>They say their collective worth is protecting wildlife, you really want
>to protect wild life , get rid of cats!!!!  They account for more losses
>of song birds, small mammals and small animals then any other animal
>ether wild or domesticated (ok , fire away felinaphiles).
 
No, no, you're absolutely right.  I have cats, but I still have to
agree with you in essence.  I have to disagree only on a minor point -
housecats do their share of damage, but by far the biggest problem is
the huge population of feral cats in the US.  Unlike ferrets, cats are
extremely efficient and versatile hunters, and don't have very much that
preys on *them*.  They also seem to have better survival rates in their
litters.  (This is a personal observation; I haven't seen the data to
back it up.) All of this means that they go feral very successfully, as
we're all aware that ferrets do not.
 
If you want to talk about attacks on humans, an enraged cat will also do
much more damage than an enraged ferret (which is rare enough anyway).
Ferrets have one small mouthful of teeth.  Cats have one mouth and four
very sharp feet - and they use them all.
 
As it happens, both of my cats were trapped as feral kittens.  They're
properly fixed and stay inside.  They kill the occasional lizard, but
as anyone in Florida will tell you, that's hardly going to endanger the
lizard population around here.  What we need is for people to fix their
pets and stop turning them loose when they get "tired" of them.
 
In reply to all of the CA posts...all of you make plenty of sense.  Using
newer studies and experts is a great idea.  Unfortunately our government,
and particularly the CA government, does NOT run on logic or sense.  They
run primarily on which politician can make out the best by catering to
which special interest.  CA doesn't WANT to listen to logic.  They don't
WANT to hear reports that might discredit their past decisions.
Therefore they have to continue to pretend that neither exist.  As long
as they continue to convince themselves that CA F&G are "more expert"
than anyone else in the world, the situation will never change.
 
roger & the wolverine wannabees
missing bear and lancelot
[Posted in FML issue 4256]