(In his first paragraph the author, Tim Steinbeiser, shoots down another myth created by the TNR crowd!)
The letter "Use TNR to control cat populations" (March 30) demonstrates how pro-TNR (trap, neuter, release) advocates skew data to suit their own agenda. The writer states that "trap and remove" will not get every cat and that the cats you cannot catch will start the breeding cycle again. I must ask: If you cannot catch all of the cats for trap and remove, how, then, can you catch all of the cats for TNR?
The writer also states that Dr. Levy's study in Florida proves that cats in TNR colonies are as healthy as housecats. What Dr. Levy actually found is that cats in TNR colonies are as healthy as free-roaming cats, not indoor cats.
Ewing Township has chosen the only effective method to control the increasing number of feral cats: trap and remove. More resources and volunteers must be dedicated to this effort so that results can be realized and the suffering of outdoor cats eliminated.
Cats are an alien predator introduced by man. The number of cats is much more than the natural predator/prey ratio and the prey base cannot survive this imbalance. Native birds have not evolved with cats and have no natural defense against this predator. Yes, some will escape, but the young have little chance.
Cats are not "nature"; cats are just one more human cause of habitat destruction that must be removed from the environment to restore balance. We must use science, not emotions, to solve this man-made epidemic. TNR has no scientific basis, only anecdotal evidence, as a defense.
-- TIM STEINBEISER, Lawrence
The writer is director of the Redbud Avian Rehabilitation Center Inc.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
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4 comments:
I'll tell you how TNR advocates will catch every cat when the trap-and-removers can't or won't: because they're not municipal employees who work 9-5, and have too many masters and too little time! People who trap cats for TNR are unpaid volunteers, who love these particular cats, and want to stop the proliferation of homeless cats. They feed the cats, they know them on a first-name basis, they know who's "done" and who isn't, they spend their own money to feed them, and often, to get them spay/neutered. They will sit up all night to trap them. They'll come back time and time again. Love is a better motivator, apparently.
TNR ABSOLUTELY works to phase out colonies. It's true that new cats can come along, and those cats must also be "homed" or spay-neutered in short order. TNR, done properly, fixes every cat in a short time and stops the breeding. Vigilance is then required to ensure that no cat goes un-fixed. True, there are "nightmare" colonies on public land, or next to shopping plaza's where pet abandoners can stay ahead of the few and the brave who struggle with too few resources.
Why aren't the birdlovers out there in force trapping cats? Why do the taxpayers (like me!) have to pay for your solution to the problem (which they're historically not willing to do), whereas cat people all over the country are willing to spend their own time and money to do TNR? Both groups want fewer cats living outside. We've been doing sporadic trap and remove for a century in this country. It's gotten us to where we are now. Let's try something else.
"I'll tell you how TNR advocates will catch every cat when the trap-and-removers can't or won't: because they're not municipal employees who work 9-5, and have too many masters and too little time!"
Among those masters, of course are the tens of thousands of feral cat enablers (like you) feeding those same cats they're trying to catch.
"People who trap cats for TNR are unpaid volunteers, who love these particular cats, and want to stop the proliferation of homeless cats. They feed the cats, they know them on a first-name basis, they know who's "done" and who isn't, they spend their own money to feed them, and often, to get them spay/neutered. They will sit up all night to trap them. They'll come back time and time again. Love is a better motivator, apparently."
You say you "love" the cats, yet you reabandon those pet animals into the wild to get run over, chewed up by each other or dogs, or end their lives wrapped around a fan belt or as a road kill kitty frisbee. Do you think your cat colony neighbors love those cats as you do, or could they be enraged you choose to feed them and attract more to use their gardens and children's sand boxes as a litter box?
"TNR ABSOLUTELY works to phase out colonies. It's true that new cats can come along, and those cats must also be "homed" or spay-neutered in short order. TNR, done properly, fixes every cat in a short time and stops the breeding. Vigilance is then required to ensure that no cat goes un-fixed. True, there are "nightmare" colonies on public land, or next to shopping plaza's where pet abandoners can stay ahead of the few and the brave who struggle with too few resources."
AS Dr. Julie Levy of Operation Catnip said "we can't expect our neuter programs to work really quickly." Those same cats are out there for seven years murdering our fauna, crapping in gardens, and attracting more cat abandoners. Can you say perpetuation?
"Why aren't the birdlovers out there in force trapping cats? Why do the taxpayers (like me!) have to pay for your solution to the problem (which they're historically not willing to do), whereas cat people all over the country are willing to spend their own time and money to do TNR? Both groups want fewer cats living outside. We've been doing sporadic trap and remove for a century in this country. It's gotten us to where we are now. Let's try something else."
My Havahart trap in my garage is set 24 hours a day, unless there's a cat or possum in it. I have placed half a dozen kittens, and one queen I retamed in indoor homes in the last two years. The other cats I trap go to a municipal animal control, and I don't re-abandon any of them to die in the street, kill our fauna, and invade others property!
A comment on the 9-5 worker concept:
Several years ago in Ewing Twp there was a flap about overburdened municipal employees killing feral cats with a single injection to the heart.
Quote from
http://www.law.berkeley.edu/clinics/dpclinic/LethalInjection/LI/QA/12.html
"potassium chloride fails to comply with minimum veterinarian standards because the lethal injection protocol does not include safeguards to ensure that the patient is unconscious before the injection of the drug, which would cause excruciating pain if the subject is conscious."
Animals go into shock for a reason, to make dying easier. The cats you would kill horribly aren't in shock, they are aware, terrified and struggling for some time after the torturing shot is administered. I'm sure you enjoy this image.
It is typical of right-wing Christians to categorize humans as sacred and animals as profane. They consider themselves as God's instruments, and God just happens to have their opinions.
This is the sin of pride.
Divine Love works in the world, whether you agree with it or not.
You are going to weigh cats against birds like coins on a scale. Cats have a great deal of self-awareness and reasoning ability. Birds and rodents do not. Your measuring system is faulty.
The kosher laws provide good guidance as to what animals may be killed and what may not. Take that into consideration as you advocate allowing Ewing Twp to torture feral cats - and escaped pets!
"You are going to weigh cats against birds like coins on a scale. Cats have a great deal of self-awareness and reasoning ability. Birds and rodents do not. Your measuring system is faulty."
Your "measuring system" is destroying our ecology by giving precedence to domestic pets you advocate abandoning into the wild! Do you think cats humanely kill our fauna? No, they toy with them while mauling them to death!
"The kosher laws provide good guidance as to what animals may be killed and what may not. Take that into consideration as you advocate allowing Ewing Twp to torture feral cats - and escaped pets!"
Pets, unwanted pets who do not belong in our ecology!
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