Predatory Invasive Specie Down.

[hogdogs]

*Disclaimer... Feral cats are considered "PREDATORY INVASIVE SPECIE" in Florida and can be controlled with any legal methods by the land owner.

Yesterday, Junior was puttin' my bike away in the barn after using it and spotted this thing up on/in a few mattresses on top of a 7 or 8 foot tall chicken cage in the dieing barn.

He come and told me. He has stitches on a finger so he wanted me to bring my 20 gauge.

I put some 7 1/2 in it and loaded one round of .22 in the savage for junior if it needed a humane kill shot.

Well it spooked out towards my direction but jumpin' straight to the floor... I leveled as close as I could and got her square in the front shoulder/neck from 12-15 feet. She was 2 1/2-3 feet from the floor when I shot.




The shot pattern hit the tin wall right beyond the cat between a baseball and softball size circle... NO PENETRATION


This girl was at least TWICE as heavy as I expected a medium size cat be. Been eatin' REAL GOOD!!!

We need to maintain a squirrel population as junior's snake could use one per week. They been real scarce for months and I blamed it on a neighbor kid i seen shootin' for a couple days before I spoke to him.
Maybe they will rebound quick. I got corn with molasses and peanut butter all over the property.

Brent

[gearhounds]

Kudo's. No disclaimer needed. Feral cats are the scourge of small game in the US, coast to coast. Anything and everything up to half their own weight is at risk. If they are not kept indoors, they kill indiscriminately, and not just to eat. No offense to cat owners, but you simply cannot eradicate enough to suit me.

[shortwave]

...on/in a few mattresses on top of a 7 or 8 foot tall chicken cage in the dieing barn.

Boy how things change... we used to use hay and straw bales in the barn

Nice kitty!

[Rifleman1776]

Like to see a better picture of that cat. Was it a domestic cat gone feral. Or a cross domestic x bobcat? Good riddance either way.

[hogdogs]

I think it was pretty much feral domestic. Me and junior were both surprised by the weight of it.

Brent

[Old Grump]

No collar, it was a feral. If the owner wanted to keep it they would have had better control over it. No such thing as a domesticated cat, once loose in the wild they all revert to feral. There are patches of green all over my lawn where neighbors cats who had been on my bird feeder died at the end of my 20 gauge. I bury them where they dropped.

Neighbor is fine with it. His wife and daughter won't let him shoot them and for some reason all their city friends and relatives think because he lives in the country he must be a farmer and therefore has lots of rooms for cats. He isn't a farmer and he doesn't have room for those cats. I have a sign on my door advertising recipes for cats so his women folk know better than to ask me if I had seen their latest missing cat.

[PRONE2]

Brent, you are always entertaining! Let us know if you use the same recipe for the cat as you do on the hogs! And to think I didn't figure you could top the "how to shoot down a tree" post. I just keep livin and learnin!

[markj]

Feral cats are a problem everywhere, and they feed the yotes up so I shoot everyone I can see.

[mquail]

http://elkhorn.unl.edu/epublic/live/...ild/ec1781.pdf

According to this feral cats cause 17 billion dollars worth of damage a year in the US!!!

Glad you did your good deed for the day

[aarondhgraham]

'Cause I'm a cat lover at heart.

But I do understand the downside to feral cats,,,
They will devastate a songbird population very quickly,,,
And they will multiply faster than birds, rabbits, or wild hogs,,,
I've been in the sad position where I've had to shoot a few myself.

Both of my cats are indoors only animals,,,
I shudder to think what would happen if one of mine got out and was shot.

Oh wait,,,
I do know what happened,,,
After I got her back from the vet,,,
And placed an even brighter collar on her,,,
I wrapped the little snot's Daisy BB gun around a tree.

I should have wrapped it around his head.

Aarond

[markj]

Sorry bout your cat, I have cats too but they stay out in the feed barn eating mice.

I dont shoot them if they wear a collar. I had a female get into a barn and had babies then she left em. Did this 2 years in a row until I finally got her.

[mquail]

Cat

[thallub]

Here in OK it is fashionable to take unwanted dogs and cats to the country and turn them loose. Most do not survive the coyotes and the hogs. A few weeks ago a huge feral cat came in to my predator call. The closest home is about three miles from where i killed that cat.

i have permission to hunt on several farms and ranches. Killing cats there is a no no. This is especially true on a pecan grove where i hunt hogs and squirrels. The owners have a couple dozen cats roving that place chasing squirrels.

[aarondhgraham]

And I wasn't meaning to rag on hogdogs either,,,
Sure hope I didn't come off that way.

Like I said,,,
I know what eco damage feral cats can do.

When I lived on my Dad's property way out in the boonies,,,
We experienced that old problem of city folk dumping cats and dogs,,,
Fact is, that's where I got the female cat I had to take to get the BBs removed.

But you can only rescue so many,,,
The rest just have to be dealt with as they occur.

It's sad but necessary,,,
One thing I still can't do though is kill kittens.

I just can't make myself do it,,,
Those I trap and take to the Tiny Paws Kitty Rescue in Stillwater.

I'm just an old softy.

Aarond

[hogdogs]

I took no offense fro aaron's post! I love a nice polite cuddly house cat!

I have no issue with a farmer leaving a few lose cats on his place for rodent control either.

But give me a shot at a feral (ANY LOOSE CAT I SEE) cat on my place and I am gonna take it. I feel all "pet" cats should be treated as the EXOTIC animal they are.

Not only the decimation to song birds and the sort but they easily win when competing with native predators that tend to self manage their population and prey take to maintain.

I never see skinny scrawny starvin' feral cats like I do stray dogs.

Brent

[Daryl]

I won't say I'm against shooting a feral cat when they become a problem. Done a few in myself...ok, maybe more than a few; 'specially around the chicken house.

Never felt much pride in doing it, and never took trophy pictures of one. It's something that can offend some folks, so I just bury 'em and call it good.

Daryl

[cornbush]

Around here they are not feral cats, they are "Field Lions", then the softies don't know what you're talking about.

[Scorch]

Around here they are not feral cats, they are "Field Lions",

My friends always called them "puffs" because that's what they look like when they catch a 55 gr out of the 223 or 22-250.

[SavageSniper]

Way to go! Anything that has gone feral needs to be put into check. Us Florida folks know that maybe better than anyone else with the list we have- hogs, cats, dogs, pythons, boas, huge list of fish, fire ants, tourist....

[twins]

Why the distinction between killing a "domesticated cat/dog" that got loose and a "feral" cat/dog? Bottom line, dogs/cats are predatory animals. Unless you're against killing all animals, all 4-legged creatures that steps on your property are fair-game IMO.

I put full blame on the owners of these "pets".

[reloader28]

Brent, thats not how I had you pictured in my mind. I was thinking more like bib overalls and a beat up old felt hat. Maybe a Mason jar of moonshine in your hand. Its funny how a persons imagination can wander.



I like cats better than dogs, and we've had up to 4 house cats at once cause of the kids.

The neighbors had a bunch of cats, and you could only get up to maybe 2 or 3. They would just buy a bag of catfood and open it up on the porch once a week to feed the cats. If thats what they want to be, thats their problem and not my business.

But when their cats started coming onto our place and peeing on everything, digging in the garbage and fighting with our cats, I started dropping the hammer. Literally.

I keep a 257Rbts (we call it the Heet Seeker) at the screenless kitchen window and have the property covered for 300yds. It took me about 2 months to get the neighbors down to about their 3 friendly cats. At least I like to think they were the friendly ones. At least the neighbors could pet them.

[Hog Buster]

While feral cats are a problem I offer a cautionary tale about killing them.

Many years back I had moved into a newly formed subdivision. It was on the edge of a large metropolitan area. Not many houses and a perfect place for people to drop off unwanted pets, cats mostly.

The cats were everywhere. They fought and fornicated all night, every night. Tormented every dog that was in a fenced yard and were a general nuisance.

The few of us living there decided to rid ourselves of the cats and rid we did. After several months of “Cat Hunting” their decline was evident. We were happy we had achieved our goal, but worse was to follow.

Within weeks of the cats demise we began to be invaded by rats. Rattus rattus, the Roof Rat moved in and just about took over. Not only were they fighting and fornicating outside, but also in our attics, kitchens, everywhere. With poisons and traps we caught a few, but didn’t succeed in making much of a dent in the population, which was expanding rapidly. At its apex one could kill 20 or so any night in his backyard with a .22 and rat shot. The cat problem was nothing compared to the rat problem. This rat apocalypse lasted for almost 2 years and only ended when the dropped off cat population swelled to larger numbers because we had stopped killing them.

What started off as a good idea backfired on us. I always remember my Grand paw saying not too shoot all the quail out of a covey, but leave a few for seed. We had violated that tenent and had paid for it dearly. So kill cats if you must, but always leave a few for seed, just in case.

[hogdogs]

Hog Buster, In my area the foxes and 'yotes would love to take over on rodent control that the "field lions" now get.

Brent

[gearhounds]

Plus, a rat will put up a better defense than mice, birds, small snakes, etc. While the yard tigers will take rats, they will decimate everything else as well by proxy. Tough call.

It sounds like 20 rats a night is a great excuse for the boys to get together and do some late night sniping!

[markj]

Thanks markj,,,

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And I wasn't meaning to rag on hogdogs either,,,
Sure hope I didn't come off that way.

Nah you didnt. I like cats too but when folks drop em off here and they become a PIA, we lose quail and pheasants. The turkeys must not be a target tho.

My nephew, a Marine soon to be a civie has a taste for cat on a stick, a delicacy he picked up in Okinowa so I may fix him up some when he comes back home. He is in SD now.