If your in Wisconsin and you let your cats out. Better hope they dont pass this law

Originally Posted by Karen Hulvey

Reptilebreeder: Since you're skeptical, I think you need to start a list of DOR animals and you'll be amazed and how many are killed. I certainly was. But leave about 45 minutes early for work so you can really look, that's what I did. You can't do this if you're driving 60 mph down the road..

I use to hunt, and in addition to being a long time herper I am more of a naturalist/biologist in that I like all animals, insects, and to a lesser extent botany. Herpin is my life though, so I've spent the last 30 years out in the field, and while out in the field I also "road hunt" (not shooting, but keeping records and photos), so I'm pretty good at seeing DOR's, not to mention AOR's . You'd be surprised at what I see at 60 mph on the highway. Those numbers still seem exceptional to me. I do know what you mean about "normal" people though, while I'm "swerving" to miss a k-rat, 1" inch gecko, or even a small scorpion, on the road, they probably thing I'm drunk, then they drive right by the deer that's one foot off the road and one jump from being a permanent fixture in their windshield and don't even see it.

Originally Posted by reptilebreeder

(and dog's that crap in my yard. Which is actually the fault of the owner, and also a subject for a different thread)

Don't EVEN get me started on that one. I have a dog and it goes in the back yard. My neighbor has a HUGE dog and he lets it out twice a day and it goes in our front yards.

I HATE having to clean up after someone else's dog. Several times after cleaning up after this neighbor dog, I left what I cleaned right outside the front door of the owner.

Originally Posted by lucille

The only exception I can see are farm cats and the like, which work for a living by killing rodents.

Isn't Wisconsin just one big dairy farm? After the cats are eliminated then rodent population will get out of control. Then what will they do, release cats?

Originally Posted by DAND

Isn't Wisconsin just one big dairy farm? After the cats are eliminated then rodent population will get out of control. Then what will they do, release cats?

That's pretty funny. Actually, that kind of thought is why we have so many non indiginous animals wreaking havoc all over the place, because in the past (and not so distant either) that was the answer for controlling pest animals. The sad thing is it was always under the implementation of F&G or DNR officials. I digress though. I think even before the cats, the rodent population was under control, so as long as we can keep people from killing indiginous wild animals, they should be okay without the cats.

Originally Posted by lucille

I HATE having to clean up after someone else's dog. Several times after cleaning up after this neighbor dog, I left what I cleaned right outside the front door of the owner.

You go girl! Bravo! If more people had the gumption to do this, the world would be a lot better place. Next time put it in a paper bag and light it on fire on the front porch

What they need to do is declare open season on pet owners who do not spay and neuter their animals and let them roam free outdoors. It's not the cats fault that it's left to fend for it self by eating song birds.

Shoot the owners because people who can't take proper care of animals are the last ones who should be allowed to breed themselves. Kill their kids too just to make sure the stupidity stops with them.

First of all, I'd like to say that I'm a dog person and have never had a cat. I noticed that there are alot of people who don't think the law's a good idea because you can't tell if the cats just an escaped pet or not. Why don't they make it so that pet cats have to wear a collar(preferably bright colored) and a cat liscense, like they do with dogs?

Until now I never considered the possibility of needing a law to allow the killing of feral cats. I've just always done it as a routine.
Granted I don't go out hunting them, but when they come into my yard they're gone. They kill the birds, aggravate the squirrels, and most annoying to me personally they destroy any trash you set out before you can get it taken off the next morning. Put it in the truck bed and you just have trash all over there too.
We had a bad time with them a year or two ago. Apparently a colony had developed, they were everywhere. I killed off 8 or 10 before I stopped having trouble with the garbage being torn apart.
Some I new were completely feral by their actions, but a couple could have very well been someone's. My philosophy is I don't let me dogs out to aggravate the neighbors and destroy their stuff, so if they chose to let a "pet" roam free all the time that's what happens.

But here is my suggestion: Trap the true feral cats and euthanize them. Done.

That's exactly what I do, trap them in a live trap and euthanize them with a .22 hollowpoint. With a few houses within sight of me it's just not safe to shoot them while they run through the yard, not to mention the fact that they're so wild you can barely glimpse them when you step outside they leave so fast.