Shoulda used an airgun
I'm a cat-lover, but I'm with the shooter on this one. We block major economic development over endangered species and then let feral cats just eat them?
This is only the first few paragraphs from the long NY Times article
Kill the Cat That Kills the Bird?
By BRUCE BARCOTT
Published: December 2, 2007
Last summer, even as he talked about facing jail time, Jim Stevenson couldn't stop looking for birds. "There's a couple yellow-crowned night herons," he said, pointing out his living-room window. "They roost in that chinaberry tree." He rested his eyes on the blue-gray birds. "Anyway, the cops pulled me over and searched my van and found the gun, and -"
A movement caught his eye. "Roseate spoonbill. And there's a male orchard oriole."
Stevenson is a bearish, ruddy-faced 54-year-old former science teacher who is known as the ornithological guru of Galveston, Tex. Ten years ago, he moved to this Gulf Coast barrier island because of its abundant shorebirds. Enormous flocks of American avocets, willets, sanderlings, dowitchers and plovers feed in the shallow, fertile estuary of Galveston Bay. Stevenson built his house amid a clump of trees so he could always be watching birds; he lives in a bird blind. Birds are his obsession and his profession. He is the director of the Galveston Ornithological Society and publisher of the quarterly newspaper Gulls n Herons. For money, he leads bird-watching tours.
Stevenson apologized for the paucity of species that day. "This part of summer you don't have a lot of migration," he said. "There's still plenty to see, though. We go out tomorrow, I'll load your wagon."
By that he meant he would show me birds I could tick off my life list. Serious birders compile a list of every species they have seen in their lifetimes. I hadn't come to Galveston to load my wagon, though. I had come to find out why Jim Stevenson had become the most notorious cat killer in America.
The story went something like this: On the evening of Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2006, Stevenson took a break from watching the election returns to look at some birds at San Luis Pass, a ripply channel connecting Galveston Bay to the gulf. Stevenson parked his white Dodge van with "Galveston Ornithological Society" bannered on its side, near the end of the San Luis Pass bridge, a tollway that connects Galveston Island to Follets Island. He found a spot in the low grass-speckled dunes and waited. Soon enough, he saw a handful of piping plovers, a federally listed endangered species. Then he saw something else: a scraggly cat stalking the plovers. A colony of about a dozen feral cats had been sleeping under the bridge. The cats liked to wander into the dunes for the same reason Stevenson did: the birds.
"Piping plovers are tame, abiding little creatures," Stevenson told me. "They roost in the dunes and can't see or hear a cat creep up on them."
Stevenson said he tried to protect the birds by capturing the cat. He failed and returned home frustrated. Late that night, he worried the problem. "The American taxpayers spend millions of dollars to protect birds like piping plovers," he said, "and yet here are these cats killing the birds, and nobody's doing anything to stop it."
The next morning, Stevenson decided to act. He loaded his .22 rifle in the van and took off for San Luis Pass. He spotted the same cat under the bridge. Stevenson put the animal in his sights and pulled the trigger.
"The cat dropped like a rock," he said.
Up on the bridge, a tollbooth attendant named John Newland heard the shot. Newland, a quiet man in his 60s, often fed the cats under the bridge. He called them his babies. Newland bolted out of his tollbooth and saw Stevenson's van. "I got you!" Newland screamed. "You quit shooting my cats!"
Stevenson fled, but the cops caught up to him near his house. A Galveston police officer cuffed him, read him his rights and threw him in jail.
This is only the first few paragraphs from the long NY Times article
Kill the Cat That Kills the Bird?
By BRUCE BARCOTT
Published: December 2, 2007
Last summer, even as he talked about facing jail time, Jim Stevenson couldn't stop looking for birds. "There's a couple yellow-crowned night herons," he said, pointing out his living-room window. "They roost in that chinaberry tree." He rested his eyes on the blue-gray birds. "Anyway, the cops pulled me over and searched my van and found the gun, and -"
A movement caught his eye. "Roseate spoonbill. And there's a male orchard oriole."
Stevenson is a bearish, ruddy-faced 54-year-old former science teacher who is known as the ornithological guru of Galveston, Tex. Ten years ago, he moved to this Gulf Coast barrier island because of its abundant shorebirds. Enormous flocks of American avocets, willets, sanderlings, dowitchers and plovers feed in the shallow, fertile estuary of Galveston Bay. Stevenson built his house amid a clump of trees so he could always be watching birds; he lives in a bird blind. Birds are his obsession and his profession. He is the director of the Galveston Ornithological Society and publisher of the quarterly newspaper Gulls n Herons. For money, he leads bird-watching tours.
Stevenson apologized for the paucity of species that day. "This part of summer you don't have a lot of migration," he said. "There's still plenty to see, though. We go out tomorrow, I'll load your wagon."
By that he meant he would show me birds I could tick off my life list. Serious birders compile a list of every species they have seen in their lifetimes. I hadn't come to Galveston to load my wagon, though. I had come to find out why Jim Stevenson had become the most notorious cat killer in America.
The story went something like this: On the evening of Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2006, Stevenson took a break from watching the election returns to look at some birds at San Luis Pass, a ripply channel connecting Galveston Bay to the gulf. Stevenson parked his white Dodge van with "Galveston Ornithological Society" bannered on its side, near the end of the San Luis Pass bridge, a tollway that connects Galveston Island to Follets Island. He found a spot in the low grass-speckled dunes and waited. Soon enough, he saw a handful of piping plovers, a federally listed endangered species. Then he saw something else: a scraggly cat stalking the plovers. A colony of about a dozen feral cats had been sleeping under the bridge. The cats liked to wander into the dunes for the same reason Stevenson did: the birds.
"Piping plovers are tame, abiding little creatures," Stevenson told me. "They roost in the dunes and can't see or hear a cat creep up on them."
Stevenson said he tried to protect the birds by capturing the cat. He failed and returned home frustrated. Late that night, he worried the problem. "The American taxpayers spend millions of dollars to protect birds like piping plovers," he said, "and yet here are these cats killing the birds, and nobody's doing anything to stop it."
The next morning, Stevenson decided to act. He loaded his .22 rifle in the van and took off for San Luis Pass. He spotted the same cat under the bridge. Stevenson put the animal in his sights and pulled the trigger.
"The cat dropped like a rock," he said.
Up on the bridge, a tollbooth attendant named John Newland heard the shot. Newland, a quiet man in his 60s, often fed the cats under the bridge. He called them his babies. Newland bolted out of his tollbooth and saw Stevenson's van. "I got you!" Newland screamed. "You quit shooting my cats!"
Stevenson fled, but the cops caught up to him near his house. A Galveston police officer cuffed him, read him his rights and threw him in jail.
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yeah! shoot em! or find some feral dogs to feed them to. then shoot them. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by spurgemastur
I'm a cat-lover, but I'm with the shooter on this one. We block major economic development over endangered species and then let feral cats just eat them?
This is only the first few paragraphs from the long NY Times article
Kill the Cat That Kills the Bird?
By BRUCE BARCOTT
Published: December 2, 2007
Last summer, even as he talked about facing jail time, Jim Stevenson couldn't stop looking for birds. "There's a couple yellow-crowned night herons," he said, pointing out his living-room window. "They roost in that chinaberry tree." He rested his eyes on the blue-gray birds. "Anyway, the cops pulled me over and searched my van and found the gun, and -"
A movement caught his eye. "Roseate spoonbill. And there's a male orchard oriole."
Stevenson is a bearish, ruddy-faced 54-year-old former science teacher who is known as the ornithological guru of Galveston, Tex. Ten years ago, he moved to this Gulf Coast barrier island because of its abundant shorebirds. Enormous flocks of American avocets, willets, sanderlings, dowitchers and plovers feed in the shallow, fertile estuary of Galveston Bay. Stevenson built his house amid a clump of trees so he could always be watching birds; he lives in a bird blind. Birds are his obsession and his profession. He is the director of the Galveston Ornithological Society and publisher of the quarterly newspaper Gulls n Herons. For money, he leads bird-watching tours.
Stevenson apologized for the paucity of species that day. "This part of summer you don't have a lot of migration," he said. "There's still plenty to see, though. We go out tomorrow, I'll load your wagon."
By that he meant he would show me birds I could tick off my life list. Serious birders compile a list of every species they have seen in their lifetimes. I hadn't come to Galveston to load my wagon, though. I had come to find out why Jim Stevenson had become the most notorious cat killer in America.
The story went something like this: On the evening of Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2006, Stevenson took a break from watching the election returns to look at some birds at San Luis Pass, a ripply channel connecting Galveston Bay to the gulf. Stevenson parked his white Dodge van with "Galveston Ornithological Society" bannered on its side, near the end of the San Luis Pass bridge, a tollway that connects Galveston Island to Follets Island. He found a spot in the low grass-speckled dunes and waited. Soon enough, he saw a handful of piping plovers, a federally listed endangered species. Then he saw something else: a scraggly cat stalking the plovers. A colony of about a dozen feral cats had been sleeping under the bridge. The cats liked to wander into the dunes for the same reason Stevenson did: the birds.
"Piping plovers are tame, abiding little creatures," Stevenson told me. "They roost in the dunes and can't see or hear a cat creep up on them."
Stevenson said he tried to protect the birds by capturing the cat. He failed and returned home frustrated. Late that night, he worried the problem. "The American taxpayers spend millions of dollars to protect birds like piping plovers," he said, "and yet here are these cats killing the birds, and nobody's doing anything to stop it."
The next morning, Stevenson decided to act. He loaded his .22 rifle in the van and took off for San Luis Pass. He spotted the same cat under the bridge. Stevenson put the animal in his sights and pulled the trigger.
"The cat dropped like a rock," he said.
Up on the bridge, a tollbooth attendant named John Newland heard the shot. Newland, a quiet man in his 60s, often fed the cats under the bridge. He called them his babies. Newland bolted out of his tollbooth and saw Stevenson's van. "I got you!" Newland screamed. "You quit shooting my cats!"
Stevenson fled, but the cops caught up to him near his house. A Galveston police officer cuffed him, read him his rights and threw him in jail.
so we are now able to judge that the bird's life is more important than the cat's?
the feral cats are just doing what they do....let's shoot the lion for eating the antelope? I have eaten a cow or two in my life...and plan to eat more. Is this cat judge and jury over me?0 -
The cat is an invasive species, and is there because humans put it there. The plovers are a native species and we're spending big bucks to protect them.
The lion and the antelope have co-evolved to live out their cruel little interaction.
The cow is the domesticated descendant of a species that humans drove to extinction and is raised for one purpose and one purpose only. In much of the US, cattle would quickly go extinct were it not for the substantial help we give them.
The three examples have little in common with one another, except that all involve one organism eating another. In #1, you have a novel interaction that is the unplanned byproduct of the introduction of a non-native species to an ecosystem. In #2, you have an interaction that has evolved over evolutionary time. In #3, you have a synthetic interaction that in most cases requires active management to maintain.
And yes, IMO, the fate of the Plovers and other native birds -- as species -- is worth more than the lives of the feral cats.
During the summer, I spray toxic chemicals on certain plant species, too.0 -
ask any fish farmer they will tell you herons are the biggest p.i.a. there is, when i raised rainbow trout those bastages would kill 5 a day sometimes, and not be able to eat them because they where to big, and as all fish eating birds they are protected
i wish feral cats where the answer0 -
If the feral cat's are the pets of the troll guy they should be kept in his yard and leashed, to insinuate that they are his pets is absurb, I pop feral cats all the time they are a scourge on rabbits as well as all smaller mammels, now if the troll guy wants, he can send the cans of tuna, alpo or whatever to bangledash and feed the kids. I'd be willing to bet that if a family of starving people went to live under his bridge he'd call the cops and have them all arrested, he certenly wouldnt be feeding them.
I think he should be arrested for causing a hazardous situation for an endangered spieces. what do you think.0 -
I shoot 2-3 feral cats every year and don't feel one iota of guilt about it because there's TONS of evidence about the harm they* do to songbirds, small game, upland birds, and waterfowl.
*along with the pets that are let out all night and return with little "gifts" for their owners...............0 -
I'll pop a feral cat, crows, starlings, rats, mice, and any pest that I see. I decide, they die. Simple, just like pulling a noxious weed. My 1971 Fienwerkbau has taken thousands of pests.
Cats with collars are not taken, but if I can figure where they call home, I usually go have a little talk with the owner.0 -
library.fws.gov
"Scientific studies actually show that each year, cats kill hundreds of millions of migratory songbirds. In 1990, researchers estimated that "outdoor" house cats and feral cats were responsible for killing nearly 78 million small mammals and birds annually in the United Kingdom.
University of Wisconsin ornithologist, Dr. Santley Temple estimates that 20-150 million songbirds are killed each year by rural cats in Wisconsin alone."
I have two pet cats which I am very fond of. But, there is no doubt that cats do a real number on the little birds. It ain't natural here in the U.S. where the cats are non native.
So I have to grudgingly agree that the bird watcher who killed the feral cats did the right thing.0 -
quote:Originally posted by allen griggs
library.fws.gov
"Scientific studies actually show that each year, cats kill hundreds of millions of migratory songbirds. In 1990, researchers estimated that "outdoor" house cats and feral cats were responsible for killing nearly 78 million small mammals and birds annually in the United Kingdom.
University of Wisconsin ornithologist, Dr. Santley Temple estimates that 20-150 million songbirds are killed each year by rural cats in Wisconsin alone."
I have two pet cats which I am very fond of. But, there is no doubt that cats do a real number on the little birds. It ain't natural here in the U.S. where the cats are non native.
So I have to grudgingly agree that the bird watcher who killed the feral cats did the right thing.
That Temple study is actually not the best piece of research ever done, and those who advocate for the cats often use it as an example of bad science. Nevertheless, there's a lot of evidence that cats do a lot of harm to bird populations.0 -
alright, alright....shoot the furry little bird eaters....I stand corrected 0
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