Question for feral cat protectors

[ashling]

How many of you in Md. feed the snakeheads. Thosed of you in the Great Lakes area: Are you out there protecting the Zebra Clams. And up and down the Mississippi River: are you doing enough to help out those cute native fish eating carp?

An invasive species is an invasive species is an invasive species. They do damage to the natural ecosystems which can't tolerate them.

[KitchenWitch]

1. it is Zebra Mussels, not clams

[ashling]

2. scuse me.

I gets my Zebra Mussels and razor clams mixed up. I would like to play my senior moment card now. :blush:

[flvegan]

3. Can one TNR and manage colonies of snakeheads, Zebra Mussels and carp?

Apples, meet oranges.

[jobycom]

4. Feral cats are not the same type of threat to an ecosystem

And clams and carp are not fuzzy. Not close to the same thing.

[Phillycat]

5. Well, this should be fun.

:eyes:

:popcorn:

[ashling]

11. I can't seem to get people to

respond to my threads. LOL

[LynneSin]

6. This beautiful girl lived three years feral

Now she lives with me. She's still feral but she's warmed up to me a great deal these past two years.

Delaware has several great TNR groups that are trying to reduce the population by neutering the ferals that live out there and finding homes for the feral kittens they find.

[mike_c]

7. nope-- I'm a professional ecologist and I make no bones about...

...caring for feral cats. Yes, they kill small mammals and birds-- but they do it in ecosystems that are already degraded by removal of natural small predators-- including native cats. Their primary opponents are human sensibilities-- the very human sensibilities responsible for their presence and for the condition of the ecosystems they live in.

Cats are not to blame for needing to eat and breed.

[huskerlaw]

8. Are you begging to be flamed...

or do you seriously believe your comparison makes any sense whatsoever?

[uppityperson]

9. I am. I invited a fish eating carp to come live with me last week

putting out food on the bank, hoping to lure it into my house where it will become an Indoor Only Carp.

[ashling]

10. I admire your ambition

My dad did that with a squirrel when I was a kid. When the squirrel came in following the trail of pecans, I thought it would be a good idea to slam the door shut. The squirrel rippeknocked over several vases and ripped up the drapes before we got it out.

[uppityperson]

12. 1 of my cats brought in a chipmunk for the night. Had a terrier experience also

came home to terriers and cat sitting in a row staring at a poofy chair. Got the mouse out without much problem. That chipmunk spent the night in my closet in my bathrobe pocket. Did you know chipmunks are rodents? I hadn't thought of that until I put my hand in my robe pocket.

I'll let you know about the carp.

[LynneSin]

13. My indoor cat has cleaned up the songbird gene pool...

...by getting rid of dumbass songbirds to stupid to know better than to sit on the windowsil by the home of an indoor cat crafty enough to figure out how to catch songbirds on the outside

[ashling]

14. My indoor cat just looks out the windows and makes a chirping sound.

I call it windoe shopping.

[ashling]

17. Darwin's Razor

n/t

[PVnRT]

15. Yeah, but cats are cute

Therefore they are better.

I'm surprised that the Cat Worship Brigade has not shown up yet. Maybe they just put you on ignore rather than responding.

[ashling]

16. Oh, they are showing up

and I love cats too ... and I'm just as mischevious :evilgrin:

[China_cat]

18. Would you have me give up my dog because she

jumped up to play with a low-flying grackle, caught it and accidently killed it?

If cats were really such a danger to wildlife, there would be none left already due to the hundreds (thousands?) of years that cats were nothing but feral with no spay/neuter programs and producing at least 2 litters per female per year.

The danger to wildlife is US. We take away their habitat and then want to blame other species for it. Your logic is the same as those who blame the grizzly bear for the depletion of the salmon, seals for taking too many fish, etc.