This guy’s a hero, in my estimation. Sure he could’ve (should have?) gone about the whole thing differently, but someone took a stand for piping plovers. A few observations:
1. Anyone who lets their domestic house cat remain outside for untold numbers of hours at a time is doing a disservice both to the cat and those birds exploiting the habitat niche around human places.
2. Domestic cats live longer, healthier lives if kept inside. We have two feline pets ourselves. Both remain inside and live quite nicely.
3. Domestic cats, no matter how well fed, remain hunters. And they will kill because that’s what they do.
4. Perhaps no other migratory bird species has suffered more from humans’ desire to live and play on the ocean waterfront than the piping plover.
5. Biologists and technicians often must erect anti-predator fences around plover nests along the Eastern Seaboard. Why? Because of the great number of non-native predators humans have introduced, including cats.
I agree with you completely. I love animals, and I think it’s always a sad thing when an animal’s life is taken. I can appreciate (because I have these concerns as well) people being concerned about feral cats being treated as humanely as possible. But feral cats are NOT wildlife, and are unbelievably detrimental to native species. What is absolutely enraging about the whole business of feral cats is that they often get equal, or GREATER, consideration than native wildlife, including endangered species. Human tolerance is one of the reasons feral cats can multiply out of control… we feed them, let them breed in our suburbs, and go ballistic if someone tries to harm them (there isn’t nearly this much galvanized outrage when someone shoots a coyote for any—or no–reason).
I’m more than willing to be corrected if I’m wrong, but as per my understanding, non-lethal control of feral cats has been an expensive and near complete failure almost everywhere it’s tried. There is no coexistence, just a choice: feral cats, or wildlife. As someone who whole-heartedly supports wildlife, there is no dilemma; feral cats should be destroyed. I am not a cat hater, and the the thought of blowing away a stray tabby does not fill me with sadistic glee; I absolutely believe that the killing should be as humane as possible, conducted by other non-sadists who are very good shots. But if we spare cats, we are dooming dozens of native species to suppressed populations, local extirpations, and in some cases, possibly extinction. In addition to birds, feral cats kill reptiles, small mammals, invertebrates, and almost certainly exert negative pressure on small mammalian carnivores. Especially in cases of endangered species, like piping plovers, there should be no question as to which critter gets priority.
And yet, feral cats are allowed to kill endangered species on a wildlife refuge. Considering that conservationists often have to fight tooth and nail for the most rudimentary protections for wildlife, the regal treatment given to destructive non-native ferals like cats and “wild” horses is astonishing. We’re still battling to let gray wolves, red wolves, grizzlies, and Canada lynx share the landscape, while feral cats, which, unlike native predators, really do decimate wildlife and multiply out of control, receive elaborate “funerals” when a single specimen is shot in the act of killing an endangered bird.
Furthermore, I’m curious if these cat lovers are as outspoken about cruelty to native carnivores. In many, if not all states, you can kill a coyote, of any age, using any method, for any reason…or no reason…year round. I’m not saying all coyote hunting should be banned… but are these cat lovers who are so shocked by a simple shooting screaming against snares that slowly and agonizingly kill coyotes? The priority we give domestic animals is unwarranted…in THIS context. I can understand placing the life of family pets above the lives of individual wild animals. Yes, I would shoot a coyote to save the family puppy. But feral cats are not pets…they’re, well, FERAL. They’re invasive exotics running amok in the woods, grasslands, swamps, and seashores; on wildlife refuges and national park land. Of course we should dispatch them humanely and without “vengeance”, but ecologically speaking, feral cats are disasters and deserve no more consideration than purple loosestrife and zebra mussels.
Feral cats are NOT equivalent to native predators. Our tolerance for them, as well as direct aid (feeding them from a dish) and indirect aid (garbage cans and the presence around human habitation of small animals, from house mice to unsuspecting songbirds drawn to a feeder) has contributed to them exploding way beyond the numbers of naturally occuring small carnivores. In Africa and Eurasia, where the direct ancestor of the domestic cat, the wildcat (Felis sylvetris) evolved, the small vertebrate community evolved with them, and the wildcats’ numbers were regulated by prey base, competition from other carnivores, and predation (interestingly, in some places, the true wildcat is threatened by, you guessed it, the feral house cat. In several areas of Africa and Eurasia, certain populations, and even subspecies, of the marvelous felid are under severe attack from disease and competition from, and interbreeding with, feral cats) . North America already has a widespread, adaptable cat with a huge range of prey items, the bobcat. But the bobcat is more than just a bigger version of a house cat; it evolved in North America and our birds, mammals, and reptiles evolved with it. The differences are particularly important in the case of birds. I do not think North America’s avifauna has ever had to cope with a mammalian predator that kills small birds with the regularity of feral cats ( I believe the most important native predators on small birds are probably other species of birds and perhaps snakes). Certainly, small and meso carnivores eat birds, especially bobcats. But I believe bobcats prey mainly on birds like quail, grouse, and ground doves… song and shore birds may be taken circumstantially, but I would be extremely surprised if cardinals, chickadees, plovers, etc. were a substantial part of any bobcat’s regular diet. And of course, one bobcat patrols a wide territory, whereas feral cats have (unfortunately) adapted to tolerate the presence of other cats: a given area supports exponentially more feral cats than bobcats.
Of course, probably the best example on earth of feral cats, and other exotics, running amok is Australia. Australia has the worst modern extinction record of any continent, and ferals (cats and foxes are probably the worst offenders, but rabbits, goats, deer, and others take their toll as well) are a huge part of it. Australia was particularly vulnerable because the fauna evolved with a curious lack of terrestrial mammalian predators (that prey on vertebrates. There are marsupial carnivores, but most are small or tiny, and prey mainly on arthropods). In Holocene times, Australia’s mammalian carnivore cast consisted of a few species of quolls (only one of which, the tiger or spotted quoll Dasyurus maculatus, kills birds and mammals with any regularity), the Tasmanian Devil, and a single large predator, the thylacine. Holocenic Australia had few large mammals, but a very rich diversity of small and medium sized marsupials. The principle predators were large species of monitor lizards and snakes, and raptors. The small and medium marsupials had no experience with anything like a cat or fox, and today, even land that remains suitable habitat is eerily empty of many marsupials, but loaded with rabbits, cats, and foxes.
The other important facet to the Australia example is to note the very positive changes that have occurred in areas where feral cats and foxes have been eliminated or greatly reduced. In Western Australia, there is a program called Project Eden that seeks to return some of the bush to its former biodiversity. In addition to habitat restoration, project Eden has virtually eliminated foxes in the project area, and has vastly reduced feral cats. Yep, they kill them. The results are amazing… native marsupials that were very rare in the project area have increased substantially, and locally extinct species (some extremely endangered) have been successfully reintroduced. There is still much to do, but in the Project Eden area, bushland formerly populated by cats and foxes are now populated by malleefowl, grass wrens, stick-nest rats (native rodent), western bandicoot, two extremely endangered species of hare wallaby, bilbies, and western quolls.
Conservationists MUST deal with ferals and exotics…even the cute ones.
You bet. And the quicker the better. It’s a real shame that someone is punished — in the courts and in the media — for the simple act of attempting to protect a federally listed endangered species. Hell, I’ve seen only a handful of piping plovers while on visits to the East Coast. Just to see one of these birds is special. Realizing what has happened to the species is to stare into the abyss of habitat destruction and human selfishness.
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Kudos for the great posts, Howard and Alan. I’m calling for zero tolerance on feral and roaming cats, and those irresponsible people who enable them.
Manifesto for a feral cat-free world
Here are our reasons for believing that all responsible citizens of the world must oppose feral cat colonies.
The trap, neuter, and return [referred to hereafter as TNR] management of feral cat colonies [as practiced in the USA and some European and other countries] is considered an effective and humane method of control by those who practice it and by many other well-meaning people from the general public. The colony managers and their supporters are seeking a humane method for solving the catastrophic problem of the millions of cats dumped by irresponsible owners into our ecology.
However, many of us disagree strongly and are convinced that this policy is an unethical way to manage feral domestic animals as it only solves part of the problem and only from the perspective of the welfare of cats.
We especially believe it is inexcusable to re-abandon a domesticated animal into what is an alien ecology; especially an animal that is universally known to be a deadly predator and a threat to the survival of native birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians which have all evolved in an ecology without it, so have no protection from it.
When choosing to practice TNR, feral colony managers make a conscious decision to do the following:
1. abandon a domestic animal into an environment it is not equipped to deal with without assistance from humans – by virtue of thousands of years of domestication. This also breaks existing laws designed to protect those same domestic animals. Many cats become diseased and are malnourished despite their predation of millions of songbirds, small mammals, reptiles and amphibians.
2. enable those domestic animals to continue to prey on our native wildlife. This contributes to the staggering damage to our ecology caused by the huge population of feral cats, destroying up to a billion birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians each year in the USA alone as well as breaking laws designed to protect our endangered wildlife.
3. when releasing these animals from captivity this domesticated pet animal becomes a public nuisance, trespassing, urinating and defecating in yards, gardens, and on public property. Their fighting screams keep people awake and they can carry disease to domestic stock and properly cared for pets.
Whilst the majority of people agree the original abandonment of the cat was unethical, they do not realise that the re-abandonment is equally so. In fact we believe it is even more unethical and flies in the face of the facts. To abandon the domestic pets again to suffer in the wild, kill more of our native wildlife, and to alienate the general public is indefensible.
How can the TNR advocates rationalize the violent deaths of billions of our native fauna each year for the benefit of millions of alien animals as ethical? They really believe that they have chosen to show compassion and humane treatment to cats yet they are doing them no good whilst, at the same time doing harm to many more millions of equally deserving innocent creatures.
The fact is that we must learn to deal with this present and real danger to our wildlife in an adult and responsible manner that benefits the cats and the wildlife they currently predate.
We call for feral domestic animals every where to be eradicated from the environment which they are harming.
In many parts of the world introduced rodents and mustelids [such as rats, mice & rabbits and weasels, stoats, mink etc.] are eliminated with humane poisoned baits and native wildlife flourishes. There is no lobby to trap, neuter and release these animals simply because the species have not been considered pets by most people but pests. In other words it is not the elimination of living creatures that people object to but only the culling of particular species¦ where is the sense in that?
On islands, such as the Galapagos feral goats, pigs and so forth have ruined much habitat and unique animals have disappeared. Many believe that the most famous extinction of all, the Dodo, was caused by feral goats and pigs being left by sailors as potential food, out-competing the birds for food.
In some countries, such as in Australia, legislation has been passed to make the release of cats into the wild a criminal offence and here too it has been shown that once feral pets and mistakenly introduced non-native species are eliminated from an enclosed area it is immediately re-colonised by rare native species which then flourish.
We believe that the most humane solution is to cull all such feral populations including cats. However, if there are those who cannot contemplate the death of one animal [i.e. a cat] to save hundreds of others [i.e. many birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians], then they must be responsible for their beliefs and pay for the entrapment, neutering and then housing in enclosures of feral cats themselves.
Here are your contacts for the United States House of Representatives
and United States Senate. Please write them. You are welcome to quote from our Manifesto, or send the entire thing.