couldn't do it myself, but I know people who have. I don't like it, but I have to try not to think about it. If I shun all of those who have done it some of my best friends would no longer be my friends.

That said, many times people can take an animal to a shelter or can help the animal when they choose not to. That's a different issue. However, when it comes to desperate situations, especially when they feel financially helpless, people do things they normally would not do, both to animals and humans.

Originally Posted by =^..^=

Snips

Gotcha. A similar thing happened where my mother lived. The neighborhood went through a Renaissance of it's own and the cats were pushed out. Today you don't see a stray cat anywhere in that section of NYC.

Karma? I wish all those who cruelly kill cats would meet the same fate of one of my neighbors when I lived in NY. The man found a littler of kittens in his window well. He put them in a trashcan and added a foot of water. By the time a neighbor realized what was happening and intervened, the babies were dead. The neighbors were horrified and we let him know what we though of him, then shunned him. He acted surprised that anyone would care about these kittens. He became very depressed but must have had some other problems as well.... being shunned and ignored may have been the last straw. His three little daughters found out what he did to the kittens. They were lovely little girls all under 10 at the time.

One night he went down in the basement of his home and commit suicide. As I recall not one neighbor went to the nearby funeral parlor and that included us.

That's a little harsh isn't it? Sure he needs to know it wasn't right, but I would still go to the funeral if I knew him well. It's not the girls' fault that their Dad did something cruel.

That said, I know a lot of people that have put down cats. I don't like it, but I probably am somewhat thick-skinned to it. You have to be to a certain extent, even if it is horrible. If I cried over every stray that didn't get a good home I would never stop crying, so as much as I love animals I do sometimes have to accept the facts the way they are. At the present time I can't really judge that much those who do put down animals themselves, because I know financially there's not much they can do for the animal and the pounds/shelters are no help. The shelters we do have are full. If people have to choose between their kids needs and their animals needs, even when it comes to pets, they will choose their kids most of the time.

Financial desperation causes people to do bad things sometimes. People here generally don't give much thought to animal rights. Even if they did, they can't do much, as vet care is usually cost prohibitive and nobody wants animals, at least not enough for all of the ones that need homes. People don't have an extra $150 to spay a stray female, so they often kill it. That is horrible, but it does avoid more stray litters. If spaying/neutering were less expensive more people around here would probably do it. Much of the time they feel helpless.

[subject2change]

PF, I like talking to people with opinions different than my own. Hopefully we both learn something. I just don't like doing it on internet forums where so many people are more interested in bashing than discussing. It's bad for my stress levels.
Do you have a link to state laws on ferals? Tried to find something and couldn't.

[=^..^=]

Originally Posted by Wilson513

Feral cats are no more a risk to society than feral squirrels and feral possum. Let's all agree to support the feral cat communites and encourage their expansion.

Snip.

I agree completely. In my entire life I never even heard of a feral cat costing someone their life, or their livelihood, or their sanity......... let them live.