[Hansam]

MLeake - You are correct that there are those who hunt coyote and shoot prairie dogs purely because they can. I personally shoot coyote on sight too because I train dogs and as such they can be a threat to the dogs I train. I however do not hunt coyote that don't decide to make their homes on my property and training grounds. I do not begrudge others the choice to hunt coyote though nor do I condemn them for it. We don't have prairie dogs here so I really can't comment on that.

That said you have to understand that these hunters are hunting a species that typically have a reproduction rate that easily exceeds the rate at which they are being killed - even with human predation. Coyote have few if any natural predators in many areas - and regardless of how hard I try to eliminate the coyote population in and around my area I do find them returning now and then. Again I won't touch on prairie dogs because I don't have them here.

Now about cats - they hunt everything that comes across their path and is within their killable size. As was stated by another poster they do this instinctively - they are nature's nearly perfect killing machines and they prove this consistently. I haven't got a problem with wild cats. I do have a problem with feral cats. Feral cats are a problem that was created by humans. This is one of those problems that will not go away till humans intervene and eliminate it.

Tickling - I believe you need to reread my post. I did indeed make a comparison between humans and feral cats. I did so with the intent to show that humans ARE sentient - they have morals and rules that they obey. They set limits for themselves and remain within those limits when hunting.

Feral cats on the other hand are NOT a natural occurrence - rather a human made problem - that does not have the capacity to understand that certain species of birds are restricted from hunting or that some animals are protected by human law. They ONLY behave instinctively - instincts that we as humans have distilled within them through time and selective breeding - and as such they kill even when not hungry.

Wild cats do not do this. True wild cats only kill when hungry or threatened. For a feral cat its not even about sport since animals do not have the capacity to determine the difference between sport and necessity. In the feral cat's mind it is doing what it was created to do - something it sees as a necessity - kill every small creature that it comes across.

You are correct that I worded one sentence incorrectly however my logic is correct. Of course even had I worded it correctly anyone could twist what I had written to mean anything they wish. Look at you and your perception of the post. A bunny hugger would easily pervert my post to become something it isn't... however any post here could be perverted like that.

Regardless of how one feels about hunting though it MUST be understood that complete and utter eradication is the ONLY solution to the growing problem that humans created out of "love" for their pet cats... This is a problem that must be tackled on two fronts though. One front is the issue of educating cat owners so they do NOT allow their cats to roam outside and be given the chance to go feral. The second front is the total destruction of the entire feral cat population in this country. Both fronts are as enormous and difficult a task as it is to devise a machine to prevent earthquakes. However if we at least tackle one front as best we can as responsible citizens of this planet we might be able to at least mitigate or minimize the negative impact that these creatures have on our natural resources.