Cat Fight
Donna Lawder's article about free-roaming cats ("Where the Wild Things Are," October) raised an issue that has long been festering in our neighborhoods. It's a sensitive topic for lots of people who love their pets and have different styles of pet ownership. I appreciate her thorough article because we need more public education about the problems associated with hundreds of cats living in the streets and dining behind restaurants and in our yards.
Free-roaming cats—domesticated or feral—are a substantiated problem world-wide. A compilation of studies by researchers at the University of Wisconsin indicates that "cats kill at least 7.8 million birds and perhaps as many as 217 million birds a year in Wisconsin" And both well-fed cats and cats wearing bells kill birds (see www.wildbirds.com/protect_cats.htm). Thousands more studies show that cats significantly pressure bird populations that already struggle to survive habitat loss, pollution, pesticides and other human activities.
Some say it's not a problem for them. While global warming might soon relieve some of us of this particular concern, until then, it is a problem for all of us because cats are not a natural part of the ecosystem. We need bird populations intact to maintain the balance of nature that permits us to live on the planet. The way things are going, one day we will have more cats living on the planet than birds. Unlike birds, cats are not mosquito-eaters or plant-pollinators.
Teri Matelson
Silver City, NM
Feral cats are not "disease ridden." ("Where the Wild Things Are," October). There is no disease that a person can contract from a feral cat that they cannot contract from any house cat or family dog. In fact, people are far more likely to contract a zoonotic disease from animals used for food than any wildlife or domestic animal, as consumption is the most common form of transmission.
It is extremely rare for humans to contract rabies in the United States—the fear of rabies far outweighs the actual threat. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), from 1990 through 2005 there were only 37 cases of rabies in the United States, and of those cases at least seven were known to originate out of the country. None of the 37 cases of rabies was contracted from a cat. No one in the US has contracted rabies from a cat in more than 30 years.
Bringing up the avian flu in relation to feral cats is simply a scare tactic. The New York Times ("Avian Flu Wanes in Asian Nations It First Hit Hard," May 14, 2006) reports that many Asian countries have been outbreak-free so far this year, and health specialists agree the threat of avian flu in the US is minimal. The list of "what ifs" to get from Thai fighting birds to the feral cats in your neighborhood is too long to even ponder.
For clarification, all of the major national humane organizations endorse Trap-Neuter-Return as the most effective and humane method to manage feral cat populations. For information on starting a nonlethal feline management program visit www.alleycats.org.
Elizabeth Parowski
Program Manager
Alley Cat Allies
Bethesda, MD
Editor's note: To clarify, although the Humane Society of the US (HSUS) does support Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) for feral-cat management, this endorsement is contingent upon "ongoing responsible management" at a level that no TNR program in our coverage area maintains or has the resources for. According to the HSUS, "Responsible management of existing feral cat colonies should include: humane trapping, sterilization, rabies vaccination, and treatment for illness or injury; removal of kittens and friendly adults for possible placement in homes; euthanasia of animals whose suffering cannot be alleviated; ear-tipping and returning ferals to the same location where they were trapped provided they would not face imminent risks; and providing lifelong care consisting of adequate food, water, and shelter as well as regular monitoring of the colony for sickness, injury, and the arrival of new animals. The goal of any feral cat management program should be to maximize quality of life for the cats and to eliminate the
existing colony over time through attrition."When Desert Exposure told a HSUS spokesperson that the Silver City area alone is home to an estimated 4,000 feral cats, the spokesperson agreed that was an unusually large problem for a town of this size.
The HSUS goes on to say, "Inherent in all decisions about whether to maintain a particular colony is the potential negative impact on local wildlife. The HSUS values the lives of individual wild animals, no matter their species status. The goal of any TNR program should be to lessen the impact on wildlife by reducing the number of feral cats and eventually eliminating their presence from the environment."
Thanks to Desert Exposure for "Where the Wild Things Are" by Donna Lawder. The feral-cat problem is a pathetic human-caused dilemma. People who let their cats run loose are imbecilic. People who feed feral cats are daft. And trap, alter and release programs are lunacy. The problems and misery created by the above activities demonstrate misguided good intentions through ignorance and rationalization. They are in no way related to animal welfare.
Bob Young
Las Cruces
Five Years Later
The 9/11 review in the Editor's Note (September) was fair enough. Sometimes Mr. Fryxell is a bit too innocent, though.
First of all, it is naive to think of our safety or security as being related to the actions of our government. As often as not, the power of government is used to loot people rather than protect them. This is not to be unexpected from powerful people; they can lack morals. The problem is their injustice affects more people.
In a few years we'll finally find out what happened on 9/11. Do not be surprised to find that people knew about the 9/11 attacks and let them occur because they could be used to accomplish financial or political objectives that powerful folks wanted. One good question to ask whenever a bad situation occurs is "who benefits?" It is already apparent that the Saudis and oil companies were beneficiaries.
There are others who simply use the distraction caused by a tragedy to do things that they wouldn't do "in the spotlight." The wholesale transfer of our industrial economy to Oriental slave plantations has been nearly accomplished and it has been impossible to focus any light on it due to the "Iraq" war on terror. Others are arrogant enough to think they have the right to force others into their "life mold." They will use any disaster to infringe on others' freedoms in the name of safety and security; that has occurred since 9/11.
The sad fact is that a government generally does nothing to protect folks. We are safe and secure only when we are peaceful and surrounded by peaceful people. Fortunately we have plenty of those folks around, thank God.
Charles Clements
Las Cruces
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