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I could possibly understand the danger of feral dogs, but what danger to humans do feral cats present? At the very least they can help control white-footed mice, which are a vector for deer ticks.
how bout 2.4 million birds annually?
Cats #1 Threat to Birds
Predation by domestic cats is the number-one direct, human-caused threat to birds in the United States and Canada.
In the United States alone, outdoor cats kill approximately 2.4 billion birds every year. Although this number may seem unbelievable, it represents the combined impact of tens of millions of outdoor cats. Each outdoor cat plays a part.
Everyone I know here in Texas who has acreage of any size kills feral dogs and cats on sight. The dogs are dangerous to livestock, and more likely than coyotes to attack humans, especially if you run across them in the woods. Since gunshots are common year round, no one cares what you are shooting at.
Where do you live in Texas? I live on 50+ acres in Central Texas, surrounded by about 500+ acres, and I do not shoot dogs OR coyotes and have no problems. Don't know anyone who does, though if a dog pack was actually attacking livestock, I'd have no problem with someone else doing it or doing it myself.
Oh, and I grew up on 800 acres in East Texas, plus there's the family farm there in another town (been in the family since the late 1800's) - none of that there, either.
They usually have 5 or 6 cats around their house that are spayed/neutered and have their shots. No one wants another bunch of cats with no shots, not fixed, and who knows what diseases, running around the property. Feral cats are vermin, especially in rural areas where they predate on desirable species. And, no one has time to trap, neuter, and return a dozen or more cats.
They weren't necessarily dumped. Some of them are the offspring of already feral dogs.
I wouldn't use anti-freeze, but I am not going to do anything to feral cats except try to get rid of them. They aren't special at all.
Exactly
We live on acreage a couple of miles from I35, and our house is a quarter mile from the road. That has made us a prime place for pond scum to dump cats they don't want. Yes, we don't want 900 sick cats wandering around, so we took each and every one to the vet to be fixed and get their shots. At that point, they were suddenly magically ours (we had 10 at one point - that was when we had enough livestock to need that many barn cats to help the rat snakes keep the rodent population in check). We've never had a dog dumped - thought we did once but it had wandered over from the neighbor's - new neighbor, new dog - and we simply sent it home.
We also have our ag wildlife valuation specializing in song birds, so we keep an eye on such things. We have at some times of the year literally thousands of birds. Most times, going outside during the day sounds like bird Grand Central Station.
There are also shelters that come and collect feral cats (trap them), even in the country, and fix them and vaccinate them and then return them to be barn cats or whatever, or adopt them out for rodent control.
A guy in my rural hometown was just convicted on two felony counts of animal cruelty in August for gunning down two dogs running at large. They belonged to a neighbor, but were running through his property. He wasn't being attacked, nor was his livestock, and now he's a felon.
When we were farming and domestic dogs got dumped - they often packed up and could be a dangernot only to someone’s well cared for dog but to the livestock.
There was no such thing as animal control people, in the rurals back then, and there still isn’t, so farmers would hunt the packs down and shoot them. Did they enjoy that? H*** no but they couldn’t afford to lose their livestock either.
And while we’re on the subject of inhuman — this is to all the women doing their share of complaining on this thread, that are taking Premarin. Not all of you are but I’ll just bet some are and you have NO CLUE where it comes from.
The act of collecting the urine from a pregnant mare is heinous and what happens to the babies is even worse. AND, the mares aren’t even allowed to lay down for the birthing process.
and it will make you think shooting a pack of domestic gone wild dogs is not so bad after all. Which those dogs wouldn’t be in that predicament had they not been dumped by some tripe of a human. I don’t advocate shooting the dogs I. This day and age but if there is no other choice, there’s no other choice.
There IS a choice where the collection of mare urine for the drug Premarin is concerned. Stop using it and find something else———-
You know, when PETA (damn their eyes) first put out that premarin nonsense in the 1990's, they sent an article to all the magazines. Several women's magazines printed it as submitted without checking the facts. Two magazines, Western Horseman and The Horse (a publication about equine health), on the other hand, actually sent people WITH A CLUE ABOUT HORSES to visit the farms and did articles, with photos, on what they found. The AAEP (American Association of Equine Practitioners - veterinary association) and the Canadian equivalent likewise sent veterinarians to visit ALL the PMU farms to check things out. You know what they found? Nothing like what PETA was claiming - the exact opposite, in fact. The veterinarians said that there was a little room for improvement, but that there was ALWAYS room for improvement at ANY equine facility of ANY kind they visited, and that the PMU farmers were some of the most caring, educated horse people they had had the pleasure of meeting. The room for improvement was written up and given to the company manufacturing Premarin with whom the PMU farmers had their contracts, and it was written into the contract - violate it and you get your contract pulled.
When I read the first article put out by PETA, in Woman's Day, I think it was, as a concerned horsewoman I called PETA headquarters to get more information so that I wouldn't sound like an idiot when passing it on. I asked the person answering the phone for their documentation so that I would have it to provide to anyone I told about it. "It's in the article," was the response. "No, your claim is in the article. I'm talking about documentation of the facts you have to back up that claim." We said it - that's our documentation." "No, again, that's your claim. What are the facts that you can give me that are evidence that it is true?" "We just KNOW it's true, that's our proof!" That was interspersed about every second sentence with, "And how much do you want to donate?" Finally, I decided that I was dealing with a peon who really didn't know anything about anything and asked if there was someone there who was familiar with the care of horses. No, no one at PETA headquarters had horses or knew anything about them. But how much did I want to donate? Well, was there anyone at PETA that I could talk to who had actually been to a Premarin Farm? No, no one at PETA had actually been to one, but they just KNEW it was true, and how much did I want to donate? This was when I first learned about PETA/HSUS.
After reading the articles and reports from people with a clue about horses that I mention above, and talking to horsepeople I knew who actually lived in the vicinity of (one right across the road) from Premarin farms and getting their feedback from the horse's mouth, so to speak, and researching the Premarin Farm organization that provides advice on breeding, futurities, assistance in selling, etc., I realized that we were being snookered by PETA. But the damage was done, and as a side "benefit" an entire industry grew up around "rescuing" the Premarin foals (who, by the way, are also a product that has value so why anyone would throw them away is beyond me).
I've been working in equine rescue on a national basis for about 15 years now, so this is something I make a point of staying on top of.
Where do you live in Texas? I live on 50+ acres in Central Texas, surrounded by about 500+ acres, and I do not shoot dogs OR coyotes and have no problems. Don't know anyone who does, though if a dog pack was actually attacking livestock, I'd have no problem with someone else doing it or doing it myself.
Oh, and I grew up on 800 acres in East Texas, plus there's the family farm there in another town (been in the family since the late 1800's) - none of that there, either.
I live in Houston, but have friends with acreage in a few places. The one I know best is near Victoria. The guy who owns that place ahs adopted two dogs that were dumped on his road, and has shot a couple of dogs that were roaming around, harassing cows and deer. He usually shoots 2 or 3 coyotes a year, usually really mangy looking sick ones that are messing with the cows, and ignoring humans. His rule is that any coyote, skunk, raccoon, etc that doesn't move away when humans are around gets zapped. He only kills snakes that are next to his house, although he somewhat regrets killing the small rattler that his now ex-wife almost stepped on getting out of the car, since that would have caused her as much pain as she caused him...
In Maine we can hunt coyotes 24 hours a day, but no hunting on Sundays. Many hunters have night vision scopes. Game wardens give road killed deer to hunters so they can get more coyotes. Feral dogs are also attracted to the scent and meet the same fate. Coyotes will eat the dog. They are omnivores and really like cats.
I live in Houston, but have friends with acreage in a few places. The one I know best is near Victoria. The guy who owns that place ahs adopted two dogs that were dumped on his road, and has shot a couple of dogs that were roaming around, harassing cows and deer. He usually shoots 2 or 3 coyotes a year, usually really mangy looking sick ones that are messing with the cows, and ignoring humans. His rule is that any coyote, skunk, raccoon, etc that doesn't move away when humans are around gets zapped. He only kills snakes that are next to his house, although he somewhat regrets killing the small rattler that his now ex-wife almost stepped on getting out of the car, since that would have caused her as much pain as she caused him...
We have rattlers here some years, and there's a gentleman's (ladies?) agreement - stay away from the home place and leave the critters alone and that's fine. Otherwise, you get removed from the planet.
That being said, as far as I know, other than the den by the stockpond that my husband shot into and then covered up using the tractor, only two snakes have been shot here. One was a rattler that decided to move into a leaning willow that we liked to sit on. The other was, sadly, a rat snake in our chicken coop. Normally, when I found a ratsnake in there, I'd gently encourage them to leave. We consider them staff in charge of rodent control here on the ranch. On this occasion, the rat snake did what rat snakes do when they feel threatened, which is to shake their tail in leaves to sound like a rattler to encourage a predator to leave. In this particular case, the wall of the chicken coup was metal and it sounded JUST like a rattlesnake. I've felt bad about killing that one ever since. (One caveat - do not EVER shoot a gun, even a .22, in a chicken coop with three metal sides. You'll be deaf for hours!)
There are other kinds of snakes on the place that we leave alone (except for admiring a particularly nice racer, say - man, those are pretty!). They all have their jobs here, just like the cats, and that makes our lives easier.
Several months back my game camera recorded a pack of dogs running together on my hunting land. Don't like seeing them running loose as they could be chasing down Wildlife like deer. Also don't like the idea of them coming up on me if I happen to be out roaming about in the woods. Since I usually carry a handgun with me for snakes can anyone think of a reason why I shouldn't dispatch a pack of dogs that's running wild on my property?
We've always had problems with "feral" dogs over the last 40 years at our farms. Sadly..most are not truly "feral" dogs, but dogs that are unattended and owned by irresponsible pet owners.
The crimes committed by "pets" have ranged from chasing our horses through fences, attacking a cow birthing a calf, attacking calves penned up, attacking our barn cats (fixed and vaccinated by the way) and attacking our farm dogs (also fixed and vaccinated).
Any time "pets" or "feral" dogs roam together they can frequently exhibit violent behavior not normally seen if the dog was alone.
Once a dog has engaged in the above mentioned behaviors....they are a problem to all. We have also seen them show no fear and become aggressive towards adults and children.
In multiple states it is legal to put down a dog attacking livestock and of course a person.
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