cat hunting

[MFH]

Now how about dieases that infestation of feral cats can spread to humans or your pets??

Just to start... Rabies, worms, mange, toxoplasmosis, plague, ringworm.

For other animals, you can add FELV, FIV, panleukopenia, FVR, clamydia

And then there is just general infection potential from feces or bites and scratches.

I am sure there are more.... but this is all I can think of currently.


MFH (dvm)

 

[rust collector]

Just be a little cautious about feral cat hunting seasons. Yer local crick dicks may get all excited about gunfire in the middle of the night. In SD it is legal to varmint hunt after sunset under certain circumstances (ie on your own place or with landowner, with sg or rimfire, etc) and conservation officers have some pretty good night vision equipment of their own.

Most veteran COs in these parts would not get too excited about candlelight kitty control, but new guys just out of the academy may think it's poachers. Dakotasin may be working on the reservation, however, and then it's like Texas, a whole other country.

Cats are a mixed blessing. Every farm or ranch has them for rodent control and they are good at what they do. They're mighty good hunters well adapted for nocturnal forays, and they probably eat more young pheasants than about any other critter. Coyotes love 'em, but the cats breed faster than the moondogs can eat 'em. We call em ditch tigers, and if they're more than 660 feet from buildings, they are presumed guilty.

 

[Matt G]

So unless your kids like to play with dead cats or you have the flying variety taking dumps over your homestead, leaving cats lay in a rural environment poses no more risk than any of the other dozens of dead animals out there

Prezactly. And if you can let it lie in the direct sun, it'll go that much faster,
A: Because buzzards will see it, and
B: Because direct sun will help dessicate it and the UV will eventually kill off what squirms within.

Growing up, our method of disposing of feral cats that we put down was to pitch 'em over a stand of mesquite, into the pasture behind my back fence. Between yodel dawgs, possum, buzzards, and ants, a large tom cat would take about a week to be rendered to naught but bones and some fur and maybe a claw or two. Often the whole thing just flat disappeared the first night.


BTW, I tried several methods on feral cat disposal, and learned a few things:

• 12 ga. with old highbrass #2 goose loads at 25 yards is highly (highly) effective, but wakes up the neighborhood.
• 12 ga. with lowbrass 6 shot at 20 yards is not reliable, but will get the job done with a second shot.
• .22 LR will work, but you MUST place your shots very carefully; they will skip off the front top of the slope of the cranium sometimes.
• .22 LR will not reliably drop them with even a good body shot. CNS shots are required.
• .22 CB caps will do the job, but you MUST put them in the ear-hole. To get such accuracy, you need to know exactly where the bullet will hit at that range. Put out a small target at about 15 yards with a pea-sized dot on it, and get so that you can hit the dot every time at that range. (Note: it WILL hit to a different POA than your normal LR load.) Then, the next time you have a tunafish sandwich, put the can with the leftover tuna out on the spot where the test target was. When Tom Cat eats the tuna, you've got a precise hold for your quiet CB cap load. This is highly effective, quiet, and humane. (Heck, you even gave the critter his Last Supper.) Do NOT try to push one through the kitty's skull-- it's just not powerful enough to do it reliably. Even though this is pest extermination more than hunting, none of us wants to make an animal suffer unnecessarily.

 

[Kestrel]

I assume you cat hunters retrieve the bodies and bury them or incinerate them in your back yard. [email protected]

Uh... so, I shouldn't have just been tossing them onto a local elementary school playground?

 

[1 old 0311]

Feral Cats

Mine is a Ruger 10/22 with a scope. I live in a Condo so noise is a issue. 22 shorts out to 50 yards with a 6 inch hold over at that range.5 shots 4 cats.

Kevin

 

[Silent-Snail]

whats this CB .22 stuff

 

[docbones]

Dr. MFH, I certainly agree with you. In all cases, one must weight risks versus rewards. For myself, feral cats die of lead poisoning and carrion fowl take care of the rest. Most often is the case that the parasite dies when the host expires.

As to the other claims made by my fellow collegue, FWIW, Dr. Taylor...,

Psittacosis is caused by Chlamydia psittaci and is usually transmitted from infected birds to humans. The infected birds excrete the bacteria in the feces and nasal discharges. Humans become infected breathing in the organism when the urine, respiratory secretion, or dried feces of infected birds is aerosolized (i.e., dispersed in the air as very fine droplets or dust particles). ther sources of exposure include mouth-to-beak contact, a bite from an infected bird, and handling the plumage and tissues of infected birds. Thus, given the scenario thread, this disease in a non-starter as it relates to cats, feral or otherwise.

Tuberculosis is primarily an airborne disease and is spread from person to person in tiny microscopic droplets when a TB sufferer coughs, sneezes, speaks, sings, or laughs. Only people with active disease are contagious. It usually takes lengthy contact with someone with active TB before a person can become infected. On average, people have a 50 percent chance of becoming infected with M. tuberculosis if they spend eight hours a day for six months or 24 hours a day for two months working or living with someone with active TB. Adequate ventilation is the most important measure to prevent the transmission of TB. Thus, again, given the scenario thread, this disease in a non-starter as it relates to cats, feral or otherwise.

Histoplasmosis is a disease caused by H. capsulatem, which grows in soil and material contaminated with bat or bird droppings. Spores become airborne when contaminated soil is disturbed. Breathing the spores causes infection. The disease is not transmitted from an infected person to someone else. Here again, given the scenario thread, this disease in a non-starter as it relates to cats, feral or otherwise.

Coccidiomycosis is caused by Coccidioides immitis, a soil saprophyte found mainly in desert areas of the south-western USA. It can cause a kennel-cough-like syndrome in dogs. Feline infection is very rare:

As the old saying goes, "An informed decision is the right decision."


Regards,

Docbones

 

[1911 guy]

An Argument Revisited

I'll repeat my earlier comment from "should it be legal to shoot feral cats" as it is essentially the same topic and we are dealing with the same Dale Taylor. He has an opinion which he is entitled to, flawed though it may be. The problem comes when presented with the facts and un-cuddly reality, he refuses to rethink his position and stretches the facts a bit. See the above post and response regarding diseases. Nothing personal, if the cats are hanging around your porch, feel free to feed them. I'm still going to kill them.

 

[joab]

Of course there are other options to just killing them

 

[Dale Taylor]

Joab, even herding is better than killing. Opnions from an alias are always questionable. Mr. Eatman uses his name althouth two herehave suggested it is allias. Tuner readily gives name (John Travis) and some have been invited to visit. One has to respect that. [email protected]

 

[rbernie]

Who I present as on THR has nothing to do with the validity of my views. And once again, you've proven that if you can't discuss the subject matter with intelligence you'll create all sorts of smokescreens tio distract people from your fundamental lack of a supportable position.

Fooey. You're a troll, and I'm done with ya.

 

[joab]

Opnions from an alias are always questionable

Not around here, Mr. Art has proven himself many times over.
You on the other hand claim to be a doctor but got even the most basic aspects of the spread of certain diseases wrong.
While I,a lowly bugman AKA joab, researched and disputed your claims in about 2 minutes

You claim that leaving dead cats lay causes disease but your real position is that killing the cats is wrong, but you don't post that. Instead you creep up on it with some misinformation about dead cats spreading disease that they are not even associated with.


Why don't you address the many real disease threats caused by letting feral cats live, breed and over populate to the point that they are competing with humans and domestics for food and toilet space

 

[1911 guy]

Herding cats?

Are you out of your mind? Herding cats? Let's think about the logistics involved then add in the fact that the only animals we herd are ones we control and eat. Sorry, but that A) involves killing them B) I probably wouldn't like the taste of cat.

You are once again getting a little liberal with the truth as you posted your "alias" gripe on the previous thread of this topic and got quite a few (including mine) names and locations. If you can't apply a little logic to your arguments you will soon find that people here and in the "real" world will soon tire of your blathering.

 

[Dale Taylor]

I don't herd them..Joab suggests it. I pass. [email protected]

 

[joab]

Y'all do realize that it was a joke right.

Remember when they sang "Stupid Video" at the start of the clip?

 

[dakotasin]

just got back in from a prairie dog excursion - spent a long weekend w/ some big-game candidates (in addition to the usual 'doggin guns, i use prairie dogs to make sure my big game rifles are in tune, and set my battery up for october thru january), as long as we are discussing carcasses, and all...

dale- feral cats are a nuisance. a massive nuisance, at that. i realize you probably adore cats, but the typical cuddly-cat is not the same critter as a ditch tiger. they are 2 completely different animals, and should be id'd as seperate species. house cats and feral cats are similiar in appearance only. feral cats should be shot on sight at every possible opportunity. house cats can be ignored. and, no, i don't bury/incinerate them. 90% of the time the carcass is gone the following moring. sometimes it takes a couple days, but i assure you, the carcass doesn't lay out and rot for any appreciable length of time.

tinker- no, the bulk of my feral cat stuff is east river (east of mitchell)... i travel all over the state to hunt/shoot, though, and i tip feral cats over wherever i find them.

rust collector- no, private land... farm spans 2 sections. but, i will definitely agree w/ ya on the gfp's capabilities. i've never run afoul of a warden, but have seen/heard tales about them. while i was doggin' this weekend ran into a warden. thought i saw a truck waaaay off in the distance up on a butte that hadn't been moving. swung the spotter around, and the scope revealed a warden w/ a spotting scope on us watching them w/ my spotting scope. kinda gets irritating a man can't even go and whack-a-dog w/o being bothered... oh well... he eventually came down and chatted w/ us while we were packing the car, and i did get a few leads on some antelope hunting. looking forward to october!

 

[dzimmerm]

Cat control

Was there not a time in our past that we decided cats were the servants of the devil. The cat population was seriously reduced.

We were rewarded for our efforts with Bubonic plague.

I wonder how cats figure into small and medium rodent control?

I know we were talking about crowded filthy living condition in the those days so it may not be relevent anymore.

Perhaps we could export all our feral cats to 3rd world countries for rodent control and spare meat?

How about a couple of million cats moved to Bagdad or Tehran?

For some reason it reminds me of the Trouble with Tribles epsisode on Star Trek.

.

dzimmerm

 

[Bigjake]

Mr. Taylor,

I'd bury em, but a varmit aint worth the effort.

besides, i've many many many kittys with winchester ballistic tips, and the pieces left over aint worth the effort.

 

[Fred Fuller]

OK, what I wanna know is, who provides the funerals for all the cat critters and other critters that die in the wild from non-human causes? How come the woods and fields aren't thigh deep in dead things, if all the dead things need to be buried so as not to be in the way, spreading diseases, smelling up the place and being generally unpleasant? Things been dying out there for thousands and thousands of years, ya know...

lpl/nc (future dead thing, who will return to dust with or without further human intervention)

 

[Shalako]

improper cat disposal

I can tell you one thing, long-term storage of dead cat underneath a single-wide is not a good thing. My buddy found one under his place and the decay process was neither rapid nor efficient. That poor guy had to crawl under there to retreive it. Nasty.

Even if you buried a dead cat, the wild animals would probably dig it up within a few days anyway. Now a low strength concrete encasement, that would do the job nicely. It would protect the dead cat and prevent further contamination. Hmm, Catcrete™ . I might be onto something.....

 

[pauli]

Nothing personal, if the cats are hanging around your porch, feel free to feed them. I'm still going to kill them.

now, farbeit from me to criticize in a forum that generally covers things (ie, hunting) that i know next to nothing about, but... i was raised to consider it rude to shoot the cats off of someone else's porch

not that it doesn't have a certain visceral charm, mind you...

 

[brian roberts]

cats.....

Australia has the same problem, i saw on the evening news one night they were deploying two-man ADF teams to clean them up. the kitty-lovers were up in arms, believing these were just like ol' tabby....but they're NOT.
was kinda neat to see the troopers firing(once only, nothing coming down, cutaway to another scene)the AUG up into a tree. i was thinking of sending in my app; but the QANTAS fare is too stiff.

 

[Dale Taylor]

Big Jake--can I come throw any dead cats on my porch in your front yard--or the back??

 

[MikeIsaj]

Dale Taylor;
Lighten up, loosen up, relax and breathe deep. Everything will be okay. It's a big country. What is appropriate and necessary in one place, may be ridiculous in another. In my opnion, it sounds to me like your real issue is with killing little fluffy.

On the subject of the thread, my nephew has a Belgian Shepherd that absolutly hates any cat in his yard. He is very good at eliminating the feral cats in the neighborhood. I watched him snag one off the fence one time that almost got away. And since I live in a suburban development, we bag and dispose of the carcases. That is what's appropriate here but not everywhere.

 

[Bigjake]

Dale Taylor,

Knock yourself out, under one provision. you personaly whacked poor widdle fluffy with a caliber and ammo type such as the one i mentioned, that has equal or better balistic preformance.

then you can feel free to scoop up as many itty bitty kitty chunks and you find left over and toss em ' in my yard.