How Bad Are Feral Cats?

[Loyalist Dave]

Just a wildlife "impact" question folks. I have noticed three feral cats in the areas that I currently hunt for squirrel, rabbits, grouse, etc. I know they are indeed feral, as one sleeps in an old abandoned shed, and the landowner told me he was wild. The second one lives in a wooden box somebody put out in the state park for the cat, and sometimes I see store bought food put out for the animal, and the third I saw today in a sort of "den". I think that similar to a bobcat, a once domestic, now feral feline will do lots of damage to the nearby rabbit, squirrel, and upland bird population. Is this correct?

LD

 

[redneck2]

I read an article years ago that talked about 2 cats in England. These were house cats that were well fed. Still killed something like 1,200 animals each per year (songbirds, etc.) when they were let out.

I suspect cats kill more wildlife that everything else (including humans) put together.

 

[steveno]

just ask your local game warden.

 

[1 old 0311]

They kill EVERYTHING. They also carry disease. .22 shorts fixes both problems.

 

[trickyasafox]

i am always reserved about this. there are several cats that live by my home. in our garage in fact. very friendly and personable, and playful. however none have collars, papers, or shots. they are just outdoor cats that were abandoned. we took them in and fed them. i always worry that someday someone is gonna pop one thinkin that just because it had no collar it was a feral cat. just because it won't come to you doesn't mean its not a domestic cat.

im not saying you to anyone person, just a generalization. im fully confident the original poster knows these cats are in fact feral. but even in that case he said he had seen people trying to feed the cat. someone likes it. trapping cats isn't very hard. see if the SPCA by you will take them in. They may not but at least you gave the things a fighting chance.

 

[R.W.Dale]

Round the house I generally give the strays the benefit of the doubt for a few weeks. But when it gets to the point where I see em every night , at that point Steps are usually taken.

In the forrest miles from nowhere no quarter is asked for and none is given.

 

[1911 guy]

Two different animals.

Some cats live in folks houses and garages. See trickyasafox's post. I won't ever shoot a cat that is anywhere close to someones home. It may be their pet. However, when I'm many miles from any houses, farms, etc and see a cat, it's dead as fast as I can get a sight picture. They are horribly destructive animals. Like Steveno said, just ask your local game warden.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Thanks for the confirmation.

As for the somebody who feeds the one on state lands, well, sorry but if they like 'em so much, THEY should trap them, take them to the vet, and then try to tame them. (imho) Taking them to animal control will only get them put down at tax payer expense. Nobody wants to adopt a cat when they have to pay the vet bills and the adoption fee for a cat that doesnt want to be friends. We're talking about animals in the wildlife management area, not the town park.

So..., next Monday if I see one it's 7/8 oz. of #5 from the left barrel of the 20 ga.

LD

 

[swampdog]

Not only are they extremely destructive to wildlife, they also multiple very quickly. Cats are very effective hunters. Watch one outside, play hunting. Even when they're well feed and not serious, they're still pretty good at it. I've got 2 of them. They stay inside, most of the time. Good for them, good for the local bunnie population.
I used to have one that could jump to head height and snatch a bird taking off. She was one bad kitty and we didn't have to worry about the vegetable garden while she was alive. She was a "rescued" cat and I'm sure she grew up hunting to eat.I saw her take a good sized cottontail, one evening. They really like to find baby rabbits. Birdnests, too. A big squirrel will give a cat a pretty good run for it's money, but the babies are easy prey. They're pretty tough on field rats, also, which is why I like to keep a couple around.

Multiple that by 12 or 18, every 6 months, per mating pair.

I really hate to shoot them, but I do. Around here, foxes and dogs help with population control. In some places, they have very few natural enemies and they can become a big problem, quickly.

They also carry disease, which, if you have pet cats, can also be a problem.

 

[gezzer]

ZAP

 

[dakotasin]

crack-pow! no more feral cats.

they have managed to pin down a couple recent cases of tularemia here to feral cats. i won't let a feral cat walk.

 

[dragongoddess]

You could trap and take then to your local humane society to be fixed and then release them. That way they won't be popping litters of kittens.

 

[sm]

Feral cats got on my "list" as a young'un.

1.They did not Respect the Quail.
2.They did not Respect the Quail.
3.They did not Respect the Quail.

After them 3 reasons come disease and all the other stuff...

I still study and abide the lessons of Ruark's School of Repect, always will.

 

[TimboKhan]

From an ecological standpoint, I don't honestly know how big of a problem they are in America, but I know in Australia they are quite literally decimating bird populations. The now late Steve Irwin (AKA "The Crocodile Hunter") did a show once in which he went on at some length about the problem. He mentioned that it was bad enough that the military occasionally went out on organized cat-shooting expeditions. He also wrestled a couple, which was really just sort of funny, although it did show that 8 pounds of P.O.'d housecat will give you more than you would ever want to take. Me, I like cats and I am loathe to shoot them, but there is a time and a place for it.

 

[Dale Taylor]

There at least 1000 posts about hunting "feral" cats. At least 50% are in favor. Leave the cats alone. The other side does't agree. [email protected]

 

[Shootcraps]

They are very dangerous and should be put down quickly. All this money and time people want to spend on them would be better served in helping underprivileged kids learning to read.

 

[dracphelan]

All this money and time people want to spend on them would be better served in helping underprivileged kids learning to read.

Yeah. But, will the underprivileged kids noiselessly kill all the tree rats (aka, squirrels) in my backyard and keep all the other animal pests out of my garden without causing any other damage?

 

[Doug b]

Shootcraps maybe all this time and money could be better spent teaching adults how to care for there animals.Cats are predatores,and very good ones.
Maybe we bond better with dogs because they are a lesser predator and need us or a pack to do what comes natural, a cat does not.
Kept in the house and treated well a cat is a very good pet and companion.
It doesn't cost much for a parent to teach a child to read.

 

[Art Eatman]

The Wisconsin wildlife agency did an extensive study on feral cats.

A feral cat will kill and eat some 100 songbirds a year.

From surveys of farmsteads and from trapping in selected open-land and forest areas, they estimated a population of some one million feral cats.

That's some 100,000,000 songbirds per year. Even if the number of cats is off by a factor of ten, it's still 10,000,000 songbirds per year--just in Wisconsin.

Then there is the endangered species of burrowing owl around a Florida university campus. The "campus cats" are further wiping them out.

In quail country, feral cats will sometimes kill an entire covey during the night, and eat but one of them. (My observation and also by a hunting-guide friend.)

If you don't want to spend the month or two commonly required to tame a feral cat, shoot the (bleep) thing.

Yes, dragongoddess, you could trap them if you have the time and the money to spend on a trap. The time to go buy a trap (Priced the big HavAHart, lately?), the time to place and bait it, and the time to go check to see if some cat actually went into it. Our local humane society set several traps near my wife's cousin's house. 72 cats in a couple of months of effort.

trickyasafox, any housecat, ANY, begins to hunt as soon as you let Darling Fluffy out the door. Cats will hunt for the apparent fun of it, whether or not they're hungry. It doesn't matter if it's on High Dollar Hill or the edge-of-town poor folks' area.

Art

 

[1911 guy]

Emotions and shouting matches.

First of all, I know this is an emotional issue for some because it involves an animal commonly domesticated. However, I'd prefer to discuss it rationally instead of calling each other "tree hugger" and "kitty killer". Agreed?

House cats are very good at killing things and are not native to North America. They don't belong here. Other species have been introduced and some fit into our ecosystems while others don't. The ones that don't get erradicated. Nobody around here (Great Lakes) is crying about the zebra mussel. We want it gone.

Trapping and releasing may be one's choice, but I won't recommend it to the inexperienced. First is the baiting problem. You'll wind up with 1) more cats than you thought 2) things other than cats. Now what do you do with a trapped cat? Getting one out yourself will be, well, interesting. Some shelters will even tell you straight up they don't deal with trapped animals. They know the risks associated. Expect to get bitten, scratched, fleas and infection. A cats claws are nasty things in the outdoors. Ask your vet. And then there's the cost. Are you going to pay for spaying and neutering every stray someone else is irresponsible enough to dump? I've got a family to feed and clothe. My money is spent elsewhere. Let's assume for a moment that you take all these risks and responsibilities. You now have a "fixed" cat. What are you going to do with it? Dump it like the last person? Not really a solution, is it. Look at NYC. Local shelters tried it. They couldn't handle the cost to start with and now there are even more cats because idjits assumed someone would care for "fluffly" and dumped them even faster.

There are really only three viable option. If you have a cat, care for it and keep it indoors. Eliminate them in places they have no business being. Disagree with the previous but don't interfere with it.

 

[Doug b]

Hey guy no shouting or name calling here hell's bell's I've shot my share.Fortunately we have a lady that is running a very successful adoption center here locally and we here in N/W Ohio have an alternative ,
I think this and education is the answer to the feral prob.
Our house cat came from this center,the only cost being nueter it.The 2 my daughter dropped off are both adopted.The blind one (from in breeding) that came from a grain elevator was adopted by a local Drs. wife and spends his summers in Ohio & his winters in Arizona.

 

[crawfish]

"however none have collars, papers, or shots. they are just outdoor cats that were abandoned. we took them in and fed them. i always worry that someday......" for anyone who would knowingly do this is outrageous I am a rural land owner, who manages some of my land for game animals. YES I DO HAVE WHAT SOME WOULD CONSIDER AN ULTERIOR MOTIVE FOR THIS SO LIVE WITH IT!!!!!! There isn't a week that goes by that someone doesn't drop of an animal be it cat or dog. RABIES is a real problem with feral, and some wild, mammals here in NC. A cat or dog that doesn't have a collar with a visible tag has to be considered as being exposed. In the county where I live the local animal shelter (county employees BTY) won't even come out unless you have trapped the animal or that animal has attacked another domesticated animal or human. They will supply traps but it is up to me to do the trapping. When we have a major deployment form the local military base the numbers of dropped off animals are staggering. So what to do??? Any animal that I can identify as being a stray is put down as humanely as I possible can. The threat to my family and livestock is just to great to let misguided sympathies get it the way of sound and humane management of a problem that most refuse to acknowledge or deal with.

 

[Doug b]

Crawfish imho it's not that most refuse ackknowledge or deal with it , they are the problem not the dumb ass critter doing what it does best.And I don't feel these sympathies are missguided and neither are your's. I'm country to and think this is city folk just dropping off a problem on us in the rural area's.Who deserves a load of shot in the ass more?

 

[dragongoddess]

Well I don't like the things yet I did suggest trapping and fixing so there would be no future generations from these cats. Around my apartment there used to be quail, roadrunners and other small wildlife. Then the cats came and the wildlife soon disappeared. I blame one of the residents who provided shelter and food for the feral cats and boy did they reproduce. Also the apartment management doesn't do squat about it. Really stinks. I enjoyed all the little critters who came along and visted our little part of the wild west.

 

[roo_ster]

I am a big fan of domesticated housecats. I have fond memories of Whiteboy; a monster-sized, muscular, deaf, fluffy, white cat; chasing and trapping the worlds most obnoxious disabled-person's helper-monkey. I would have been content to let Whiteboy eat the vile creature, but gentler souls intervened between Whiteboy and the prey he trapped fair & square. What a pity.

Anyway, Whiteboy in the house was a good thing. Whiteboy outside & feral would have been a killing machine. I don't think I would want such a critter running & breeding in the wild. If the opportunity presents itself to deal with such a critter, take the opportunity.