Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Our view: Time to tame the rhetoric about the feral cat debate
Things have been getting heated and emotional on the topic of feral cats and what to do about them.
La Crosse firefighter Mark Smith started a verbal firestorm when he suggested that hunters with small game licenses be allowed to shoot feral cats the same as they do with squirrels or other small animals.
Cat lovers arose to denounce that proposal, and it will be discussed April 11 at the upcoming La Crosse County Conservation Congress.
Every county in the state will be holding such meetings to make recommendations to the Department of Natural Resources about proposed changes to natural resources rules.
That meeting will be held at Onalaska High School. A DNR hearing will be held at 7 p.m.
The meetings will include DNR hearings, followed by the Conservation Congress, which recommends issues for the DNR to consider.
Elsewhere on today's page are letters from people on the idea, along with a guest column from Heather Schmid, executive director of the Coulee Region Humane Society.
Many of the letters are intemperate.
The one letter writer on today's page who came out in favor of Smith's idea has accused cat lovers of being "violent" because Smith received some threats after he made his suggestion.
But that's nonsense.
Only a few threats have been made by a few hotheaded people.
That's no reason to characterize cat lovers by saying that "violence is their answer."
Similarly, it makes no sense to threaten Smith or anyone else.
Like it or not, there is a problem with feral cats, and there is a problem with cats that are allowed by their irresponsible owners to roam freely.
Cats are hunters and killers. That's what they do.
If you let your cat run free, the chances are good that he will kill birds, rabbits or other small animals.
But that's not a reason to allow hunters to shoot them. Schmid suggests dealing with feral cats by other more humane means.
She also points out that La Crosse County ordinances require that domestic cats be spayed or neutered, and not allowed to roam free.
Cats that are roaming free should be caught in a human fashion and taken to the La Crosse County Humane Society.
The April 11 hearings will provide a good opportunity for people to talk about humane ways to deal with feral cats.
We don't need to shoot cats, any more than we need to take verbal potshots at people for thinking out loud about a real problem.
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