Not that we need another reason but....

Killers

I know that not all of us have Otters in our backyards but we should all do our part!

Smedley

My otters and gators are usually at cross purposes, the lizards fearful for their lives in the presence of the local river pirates. However, there is a certain symbiotic relation in regards to crats, and that is a good thing. Also, there are always the odd forces from beyond the water, a coyote here, a fox there...Deranged Dan on the balconey with assorted artillery and pallets of Quik-crete hanging from the trees.

Of all the hazards crats face in the area I most relate to foxes, red and grey. They kill crats for sport too.

Dan

POTYHC

www.Diversified.Army

That reminds me of a story. It's kind of long, but please bear with me.
I once felt pity for a cat, a feral kitten. I took it in and put out the word that I had a cat needing a permanent home. I took it to the vet, and I never forgot what she told me. This is not word for word, but it is accurate.
She said:
"It would have been better if you had taken this cat and any others you could have caught to the pound to be euthanized." (Here's where I did a double-take. That's the last thing I expected to hear from a vet.) She went on: "Feral cats and what we call 'neighborhood cats' are the #1 reason for the prevalence of disease in the cat population, and a major vector for rabies to humans. They are a lot of the reason for the increase of rabies in N.C." (At that time N.C. was suffering from a rabies "epidemic".)
She went on :"A neighborhood cat is one that doesn't have an owner. People set food and water out for them and they roam from house to house eating, fighting and breeding. There's a thin line between a neighborhood cat and a feral cat and that line gets blurred. My rule is this: If your cat is not sterilized or its medical history, including shots, is not up to date, and you don't know its whereabouts for hours or days at a time then you are not a cat owner. At best you are just the main feeding station for a neighborhood cat."
I asked about the rabies thing.
She said "Cats are predators. When they see a small mammal their instinct is to attack or at least investigate. If the animal is too sick to get away then the cat can be bitten and infected. If a wild animal gets rabies and starts acting strange, people stay away. We tell our kids to stay away from wild animals, especially if they are acting sick, or do not run away from us. And most wild animals die without us ever seeing them. When one of the neighborhood cats, or a feral cat, is sick it's different. Kids say 'Oh look at the poor sick kittycat' and they go to comfort it. That's when they get nailed. It just adds to the problem that, since they've seen mom or dad feeding it, it's 'their' cat. When a cat that previously wouldn't let them within 10 feet suddenly sits quietly while they approach, the temptation is just too much. And it's not just rabies. There are all kinds of cat borne illnesses. You can keep your cat inside 23.5 hours of the day and keep its medical history up to date, but when it goes out 'socializing'
(author's translation: fucking and fighting) it is exposed to the cats that are diseased. If you really care about cats, or any animal, then reducing the population of problem animals is in everyone's best interest. It's a wonderful thing that you had mercy on this cat, but in reality you really haven't done it or yourself any favors."

Stealth, Speed, Efficiency

"The Californian researcher has called for owners to keep their cats indoors."

That way the disease will only kill off cat owners. Hmmmm.

Brassb, could you duplicate that post in the "Cat" forum, here on AR?

Well said, bb.

panzerguy,
I'll think on it. I hesitate for the same reason that I don't respond to the jibbering apes and subhuman liberal America-haters on the political forum. Certian mentalities are just too resistant to human input.
i.e. Don't try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig. And after dealing with damn pigs for a while, you get to the point where you figure it's best just to turn them all into BBQ.

Actually, I learned the other day that there is something in the feces of possums that is fatal to horses.

Another reason to hate possums, too.

Grandmother of one of the girls my wife rides with has a big farm with lots of deer. I made inquiries about hunting deer there. She won't hear of it. But she says I'm welcome to hunt coyotes. And possums. She hates 'em, because of what they do to the horses.

That isn't too bad of a trade off Fischer. The season for yotes and possoms is much more generous than that of deer!
Since this disease problem seems to be more common to California perhaps the solution lies in the sick mind of a guy I knew many years ago.
He got railroaded and convicted on phoney charges in Cal. and while incarcerated came to really hate the minorities therein. He got along fine with the conservatives and the rednecks though. His plan was to plant a large Nuke at each end of the San Andreas fault and fire them at precisly the same second. He figured that the resulting shock wave would cause the whole outer portion of the land of fruits and nuts to slide into the ocean.
Just think, fewer nuts, fewer fruits and a whole lot less crats. derf

Well, there goes the roughage in the diet...

Kill 'em all.

Dan

POTYHC

www.ItCouldHappen.Tomorrow

I'll have to disagree on the possums. They're actually pretty useful. I shot a crat one time and it made it under the woodshed tool room. I tried everything, including a treble hook on the end of an old fishing pole, but couldn't get it out. That spiteful little turd had wedged himself in but good. A few nights later I saw a possum coming from around the shed. The ripe crat smell was gone, and when I checked so was the crat. Ol' man possum had cleaned up my mess. They do a good job of getting rid of that sort of thing.
Do you have some sort of documentation on the possum/horse connection?

hey did anybody catch that number of ferals in the U.S. 78 mill damn i need more ammo

78 Million!??! Let's see, if I run my Dillon 650
with one hand maybe I can operate the RCBS Ammomaster with the other..... I give up, I can't
load enough .223 to keep up with the cat population growth. They can fuck faster than I can run the presses. I'm a failure.

Perhaps, but failure leads to innovation. It's the American way.

Dan

POTYHC

www.Infamous.Days

quote:

Originally posted by Old Elk Hunter:
78 Million!??! Let's see, if I run my Dillon 650
with one hand maybe I can operate the RCBS Ammomaster with the other..... I give up, I can't
load enough .223 to keep up with the cat population growth. They can fuck faster than I can run the presses. I'm a failure.

OEH,
Please don't burden yourself with trying to keep up! I mean PLEASE DON'T, we can all step up to help in this great problem!

Smedley

quote:

I give up, I can't
load enough .223 to keep up with the cat population growth

Sounds like a job for the HTRN! Crew served weapons should help even out the odds as well.

The problem won't be the shooting, it will be the ammo loading.

I went to the candy store the other day,,saw 40 or 50 round boxes of winchester 50 gr hp..223 ammo for $14.00 a box,,hardly worth looking for the brass at that price,unless you're feeding a s.a.w.,winchester brass is my favorite though,,I'd probably bring it home. www.sawgunsforeveryone.com Clay

Dang-if there are that many ferals, I must be doing a good job--hasn't been one in my yard in about a month (that I've seen).