Feral cat

My mate sent this in from yesterday’s efforts in field.

He suggested that Gareth should put up some prizes for dead cat photos.

• most cats
• biggest cat
• best pose
• best dressed   Read more »

A reader emailed me this article about a possible solution for feral cats:

Treasured for its storied collection of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, esplanades and soaring fountain, Florida Southern College is making room for six more structures inspired by the famed architect.

These new structures will be small — only about 5 feet high and 3 feet wide. Unlike other Wright designs, they are not meant for humans.

Rather, the six domiciles built mostly of custom-made concrete blocks will provide shelter for almost 100 feral cats living on the Lakeland campus.

It would be incorrect to call them cat houses, college officials say. The preferred terminology is cat cafe, a place where the wayward felines can kick back for a drink and some chow.

The cafes, designed by a New York architectural firm that has done renovation work on several Wright buildings at FSC, will double as shelter. The Alpha Chi Omega sorority will supply food and watch over the cats in partnership with SPCA of Florida as part of its commitment to control Polk County’s feral cat problem.

“We think it’s good for the community,” said Terry Dennis, FSC’s vice president of operations, who is working with Rodda Construction Inc. to build the cafes designed by Jeff Baker of Mesick Cohen Wilson Baker Architects of Albany, N.Y.  Read more »

Gareth Morgan dreams of a cat free New Zealand. In Belarus the cats are starving in basements:

The plaintive meows haunt the people of Minsk in the dead of night.

They come, activists say, from hundreds of stray cats who find themselves locked in basements by Belarus authorities – and doomed to starvation.

City authorities have been sealing off apartment block basements to keep out rats. A tragic consequence is that cats get trapped inside, left to waste away.

“My heart aches to hear how the animals, whom they have walled up, are screaming day and night,” said 72-year-old Antonina Gayenko, a retiree who was feeding some cats through small holes in the iron plates used to board up the basements.

“They have doomed them to death from thirst and hunger.”  Read more »

It is official, Gareth Morgan is not into pussy in any way, shape or form.  Who knows, maybe he was terrified by one as an infant but KiwiBank must be moving quickly to rebrand the under-performing fund they overpaid for.

I have a name suggestion for them, how about “KiwiBank Saver?” I can even do up a logo because at the rate Morgan’s mouth is going, I seriously doubt you will have many customers left.

But proving Morgan must have a taste for public sadomasochism, he has popped up on that soft cock Campbell Live last night.  This time Morgan unleashed his much vaunted phase II master stroke; a $5 bounty on each cat.

If the SPCA are clever, they should send him a bill for every cat they have to euthanize. As you all know I don’t much like cats but I don’t like animal abusers either.  I can see Morgan’s brainless idea unleashing fruitcakes claiming the bounty. This will get nasty since it comes from a desperate mad nasty little man who cannot deduce ‘cause’ from ‘effect’.  Read more »

First we must fatten the penguins….

Then we must motivate soccer players with our economic thoughts

Now Mad Morgan has a new mission – Kill the cats!

Top New Zealand economist Gareth Morgan is launching a campaign to eradicate domestic cats.

Dr Morgan has set up a website called Cats to Go, where he calls the animals sadists and natural-born killers that destroy native wildlife.

Now on this issue I agree with Gareth…cats are evil little creatures, especially feral cats. Read more »

Yesterday some cat lovers took exception to my post about humanely dispatching feral cats. Someone suggested that cutting cat’s throats rather than drowning, putting the sack over a car exhaust or whacking them against a tree.

The problem with trying to cut a wild cat’s throat is that they are really, really angry cats and they are pretty pissed off about being in a cage trap anyway.

These aren’t cute moggies that start purring when you find them in the trap, they spit and hiss and are all aggressive. Obviously anyone saying cut their throat doesn’t know what they are talking about, because to cut a cat’s throat you need to hold it relatively still with one hand while you slit its throat with a knife in the other.

Holding a feral cat with one hand is near impossible. It tries to bite you and scratch you with all four sets of claws, and even if you can pin it down with your boot you need some pretty big boots to stop it scratching your leg. You can’t easily get your hand under its chin because it will bite you, and scratch you with its front quarters.

If the commentor who reckons that cutting a feral cats throat is possible I will happily post a video of them doing it to prove I am wrong, but I don’t think I am.

ᔥ Dom Post

I’m with Judith Callaghan…shoot them and side step the trapping palaver. For the squeamish out there I am not advocating this for all cats, just feral cats…which are a plague:

Five colonies of feral cats at a popular Masterton park should be trapped and then rehomed or killed, a council report is recommending.

The cats, described as “hungry and disgusting” at a Masterton District Council meeting last month, have become a fixture at Queen Elizabeth Park, and are often seen wandering around the picnic areas. They are fed by members of the public.

Recently they had become increasingly aggressive, and had taken to “snapping at kids”, councillor Gary Caffell told the meeting.

Another councillor, Judith Callaghan, called for the cats to be shot.

I reader sent in this by way of example…of a good feral cat…note the wad in the side of the cat:

ᔥ NZherald.co.nz

Brian Rudman gives up going on the bludge for a theatre to hammer home the inconsistency of dog licenses without taxing cat owners.

In Queensland, the state Government recently introduced compulsory registration of cats – with a microchip and identification collar – to try to reduce the need for tens of thousands of strays to be put down each year and to help protect the local wildlife. With the Northern Territory, it was the last part of Australia without compulsory registration of cats and dogs.

The annual non-desexed cat fee is A$43.40 ($55.12), the desexed fee, half that. Pensioners pay half. Dog charges are double, with a dangerous-dog fee of A$454. There is debate about mandatory desexing as the next move.

The New South Wales Companion Animals Act came into effect in September 1998, introducing a permanent identification and lifetime registration system. The Government argued it greatly assisted authorities in returning lost and injured animals to their owners and provided councils with a more effective means of keeping track of dogs and cats for the benefit of the wider community.

In New South Wales, the one-time charge for registering a desexed animal is A$40, (pensioners A$15), a non-desexed animal, A$150.

There’s little doubt that a reduction in the number of stray cats would be welcome news to the birds and lizards and weta of Auckland, to say nothing of the shopkeepers and residents near the colonies of feral cats around the town. But somehow it seems unlikely that Auckland councillors are “entire” enough, to use the clinical term, to stand up to a snarl from cat-loving voters. Not after a woof from the doggie set was enough to sent them whimpering off.

Regular readers know that I don’t like cats. Domestic cats get to live, but I still don’t like them. Feral cats get dead.

But here is a classic example fo why cats are evil little f*ckers. If I had a cat that did that I’d ease it out the door with my foot.

I get a lot of flack for posting pictures of dead feral cats….but it seems cats rule the internet.

What I want to know is does it matter if they are dead?

Cats may not be man’s best friend, but they’re arguably something even better: man’s key to instant Internet pageviews. It’s a long-established fact that Internet content—whether it’s a cutesy video, a photoshopped inside joke, or a longform public health article—has a better chance of achieving coveted “viral” status if it somehow evokes the sound of purring.

…

But the reason that cats have catapulted to cyber-fame isn’t purely biological: There are social factors at play as well. Steve Dale, a cat behavior consultant and pet journalist, told me that cat aficionados have been particularly drawn to the Internet because they lack other public safety valves where they can express their affection. “In the world of cats, there is no dog park,” Dale says. “For cat owners, the dog park is the Internet.”

…

The most compelling explanation for our interest in cats, however, may be the most simple: we’re in awe of them. Nagelschneider told me that we’re inclined to watch cats climbing trees or walking upside down on walls because we wish we could do so ourselves—or, in her words, “When we are watching these videos, they just blow our minds.” To whatever extent that’s true, it’s certainly worth a click.

The only click a cat is worth is the clik of the safety coming off.