If HB 2328 passes, could this be you? Please distribute widely.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4710901.html

Galveston bird-watcher calls feral cats fair game
By HARVEY RICE

GALVESTON - After devoting much of his life to protecting wild
creatures, a prominent naturalist here now faces trial on a felony
charge of cruelty to animals.

Jim Stevenson, 53, a well-known bird-watcher and founder of the
Galveston Ornithological Society, was indicted this week by a Galveston
County grand jury on charges that he killed a feral cat Nov. 8 with a
.22-caliber rifle.

"What really bothers me, this cat was down there killing endangered
species of birds and others protected by law," Stevenson said in an
interview Thursday. "Feral cats are not protected by law, and I stopped
a cat from doing that and I get arrested."

Assistant District Attorney Bill Reed declined to discuss Stevenson's
view of the law.

"All of those issues, I'm sure, will be flushed out in court," Reed
said.

Stevenson, who has lived on Galveston Island since 1996, has traveled
the world studying birds and published four books, including the
Wildlife of Galveston. and publishes the Galveston Ornithological
Society's quarterly newspaper, Gulls N Herons.

Despite his deep involvement with nature, or perhaps because of it, he
has been accused of an aversion to feral cats because they prey on the
birds he has studied.

Stevenson said the cat he is accused of killing had previously been
captured and would have been euthanized had it not been spayed and and
released.

Stevenson believes that there is no law protecting feral cats.

An official with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has said the
law is unclear.

Although he admitted in a 1999 Internet posting to killing two dozen
feral cats near his island home, Stevenson told the Houston Chronicle
in November that he is fond of cats.

His arrest last year surprised and saddened many environmentalists.

"Jim Stevenson is not a bad man," Dori Nelson, chair of the Seabrook
Eco-Tourism Committee, told the Chronicle soon after his arrest.

The arrest came after a toll-booth worker at the San Luis Pass Bridge
told police that he heard two shots fired, then saw a white van speed
away with Stevenson at the wheel.

One of the toll-booth employees, who had been feeding several feral
cats and considered them pets, found the dead cat and pursued
Stevenson. The employee said the cat already had a limp from an earlier
bullet wound.

Stevenson is free on $10,000 bail. If convicted, he faces from six
months to two years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

harvey.rice@chron.com


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They need to give this man a blue ribbon, not a fine and a prison sentence! What the hell is wrong with our legal system? Oh, I know! It's

We need to give this man the same chances he gave the cat.

I get the .22, and you get to run...

Look at the bright side: no sentence and no cost to the rest of us.

I'll eat the dime or so for the necessary rounds.

I would be glad to supply him with at least 500 more rounds of .22 hollow points to continue his quest. Hooray for him.