Wisconsin Votes To Unprotect Cats
Should free-roaming cats -- including pet cats without collars -- be considered an unprotected species eligible to be shot on sight?

Fifty-one (of 71) county chapters of Wisconsin's Conservation Congress -- an advisor to the state DNR -- voted April 11th to legalize the shooting of cats outdoors -- any cats not under the physical control of a human. But, before it can become law, the legislature has to pass a bill for the Governor's signature -- who fortunately has stated he will not sign. Two other states already have such laws on their books: Wyoming and Minnesota.

Needless to say, humane organizations and caring individuals nationwide are alarmed. The Humane Society of the United States said: "Shooting and killing free-roaming cats as a means of management is archaic and unwarranted."

In a press release, Becky Robinson, of Alley Cat Allies said: "There is no possibility that random or organized shooting of feral cats could reduce their numbers. Every cat killed would be replaced through increased reproduction and new cats moving into the territory... The [bill's] author, Mr. Smith, has equated shooting feral cats with euthanasia. Shooting is not euthanasia, it is a cruel act that includes slow, painful death.... The solution to feline overpopulation is high-volume, proactive sterilization for not only house cats, but also stray and feral cats. Solid evidence shows that spay/neuter, appropriate adoption and education brings the numbers down -- humanely and for the long-term."

Although most agree there is an overabundance of cats, numbers are being reduced through TNR (trap/neuter/return) and affordable pet cat sterilization programs. In the November, 2003 issue of Animal People, Merrit Cllfton reported: "Road kill of cats appear to have fallen 90% in 10 years after apparently rising six-fold while the pet cat population nearly doubled during the 1980s. An eight-fold surge in the population of feral cats, mostly descended from abandoned and free-roaming pets, probably accounted for about 2/3 of the road kill increase during the 1980s, but the trend is now completely reversed... Road kill counts are among the sources of animal population data considered most reliable by wildlife biologists."

TNR: The Humane Alternative
How ironic that now -- when TNR is universally recognized as the most effective and humane way to limit feral cat numbers and endorsed by most major animal organizations including Alley Cat Allies, Best Friends Animal Society, the Doris Day Animal Fund, HSUS, and the American Veterinary Medical Association -- Wisconsin would come to the foreground with a single vote that could set humane work back to the early 1900s. The Conservation Congress is a small voice but has been heard louder than all the above organizations combined -- yet they are a minority.

We and other supporters of TNR will continue reducing the feral cat population through sterilization. And, although they will never be completely eliminated, their numbers will continue to drop. In greater Washtenaw County, our TNR program alone has sterilized over 2,500 community cats in 450 managed colonies since we began in March, 2000 -- many others have been done by other organizations and individuals. Our goal this year is to sterilize at least 1,000 cats -- with 300 already done, we're pretty confident we'll reach our mark. If you care for outdoor cats in greater Washtenaw County, call us for financial assistance -- sterilization will not only improve the life quality of your colony but is also the only viable solution to cat overpopulation.

Cat News Your Can Use
Cats and Birds. Recent studies have challenged old assumptions about everything from the health of feral cats to their effect on wildlife. For example, in a study commissioned by Defenders of Wildlife, scientists from the USDA Forest Service and the Smithsonian Conservation and Research Center strayed far afield from the conventional view that cats are a major threat to songbirds. Pointing to the destruction of tropical habitats as the major contributor to the decrease in avian species that spend their winters in those warmer climes, researchers David King and John Rappole barely mentioned cats in their extensive survey of existing data, equating their predation to that of dogs, skunks, raccoons, opossums, rodents and human hikers. Windows, cats, West Nile Virus, wind turbines -- all those specific causes of death that are apparent in people's backyards -- are not, at present, having any known effect on the population size of any continental bird species. Disturbance of nesting birds appears to present a significant threat only to endangered species and in most cases a reduction in human traffic is sufficient to alleviate the problem, they wrote.

"Feral Cats, A Tale of Five Cities", by Nancy Lawson in Animal Sheltering Magazine, The Humane Society of the United States, March-April, 2005.