Thursday, April 14, 2005

Feral cat hunt in Wisconsin

Okay, we've bludgeoned this topic to death at the Badger Blog Alliance and we do need to move on, which is why I'm going to post this meandering thought here. We've heard a lot about the approximate number of song birds killed by feral cats each year, and the numbers are all astronomical. I'm curious how many cats: A) Are killed each year by birds of prey, and B) are already being killed by humans in vehicles. I'd be willing to bet that the number for B is pretty high, and the number for A is a lot higher than most people expect. Does that mean that we list humans in cars and birds of prey such as owls, hawks, and even eagles as "non-protected species"?

I can't say that I've taken a side on this issue. In fact, I've waffled a hell of a lot. Are there a lot of feral cats out there? Without question. They do have natural predators, though. I'm more for the status quo, namely, what hunters do on some farmer's private land in regards to wild cats is the business of the farmer and the hunter. As Sean alluded to at the BBA, most prosecutors are probably not going to waste their time on small time cat hunting. Making it legal in this PC age only serves to make the entire state of Wisconsin look like a bunch of hicks.

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