oldelkhunter

I hunt an area in NC that is loaded with them and becuase of the altitude there are probably not many gamebirds in that area but in lower lying areas Cats in uncontrolled numbers will wear out Songbirds,Quail and Pheasants.

RonM

Always open season in my neighborhood.....

TimberCreek

I agree that we should eradicate the kats, but I am confussed? If they have nine lives and you kill ten cats and lets assume you are an excellent shot, that means it will take at least 90 rounds to kill 10 cats. This could end up being as expensive as hunting deer. Will we be able to bait them? Do we install carpet at the base of our treestands? What type of camoflage is best for hunting cats? Does anyone make a purr call? What do they taste like?

1sagittarius

ferral cats is not, and should never have been a hunting/hunter issue. It is a public Environmental issue only! The public as a whole should take responsible action for irresponsible cat owners. Hunters should not bear sole burden/responsibility for removing free ranging ferral cats ...... but hunters can assist the public in correcting the problem.

No small game license, or any license should be required to dispose of a non-native, free ranging, un-colared, domestic cat. Domestic cats should be catagorized the same as european house sparrows and starlings, which can be removed at any time, by anyone, by any legal means allowed by the local township.

BrutalAttack

It is a hunting issue. Hunters are the citizens who take responsibility for lazy "animal lovers" by helping to alleviate the problem. There are documented cases where a state wildilfe agency will promote and or create a season for feral animals in order to eradicate them. It just happened here with feral hogs. So before you go running off at the mouth, understand that different states have different laws/procedures regarding feral animals. While there may not be a biological need for a "season" on feral animals, creation of a season helps word get out. Most of the time, hunters don't even know that there is feral problem in a certain area, especially if it's in a different part of the state.

So it's very much a hunting a issue..because hunters will be the ones doing the work. The only way killing cats will ever be tolerated by the general bunny-hugging public is with a State sanctioned season or whatever you want to call it. There can be seasons without actually affecting anything. Like coyote season is year round with no limit.

BrutalAttack

It's most definitely a wildlife management issue. Feral cats not only kill wildlife but compete with other predators. I'm not sure what you think wildlife management is, but this definitely qualifies as affecting it. Also, just because you don't see it as a problem doesn't mean it's not. It's at least somewhat of a problem in every non-wilderness part of the country I have been in. Look around on the net and you can find some research papers on the subject, as well as state informational documents. I suggest reading some I think you'll be suprised and outraged by what you read.

benhuntin

I already opened up one on my 5 acres these past two years. Havent seen a cat in the yard in 6months now.

(In reality, I trapped them and took them to the animal shelter)

Bukmastr

I think the public should be educated on the problems cats are causeing. And you guys should be educated in the problems this issue is causeing.... Anti hunters from all over the state are organizeing and planning on crowding the April 11th WDNR meetings cause they are so mad about the cat hunting proposal. Once they are there and outnumbering us, they will be voteing on over 100 hunting issues. We now have also turned many non-hunting cat lovers into ANTI-HUNTERS!!!! Cat loveing non-hunters are now scared to death that if there cat escapes for a day some idoit is going to hang its skin on his wall. This was a dumb proposal that is going to do a great deal of harm to hunting. I agree cats are killing alot of birds around here, but tis is the wrong way to fix that problem. Most of these cats are not feral, they are actually pets that are let out by ignorant owners who should receive hefty fines.

BrutalAttack

Well when you can convince the local authorities to chase stray cats around that don't have tags and give out tickets to "cat owners" let me know. This is the only solution from a wildlife management standpoint. No local government will ever spend the man-power and money needed to curtail a problem of this kind using the "laws". Also, your comment about the "cat skin on the wall" is over the top. So if cat hunting is such a bad idea that will kill hunting in your state, what is your alternative?

Bukmastr

I did not say killing them, or removeing them was the wrong thing to do... I said, proposeing it as a law, is causeing all the antihunters in the state (and across the country) to be rallying against Wisc. hunters. They are planning on filling our April 11th meetings and voteing in there own anti hunting personal into our governing body. We have also been extremly successful in turning a huge number of Non-hunters into Anti-hunters. My point is, we are shooting ourselves in the foot.