Feral cat hunting - Page 2

Army GI · January 25, 2008, 10:34 PM

I shot a cat with a 45-70 before.

**JohnKSa** · January 25, 2008, 10:36 PM

Quote:

I sincerely hope that anyone hunting feral cats is making sure you're actually culling feral cats and not killing somebody's pet.

I own a cat as well, but I don't worry about anyone killing it. Because I care about its wellbeing and don't want it to be injured by other animals, exposed to diseases or run over and because I don't want it to be a nuisance to my neighbors, it is not allowed to run free.

In my opinion the fact that an animal is allowed to run free is ample evidence that the owner doesn't care about it or me.

StuMan · January 25, 2008, 10:36 PM

Quote:

Yeah, not funny. Not to me, anyway.

I am just joking. I have cats as well I would be pissed if someone shot them, mind you I keep them on my own land.

MyGunsJammed · January 26, 2008, 12:07 AM

Forgive my stupidity, but I always wondered what Feral Cats looked like....

so I googled it and got to see their pictures....

so I was like duuhh.... they just look like house cats gone stray...

Army GI · January 26, 2008, 12:31 AM

that's what the definition of "feral" is..

MTMilitiaman · January 26, 2008, 04:08 AM

I've only ever shot one cat.

Not really feral, but still nuisance, and I dispatched it cleanly with one shot from my scoped 10/22, right behind the ear at about 25 yards. I just waited under the porch for it to give me an open still shot, and the thing never left where it was standing.

Art Eatman · January 26, 2008, 08:00 AM

Seems to me that part of controlling your environment--from a self defense standpoint--is knowing your environment. Part of that knowledge involves knowing who are your neighbors, what sort of vehicles they have, what they do for a living--and what pets they have.

IOW, even in town in a residential neighborhood, you should know who and what belongs there. It's much easier out in the country.

If I'm out in the pasture, and the cat I see is not one that belongs to some neighbor, it's obviously feral. "Sayonara, Feral Feline."

And, there is always the hard fact that I attach a higher moral value to native quail, over an introduced non-native predator.

hogdogs · January 26, 2008, 08:40 AM

If a landowner tells me which cats by appearance are off limits they get a free pass. But I am offended when someone says "What if it is MY cat you shot?"
Well than I woulda been trespassin on your land or in yer home... If it is on someone elses land or state land than you are in violation in most jurisdictions anyway.
I own several high strung hog hunting dogs and when I lived in the city I had to worry that a stray cat would get one or more of my dogs to bust the fence giving chase and end up car hit or arrested in doggy jail for doing what most dogs do... keeping their yard free of invaders while also scoring a fresh meat meal! Yes... I have several dogs that will consume their kill unlike most feral cats that kill just to kill quite often.
We have a city park I am itching to clean up! Someone has been feeding them for at least 2 years... I mean a 5 pound bag of food per day! Since it is in town and in close proximity to homes it would be an air rifle job but I could get 30 in 2 days probably!
Brent

MyGunsJammed · January 26, 2008, 12:27 PM

^^ Who do you think is feeding the cats?

Cant they be fined? as here in NYC I think you can be fined feeding pigeons.

hogdogs · January 26, 2008, 01:04 PM

Mygunsjammed,
Here is my dilemma... I am a licensed nuisance animal trapper (trapper is the name the state put, we can use any legal take method). Yes the person and should be fined. However if the problem of the near hundred cats is not FULLY addressed than you remove the food source they will kill even more wildlife while they slowly starve out. Also they will disperse making it awful hard to eliminate them.
Where I am at is quite a rural area. The animal control officers will, at no charge to the caller, come out assess the situation, place traps (60-70 bucks each), bait them and return everyday checking them. When they capture one it goes to "center" it gets all of it's shots and gets to hang out for week eating food until no one claims it... than it gets killed by a hired vet. It was told to me that the cost is several hundred to a thousand dollars per cat in MY taxpayer dollars for this service. Who is going to show up and claim a loose, wild cat? They make poor pets if they are use to living wild.
Who would, as an individual, call me to do a service I MUST at least have my expenses covered for? I assure you I am humane but gas ain't cheap and bait ain't free so I get something.
At this point my only option is to offer my service to the city and county. That is a hard sell I don't know how to do...
I am just an uneducated redneck gonna try to sell the notion of quick humane eradication payed for with a SMALL % of the taxpayer dollars used to do the job now, to a bunch of politicians and resident council folks?
"What if shoot someones pet?" So frickin' what? it was loose and the fines for this would offset the "love" the owner feels?
BTW I also will target squirrels, possum, coons and many other nuisance critters MAINLY love to get on hogs... I ain't just a cat killer.
Brent

Pahoo · January 26, 2008, 02:40 PM

It all depends on the size of the cat and I run into the following;

50 Meter Cat - Pellet head shot
100 Meter Cat - .22 L.R. Head Shot
200 Meter Cat - .22 WMR Rib Cage & up

As previously stated: Shoot, Shovel and Shut-Up

Quote:

Use of a shovel is a sign of discretion !!!

Art Eatman · January 26, 2008, 05:02 PM

To illustrate the magnitude of the problem in some areas: My wife's "micro-empire" is in rural south Georgia. Maybe ten neighboring homes within the immediate two-mile vicinity.

The next-door lady loves cats. Feeds cats. Has had many "house cats" inside, but they run loose during the day and there's food in bowls outside.

The animal shelter folks finally came out to reduce the numbers, via trapping. In a period of just over a month, from the nearby woods, they trapped seventy-two (72) cats. Seventy-two!

I hadn't seen a squirrel, rabbit or songbird in years. Now, there are a few around.

Rangefinder · January 26, 2008, 05:08 PM

Wow Art, tell my wife that and she'd be there with my entire vault of weaponry in tow. She hates cats with a passion!

langenc · January 26, 2008, 06:17 PM

Do you pelt them?? One furbuyer of years ago had cat hides on the fur tag that had to be completed for all shipments.

hogdogs · January 26, 2008, 06:53 PM

If I was an AVID yote hunter i would have a bait pile goin'. I have no desire to skin them out as i have no decent market to sell the hides. It is a simple slit to drop the gut and toss to a hungry bulldog...
I have several of them to choose from...
Nowadays I doubt a furrier could buy them in the USA...
Brent

**JohnKSa** · January 26, 2008, 10:21 PM

Quote:

The animal shelter folks finally came out to reduce the numbers, via trapping. In a period of just over a month, from the nearby woods, they trapped seventy-two (72) cats. Seventy-two!

Years ago my father finally became fed up with the huge number of strays around his house and bought a Havahart trap. He rapidly lost track of how many he trapped & turned over to animal control, but at the beginning, it was not uncommon to go out during the day and count 20 to 30 strays/ferals visible at one time. One or more of the neighbors was putting out food for them.

It was interesting to see the local small wildlife populations slowly recover when the cat infestation was eliminated.

What's really insidious is that the normal predator/prey balances do not exist for feral cats when people feed them. In a normal situation, a predator population rise results in a prey population drop which, in turn, causes the predator population to drop as well. The system has a built-in feedback control system that insures the predator can not wipe out the prey population. When people feed feral cats, that control system is lost. The predator population is not dependent on the prey population for sustenance. That allows predators to hunt their prey into extinction

10-96 · January 27, 2008, 03:30 AM

I'm just having a difficult time wrapping my brain around this. Wouldn't an exploded population of feral cats also lead to increased numbers of yotes, stray dogs, skunks (from free food left out), and Lord knows whatever other kinds of critters? Seems fox and yotes would go nuts over mobile meals that are easier to chase than jackrabbits. I unnertand that not every place is like my Tx Panhandle home- but aren't several parts of the US annoucing increased yote numbers and problems?

The Tourist · January 27, 2008, 04:20 AM

Feral cats, as all things in nature, are part of a balance. Yes, they might kill songbirds, but they also kill mice and rats.

The one thing in life that troubles me, and has absolutely no use whatsoever in nature, are bubbas and townies.

I'd raise a predator solely to eat them, if I could find an animal dumb enough with a taste and palate aptly coarse to actually stomach that much fat and red fannel.

Thankfully there are explosives which they foolishly handle, worn out brake shoes, faulty lightening rods, saloon bets, genetic damage from inbreeding, and falling down steps when drunk. All as Darwin outlines.

The townie population controls itself, so cats I don' worry about. Perhaps there should be a college study to find out how much damage the human race endures from idiots.

MrAnteater · January 27, 2008, 09:16 AM

Here kitty...kitty...kitty...

Boom

22-rimfire · January 27, 2008, 09:44 AM

I have a couple cats. One is just an overgrown kitten and it stays in the house all the time for now. The other spends about half her time in the outdoors but tends to hang around the house. Both were strays that just made a home at our house when they were kittens.

I have no hesitation to shoot a cat in the woods that has no collar. A 22 rifle works just fine. If it has a collar, it gets a pass. I don't shoot them around the house as I live in a subdivision. I've seen stray kittens that are now full grown cats. Somebody is feeding them.

I get rather pissed when I find a new litter of kittens in my garage from some cat.

Art Eatman · January 27, 2008, 10:40 AM

Tourist, "balance of nature" is a nice buzzword, but feral cats are far more an "imbalance of nature".

Coyotes and foxes subsist nicely on mice and such. They kill for food, not for the fun of it. Feral cats, just like housepet cats, will kill beyond any need for food. If you've ever had a cat and watched the behavior, this should have become quite obvious to you. In the wild, you can occasionally find where a feral cat has killed an entire covey of quail in a night--and eaten but one or two. The common predation reduction of a covey tends toward approximately 40%.

Expansion of a feral cat population means a serious degradation of the balance of nature, insofar as carrying capacity of a habitat: Far fewer squirrels, rabbits, game birds and songbirds. Mice, rats and snakes comprise an important part of an ecosystem as well.

tyrajam · January 27, 2008, 10:42 AM

Sorry The Tourist, but you're wrong. Feral cats are NOT a part of nature, they are an introduced species, an alien animal that when put into an ecosystem can throw it dramatically out of balance. This is why almost all alien species have shoot on sight seasons (nutria, starlings, pigs, European sparrows and pidgeons, etc.). Unfortunately, some destructive animals like cats and horses are cute, so when they go wild and begin destroying the environment, people with NO understanding of nature demand they not be controlled. It's more than a little ridiculous.

The Tourist · January 27, 2008, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tyrajam

Sorry The Tourist, but you're wrong.

No, I sincerely believe that the rampant inbreeding of drunken townies causes more damage to the environment than small animals. Just the intoxicated destruction of green felt on pool tables has to be quite pricey.

For decades I have watched one gaggle of bubbas foster another generation, and then another generation--destroying the double-wide populated spawning ground where the culling sound of the Home Shopping Network and Oprah provide the siren sound for their expansion. I can't even figure out how many Chinese factories are running full-tilt, consuming precious resources, to weave enough red flannel to cover the slobbering beasts.

Fortunately, they usually electrocute each other with tinfoil placed into microwaves.

My point is this. Foolish acts by humans, especially toothless townies, destroy more of the hunting and fishing areas than any little animal. I've found Mountain Dew cans in the woods, cigarette butts in The Badlands and aluminum Blazer 9mm cases in the prairie dog towns in The National Grasslands.

What, 9mm cases in dog towns? I suppose black-footed ferrets also listen to rap music.

Remember, we're the good guys. And that also means we're not slob hunters. Nor should we defend such actions. I think I know these guys pretty well.

I cannot remember where, either here or in TheHighRoad, but a forum member reports uninvited hunters ignoring his "No Trespassing" signs and shooting family dogs.

If destruction of wilderness areas is a "shooting offense," does that mean I get to shoot 4-wheelers who rip up mud for sport?

**JohnKSa** · January 27, 2008, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Wouldn't an exploded population of feral cats also lead to increased numbers of yotes, stray dogs, skunks (from free food left out), and Lord knows whatever other kinds of critters? Seems fox and yotes would go nuts over mobile meals that are easier to chase than jackrabbits.

Perhaps. I was talking primarily about a suburban environment in the example I gave. In that situation, the animals you describe (with the possible exception of small stray dogs) are not going to increase to any significant extent because people won't tolerate them the way they tolerate feral cats.

The point is that when a predator is given an unending food supply, it creates a situation where the natural balances are disrupted.

Quote:

Remember, we're the good guys. And that also means we're not slob hunters. Nor should we defend such actions. I think I know these guys pretty well.

Eliminating feral animals is a responsible measure. I'm not sure exactly what you're suggesting should happen to the "townies & bubbas" but I SINCERELY hope that it's irrelevant to and out of the context of shooting feral animals.

At any rate, the fact that there are other threats to the fauna does not change the fact that feral cats are a damaging influence and that responsible hunters should do what they can to minimize that damaging influence in a humane manner.

Wayward_Son · January 27, 2008, 05:07 PM

"...that responsible hunters should do what they can to minimize that damaging influence in a humane manner."

I'm all for that.

What I have a problem with are people who simply hate cats and will blow them away or do terrible, cruel things to them with glee--without caring or bothering to make sure the cat is a stray. Reading through some of the posts in this thread, I think there are a few of these people right here on TFL.

January 26, 2008, 04:08 AM	#31
MTMilitiaman Senior Member Join Date: October 14, 2004 Location: NW Montana Posts: 1,875	I've only ever shot one cat. Not really feral, but still nuisance, and I dispatched it cleanly with one shot from my scoped 10/22, right behind the ear at about 25 yards. I just waited under the porch for it to give me an open still shot, and the thing never left where it was standing. __________________ "...nothing says 'I WILL shoot every last one of you before you have time to reconsider your poor choices in life' like an AK." ~Dave R.

January 26, 2008, 05:08 PM	#38
Rangefinder Senior Member Join Date: August 4, 2005 Posts: 2,017	Wow Art, tell my wife that and she'd be there with my entire vault of weaponry in tow. She hates cats with a passion! __________________ "Why is is called Common Sense when it seems so few actually possess it?" Guns only have two enemies: Rust and Politicians.

January 27, 2008, 03:30 AM	#42
10-96 Senior Member Join Date: October 19, 2005 Location: Tx Panhandle Territory Posts: 4,159	I'm just having a difficult time wrapping my brain around this. Wouldn't an exploded population of feral cats also lead to increased numbers of yotes, stray dogs, skunks (from free food left out), and Lord knows whatever other kinds of critters? Seems fox and yotes would go nuts over mobile meals that are easier to chase than jackrabbits. I unnertand that not every place is like my Tx Panhandle home- but aren't several parts of the US annoucing increased yote numbers and problems? __________________ Rednecks... Keeping the woods critter-free since March 2, 1836. (TX Independence Day) I suspect a thing or two... because I've seen a thing or two.

January 27, 2008, 04:20 AM	#43
The Tourist Junior member Join Date: June 20, 2005 Posts: 2,348	Feral cats, as all things in nature, are part of a balance. Yes, they might kill songbirds, but they also kill mice and rats. The one thing in life that troubles me, and has absolutely no use whatsoever in nature, are bubbas and townies. I'd raise a predator solely *to eat them, if I could find an animal dumb enough with a taste and palate aptly coarse to actually stomach that much fat and red fannel. Thankfully there are explosives which they foolishly handle, worn out brake shoes, faulty lightening rods, saloon bets, genetic damage from inbreeding, and falling down steps when drunk. All as Darwin outlines. The townie population controls itself, so cats I don' worry about. Perhaps there should be a college study to find out how much damage the human race endures from idiots. Last edited by The Tourist; January 27, 2008 at 12:02 PM.*

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January 25, 2008, 10:34 PM	#26
Army GI Senior Member Join Date: December 5, 2006 Posts: 284	I shot a cat with a 45-70 before.

January 26, 2008, 12:07 AM	#29
MyGunsJammed Senior Member Join Date: October 20, 2007 Location: in a very anti-gun state :( Posts: 565	Forgive my stupidity, but I always wondered what Feral Cats looked like.... so I googled it and got to see their pictures.... so I was like duuhh.... they just look like house cats gone stray...

January 26, 2008, 12:31 AM	#30
Army GI Senior Member Join Date: December 5, 2006 Posts: 284	that's what the definition of "feral" is..

January 26, 2008, 08:00 AM	#32
Art Eatman Staff in Memoriam Join Date: November 13, 1998 Location: Terlingua, TX; Thomasville, GA Posts: 24,798	Seems to me that part of controlling your environment--from a self defense standpoint--is knowing your environment. Part of that knowledge involves knowing who are your neighbors, what sort of vehicles they have, what they do for a living--and what pets they have. IOW, even in town in a residential neighborhood, you should know who and what belongs there. It's much easier out in the country. If I'm out in the pasture, and the cat I see is not one that belongs to some neighbor, it's obviously feral. "Sayonara, Feral Feline." And, there is always the hard fact that I attach a higher moral value to native quail, over an introduced non-native predator.

January 26, 2008, 08:40 AM	#33
hogdogs Staff In Memoriam Join Date: October 31, 2007 Location: Western Florida panhandle Posts: 11,069	If a landowner tells me which cats by appearance are off limits they get a free pass. But I am offended when someone says "What if it is MY cat you shot?" Well than I woulda been trespassin on your land or in yer home... If it is on someone elses land or state land than you are in violation in most jurisdictions anyway. I own several high strung hog hunting dogs and when I lived in the city I had to worry that a stray cat would get one or more of my dogs to bust the fence giving chase and end up car hit or arrested in doggy jail for doing what most dogs do... keeping their yard free of invaders while also scoring a fresh meat meal! Yes... I have several dogs that will consume their kill unlike most feral cats that kill just to kill quite often. We have a city park I am itching to clean up! Someone has been feeding them for at least 2 years... I mean a 5 pound bag of food per day! Since it is in town and in close proximity to homes it would be an air rifle job but I could get 30 in 2 days probably! Brent

January 26, 2008, 12:27 PM	#34
MyGunsJammed Senior Member Join Date: October 20, 2007 Location: in a very anti-gun state :( Posts: 565	^^ Who do you think is feeding the cats? Cant they be fined? as here in NYC I think you can be fined feeding pigeons.

January 26, 2008, 01:04 PM	#35
hogdogs Staff In Memoriam Join Date: October 31, 2007 Location: Western Florida panhandle Posts: 11,069	Mygunsjammed, Here is my dilemma... I am a licensed nuisance animal trapper (trapper is the name the state put, we can use any legal take method). Yes the person and should be fined. However if the problem of the near hundred cats is not FULLY addressed than you remove the food source they will kill even more wildlife while they slowly starve out. Also they will disperse making it awful hard to eliminate them. Where I am at is quite a rural area. The animal control officers will, at no charge to the caller, come out assess the situation, place traps (60-70 bucks each), bait them and return everyday checking them. When they capture one it goes to "center" it gets all of it's shots and gets to hang out for week eating food until no one claims it... than it gets killed by a hired vet. It was told to me that the cost is several hundred to a thousand dollars per cat in MY taxpayer dollars for this service. Who is going to show up and claim a loose, wild cat? They make poor pets if they are use to living wild. Who would, as an individual, call me to do a service I MUST at least have my expenses covered for? I assure you I am humane but gas ain't cheap and bait ain't free so I get something. At this point my only option is to offer my service to the city and county. That is a hard sell I don't know how to do... I am just an uneducated redneck gonna try to sell the notion of quick humane eradication payed for with a SMALL % of the taxpayer dollars used to do the job now, to a bunch of politicians and resident council folks? "What if shoot someones pet?" So frickin' what? it was loose and the fines for this would offset the "love" the owner feels? BTW I also will target squirrels, possum, coons and many other nuisance critters MAINLY love to get on hogs... I ain't just a cat killer. Brent

January 26, 2008, 05:02 PM	#37
Art Eatman Staff in Memoriam Join Date: November 13, 1998 Location: Terlingua, TX; Thomasville, GA Posts: 24,798	To illustrate the magnitude of the problem in some areas: My wife's "micro-empire" is in rural south Georgia. Maybe ten neighboring homes within the immediate two-mile vicinity. The next-door lady loves cats. Feeds cats. Has had many "house cats" inside, but they run loose during the day and there's food in bowls outside. The animal shelter folks finally came out to reduce the numbers, via trapping. In a period of just over a month, from the nearby woods, they trapped seventy-two (72) cats. Seventy-two! I hadn't seen a squirrel, rabbit or songbird in years. Now, there are a few around.

January 26, 2008, 06:17 PM	#39
langenc Senior Member Join Date: August 19, 2007 Location: Montmorency Co, MI Posts: 1,551	Do you pelt them?? One furbuyer of years ago had cat hides on the fur tag that had to be completed for all shipments.

January 26, 2008, 06:53 PM	#40
hogdogs Staff In Memoriam Join Date: October 31, 2007 Location: Western Florida panhandle Posts: 11,069	If I was an AVID yote hunter i would have a bait pile goin'. I have no desire to skin them out as i have no decent market to sell the hides. It is a simple slit to drop the gut and toss to a hungry bulldog... I have several of them to choose from... Nowadays I doubt a furrier could buy them in the USA... Brent

January 27, 2008, 09:16 AM	#44
MrAnteater Senior Member Join Date: October 4, 2007 Location: Michigan Posts: 262	Here kitty...kitty...kitty... Boom

January 27, 2008, 09:44 AM	#45
22-rimfire Senior Member Join Date: February 19, 2005 Location: Tennessee Posts: 5,323	I have a couple cats. One is just an overgrown kitten and it stays in the house all the time for now. The other spends about half her time in the outdoors but tends to hang around the house. Both were strays that just made a home at our house when they were kittens. I have no hesitation to shoot a cat in the woods that has no collar. A 22 rifle works just fine. If it has a collar, it gets a pass. I don't shoot them around the house as I live in a subdivision. I've seen stray kittens that are now full grown cats. Somebody is feeding them. I get rather pissed when I find a new litter of kittens in my garage from some cat.

January 27, 2008, 10:40 AM	#46
Art Eatman Staff in Memoriam Join Date: November 13, 1998 Location: Terlingua, TX; Thomasville, GA Posts: 24,798	Tourist, "balance of nature" is a nice buzzword, but feral cats are far more an "imbalance of nature". Coyotes and foxes subsist nicely on mice and such. They kill for food, not for the fun of it. Feral cats, just like housepet cats, will kill beyond any need for food. If you've ever had a cat and watched the behavior, this should have become quite obvious to you. In the wild, you can occasionally find where a feral cat has killed an entire covey of quail in a night--and eaten but one or two. The common predation reduction of a covey tends toward approximately 40%. Expansion of a feral cat population means a serious degradation of the balance of nature, insofar as carrying capacity of a habitat: Far fewer squirrels, rabbits, game birds and songbirds. Mice, rats and snakes comprise an important part of an ecosystem as well.

January 27, 2008, 10:42 AM	#47
tyrajam Senior Member Join Date: July 24, 2007 Location: Indianapolis, IN Posts: 467	Sorry The Tourist, but you're wrong. Feral cats are NOT a part of nature, they are an introduced species, an alien animal that when put into an ecosystem can throw it dramatically out of balance. This is why almost all alien species have shoot on sight seasons (nutria, starlings, pigs, European sparrows and pidgeons, etc.). Unfortunately, some destructive animals like cats and horses are cute, so when they go wild and begin destroying the environment, people with NO understanding of nature demand they not be controlled. It's more than a little ridiculous.

January 27, 2008, 05:07 PM	#50
Wayward_Son Senior Member Join Date: January 5, 2008 Location: Southeast Texas Posts: 406	"...that responsible hunters should do what they can to minimize that damaging influence in a humane manner." I'm all for that. What I have a problem with are people who simply hate cats and will blow them away or do terrible, cruel things to them with glee--without caring or bothering to make sure the cat is a stray. Reading through some of the posts in this thread, I think there are a few of these people right here on TFL.