Interesting catch on the Trapline

[PatM]

No matter what exotic species do it's small change next to what humans have done.
 The one issue I have with saying cats don't belong in the ecosystem of NA is that man has drastically reduced the animals that fill the same niche as a cat does so their impact is likely about normal.
 Put back all the Fishers and Martens,  let the bobcat and cougar cover the entire continent and see if things don't end up about the same.
 Usually an introduced predator in a land devoid of a similar predator will have a huge impact because the prey won't recognize it as a threat or is unable to escape.
 There isn't a native bird in NA that doesn't have an inherent fear of anything that looks like a cat.

[aznboi3644]

we have some feral cats..but they live and stay on our property...I've seen them hunting in the woods and field.

They've done a great job of stopping rabbits from coming onto our land and eating our plants and vegetables.

[osage outlaw]

I had a two year battle with a feral cat.  It was a monster orange tomcat that had a unique skill of dodging 22 bullets.  The thing would spray all around the house and fight with our basset hounds to take their food.  It cut up their faces on several occasions.  One winter morning I finally connected while it was backing down one of the dogs.  He was an old warrior.  His teeth were all worn down and some were broken.  I didn't want the dogs to mess with it so I threw him in the back of the truck so I could put him in the dumpster at work the next day.  That night we had a big ice/snow storm.  That dumb cat was froze solid in the pile of fire wood in my truck bed.  It took almost a week for it to warm up enough to get him out of there.


For anyone wanting to get a cat, try your local animal shelter.  They spay/nueter them, and give them vaccinations before they let them go.  We just adopted a young cat a couple of months ago and the fee was about half the price of getting all of that done at the vet.   

[Pappy]

I sure got no problem with cats or Dogs,I got 2 dogs and of course Bubba the cat. All I say is keep them on you land and off mine,unless they are invited, then we won't have a problem. Cat the other white meat. Sonny Inman use to have that bumper sticker on the back of his camper,it got a lot of funny looks.
   Pappy

[bowtarist]

maybe that's what we need to try frying @ the Classic?    Not Bubba of course.  I've never eaten cat knowingly, but if others are eatin, so am I.   

[Elktracker]

Nice catch as long as you dont find a picture of a missing cat on the power pole or at the post office! That would make a interesting quiver (conversation piece) lol

Josh

[JW_Halverson]

There isn't a native bird in NA that doesn't have an inherent fear of anything that looks like a cat.

Great horned owls are the largest predator of cats in North America.  Yet another reason to keep ol' Moggie in at night!

My GHO lived on a fellow's ranch for 18 months and accounted for a number of cats before he came to us at the Black Hills Raptor Center.

[M-P]

"There isn't a native bird in NA that doesn't have an inherent fear of anything that looks like a cat."

When I was in Tucson and active in falconry, I had a friend with a Harris' hawk that loved cats.    My friend was unhappy about it, especially when several feral cats found a way into his hawk's pen.   Cats are greasy and really put the weight on a hawk.   My friend would finally get his bird down to a good flying weight and then he'd go out to find another 1/2 eaten cat in the pen.   He finally found and patched the hole, but he lost ~ 3 weeks of hunting that season.
Ron

[JW_Halverson]

"There isn't a native bird in NA that doesn't have an inherent fear of anything that looks like a cat."

When I was in Tucson and active in falconry, I had a friend with a Harris' hawk that loved cats.    My friend was unhappy about it, especially when several feral cats found a way into his hawk's pen.   Cats are greasy and really put the weight on a hawk.   My friend would finally get his bird down to a good flying weight and then he'd go out to find another 1/2 eaten cat in the pen.   He finally found and patched the hole, but he lost ~ 3 weeks of hunting that season.
Ron

ROFLMAO!!!  I gotta tell this story to the others that volunteer at the center!

[Grunt]

Most feral cats are loaded with mites, ticks, and a lot have distemper. Removing them will help the wild critters.
When I was in Vietnam at a place on the mountains called Khe Sanh we caught a small wild cat in a booby trap we had set. We tried to eat it but it was a lot worse than our C-rats. One of the other jarheads skinned it and treated the skin with C-rat salt. He then streched it onto his helmet. He stunk so bad that we kicked him out of our bunker.

[Postman]

An inexperienced hunter can learn a lot by watching a Cat hunting.

so true Marc - as a suburbanite woodlot roaming kid, I spent hours watching cats stalk feeders and squirrels. My wife had a old, snow white one that still regularly managed to kill many songbirds back when we were dating. Lecturing her on this point wasn't a good idea back then...
I like cats and enjoy the ones my friends / neighbors have, but
I do think Ferals and "outside" cats are a big threat to small animal populations and native furbearers,  IMHO.

[PatM]

I of course meant all the birds that Cats are supposedly making such a  huge impact on.