Quote:
Conclusions from a State of Wisconsin study, some 20 years back or thereabouts:
A feral cat will kill some 100 songbirds per year, give or take a few.
The feral cat population in Wisconsin was estimated at one million, give or take a few.
Even if it's wrong by an order of magnitude, it's still ten million songbirds.
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Excluding the past couple of weeks I killed on average 1 feral cat a day since the beginning of the year. That's right, 1 feral cat a day! You do the math. I believe now I may have made a large enough impact in the population early enough in the year that this year the cat problem (at least in my neck of the woods) won't be so large. Judging by the fact that I haven't seen a cat or signs of another cat in the area makes me believe this just might be true. Of course I might just be dreaming and I'll wake up to find yet another feral cat stalking birds in the early morning.
In comparison I "captured" a stray mutt dog (more like it came to me and I just clipped one of my dog's tie-out to it's already existing collar) and that dog's owner was happy to have him back. That was in February. My wife told me she had a stray golden retriever walk up to her a couple weeks back and she was able to pet it but she couldn't get it to sit still long enough to put a collar on it for a tie-out or leash. That dog walked off while she was calling the county LE and she never saw it again.
So how many cats did I encounter vs. stray dogs? Feral cats in WI are a huge problem but so many people call me a monster and cruel and cold hearted when they find out I shoot feral cats on sight. They say I should trap, spay/neuter and release them. I say then I'm still letting them go kill wildlife.
EDIT: I forgot to mention I talked to more than a few vets and they won't spay/neuter a cat for free. Thus people are telling me I should trap these little monsters, pay for their spay/neuter, and release them so they can continue killing off song birds and other small animals for the remainder of their natural lives. No thanks! I'm going to continue to contribute to the decline of the feral cat population in my neck of the woods... and anyone else who has a feral cat problem that asks me for help.