This blog is intended to be a repository of research notes, news stories, correspondences, and associated commentary focused on a range of issues related to “the plight” of feral cats in general, and trap-neuter-return (TNR) in particular. The blog format offers two significant benefits for this project: (1) by limiting the scope of each post, I’m able to zoom in on the details—critical for understanding deeply the complexities of the topic, and (2) the hypertext and tags permit linking and cross-referencing impossible in the print domain.
As the blog evolves, its focus will likely shift somewhat—or perhaps dramatically, into territory entirely unforeseen at this early date. Surely, such an endeavor would benefit from more extensive planning, yet there’s an urgency behind it that compels me to get started with what I’ve got, and figure out the rest as I go.
The impetus for Vox Felina was a series of events (the details of which will be the subject of numerous posts) that revealed (1) the lack of rigorous research related to the efficacy and impact of TNR, (2) the flawed science promoted by many TNR opponents, (3) the unbalanced—often dishonest—nature of the feral cat/TNR debate, and (4) the disastrous consequences of these circumstances.
http://www.voxfelina.com/
Heads up---Get ready for a rant--with your permission:
ReplyDeleteIf the cats are already at a location, why is it such a crime to spay and neuter them and PUT THEM BACK???!!
If the cats are killing birds after TNR, they were killing birds BEFORE they were TNR'red.
If cats were killing birds before they were spayed and neutered, they will continue to kill birds after. SO WHAT! That's what cats do. My cats climb up my tree and kill baby birds. I hate it, but I"M NOT GOING TO HAVE MY CATS KILLED JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE DOING WHAT NATURE CALLS OUT FOR THEM TO DO!
If you don't spay and neuter the cats, there will be MORE CATS that will be killing birds. The cats were there, you put them back there. Nothing changes, except the fact that you RELIEVE suffering through PREVENTION---Like getting your tubes tied if you're a woman, or getting your vas deferens snipped if you're a man. If I have my tubes tied, and I go back to the same place I came from, how does that make me a bad person. Cats are not bad people just because they go back to where they came from---AFTER they are no longer baby machines. What the hell is wrong with that?!
The law is making people who help the cats to NOT become baby machines become the crimminals, together with the cats who are no longer baby factories. The law kills the cats and people kill cats because they are cats who exhibit cat behavior. Something is seriously wrong with this thinking!
The emphasis in TNR is "neuter" and "return." What in the world is so crimminal about fixing cats so that their health and quality of life are improved and so that their babies don't have to undergo cold, thirst, hunger, illness, or injury? Birds are besides the point. There will always be birds and there will always be cats, but there will be more of them and more suffering if you don't fix them--more birds will suffer and more cats will suffer without allowing them to be fixed.
If these people argue that the "return" part of TNR is so bad, then relocation is worse, and even worse than that is to kill them for no reason whatsoever.
If the "neuter" part of TNR is so bad, doing nothing isn't going to solve anything. It won't make birds live longer or keep them from dying. If you don't fix the cats, there will be more cats to kill birds.
I don't know why people keep arguing about this and why officers are going around intimidating people who are doing their job for them. There should be no argument. TNR vs. The Alternative should be a no-brainer. Yet, people the cats are being criminalized for being cats and people who make their quality of life just a little bit better through their spay and neuter are being criminalized.
The man is killing cats because he doesn't like birds being killed? My advise to him is: Close your eyes when you go outside! Or focus on gang members or robbing and killing the elderly and defenseless instead! Focus on the drive-by shooters and take your hatred out where it belongs.
I agree with comment #1. However, the criminal part, according to the opponents, is the mere presence of domestic cats outside. Their agenda is to first eliminate any concept of humane feral cat keeping. Then it's to license them. Then, it's to end domestic cats being allowed outside (lack of a license will serve as the gold star for those outdoor cats).
ReplyDeleteDisallowing cities to subsidize feral cat sterilizing is the first step.
They don't care if the cats must be killed.
Some of these audobon people actually have stuffed dead birds on their mantlepieces, like trophies.
ReplyDeleteDo you know that the ACTF actually has "volunteers" working for them in order to "crack down" on animal cruelty/neglect cases? It looks really good on their website---the fact that YOU TOO CAN VOLUNTEER to become a "snitch" for ACTF, and be one of those wonderful people to go "undercover"/work "under the radar" together with ACTF, the LAPD and be instrumental in catching those crimminals, and putting them in jail!
ReplyDeleteDon't you want to be one of those people who volunteers for our city to kill thousands more by snitching on those people so that they ACTF can decend on them and that owner has to have her own cats killed??
Look at the website for ACTF and the LAPD Animal Cruelty. They gloat about the arrests they make. I'll bet they start off with LIES--"complaints" NOT issued by your neighbors or friends at all, but those "volunteers" who call themselves rescuers and are actually working for ACTF under the radar! That's how those complaints get manufactured! I'll bet that's what happened to the cat people who you said were targeted by ACTF and AC! NOBODY complained. It was all AC, ACTF, and those "rescue volunteers" doing their honorable job looking for someone who's life they can ruin and cats who they can have killed! We are becoming a POLICE STATE, and it has NOTHING to do with protecting our city's animals. They aren't cracking down on neglect or cruelty cases at all. Those cases don't stand up in court for the most part. They want to keep their department alive. The people at the top--whoever it is---beyond ACTF---councilmen trying to hold onto their job by making it look as if they care about animals and putting that into the paper, on the news, on their webistes, making people think they are going after criminals! Think again. They are criminalizing domestic animals and people who actually care. Those are the easy people! Criminalize them and put that in your webiste. Keep your department alive with lies.
The city should be sued! They tell you to spay and neuter and then they go after you for doing that. Let's all volunteer to become more of a police state and have more domestic animals killed shall we?
Kianna~
Kianna
Cat-lovers are the purest form of hypocrite. They claim to love animals but they don't care about any animal but their self-serving cats. Their cats which destroy the food-chain for all native animals. Once they set foot outside they are nothing but an invasive and destructive species to the native habitat. I haven't heard an owl in over 15 years nor seen a fox in 10 years due to lousy cats destroying (not eating) all the owls' and foxes' food sources. They also decimate any pheasant, grouse, wild-turkey, and any other ground-nesting birds' nests. TNR (trap, neuter, release) policies have been proved to not work. You need only search the net to find out what a dismal failure they are and what a useless burden they are to the tax-payer. The best way to get rid of cats is with a 22 rifle. Strap a little laser-pointer on the barrel and just wait for them to pass through your yard at night. They are regularly used for, and only good for, target practice in the area where I live. All good hunters and environmentalists know to get rid of them. Shoot on sight. It would probably help too if there was a $1000 mandatory fine for every person who allowed their cat to roam outside. Cats without bells and tags would then be fair game for target practice. Those with a tag and found outside get the owners fined, with $1000 incremental increases in fines per violation. These irresponsible and hypocritical self-serving pet-owners will not change unless they are forced to.
ReplyDeleteI guess some people are not aware that TNR (trap, neuter, release) policies DO NOT WORK.
ReplyDeleteThey are expensive to the taxpayer and a dismal FAILURE.
http://www.tnrrealitycheck.com/
http://www.abcbirds.org/abcprograms/policy/cats/tnr.html
Latest poster. Apparently yopu are coming to a gunfight with a stick. Posting a link to two anti-TNR bird sites proves nothing.
ReplyDeleteHow is TNR expensive to the taxpayer? Almost all is done by private groups.
What do you mean it does not work?
There's no sense in arguing with ignorant cat-lovers. And why waste anyone's time trying to get cat-owners to act like responsible and respectable neighbors by passing laws forcing them to do so? It'll never happen. Or they wouldn't have let their lousy cats roam all over other peoples' property in the first place, destroying their birds, spraying all their property, etc. I found the only and best solution is a .22 rifle. I lost count after 20 of the lousy vermin were dispatched. Owls have now returned to my woods, fox too, all those animals that depend on the very food sources that all cats destroy. I've spotted 3 more cats this Spring so my .22 is still propped-up next to the front door. I hope they come within view soon. I recently found some opossums that will take advantage of a cat carcass as a food supply. The opposums have a healthy-litter that needs feeding. It's about time that the cats were finally giving back to the food-chain.
ReplyDeletewhy would anyone listen to peter wolf, he does nothing but lie about his unwanted cats to. he comes into my neighborhood not his and lies to everybody about what he is doing. says he is trying to help by doing t n r, so people think he is doing them a favor. like saying that you do t n r work that you can do as you please in a neighborhood. he as never even put a trap out, not one time. guess he just skips that part. none of his cats have a clipped ear and most look sickly. he does abandon unwanted cats here though which I was to believe illegal. but hey its his colony and he feeds them so I guess that makes him feel good. who cares that we are the ones that have to put up with his unwanted cats and the nuisance that they are. every word out of his mouth is a lie so why do you people listen to him!
ReplyDelete