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OCT 21- OCT 28, 2014

Letters to the Editor

October 21, 2014

The following letters are in response to the guest view that appeared on Oct 14, 2014

TNR Feral Cats Are Still Destructive Killers and Nuisance.

 

 

Op-Ed Wrong About Feral Cats

I honestly believe that the article, “TNR Feral Cats Are Still Destructive Killers and Nuisance” posted on the 14th of October 2014 should be removed due to the fact that the source of the article if full of inaccurate facts about the TNR program.

I have participated in the University of Phoenix where I live. (she got that wrong also) We did not have a population explosion or a doubling of the cat population, In fact we had a dramatic reduction in the cat population at our Phoenix campus.

The same come true with the feral population at the Riparian Audubon Preserve in Gilbet, AZ

I don’t know where this person got her facts from, but they are all wrong. I would not be the least surprise if this person is a cat hater or even a dog hater.

Mark Ellis

Phoenix, AZ.

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Hate on Cats

Editors here at the Reporter are starting to suspect that loving, cat fancier Josh Belisle may not think too highly of us.

 

You stupid mother f---g, a-s wipes.. What gives you douche f--ks the right to hate on cats? Why don't you stupid sh-t for brain f--ktards get a goddamn life.. Karma will be a real bitch for you sorry pieces of dog sh--t.

Worthless dumb f--ks. Bunch of

b-tch a-s cowards.

If you have any dignity whatsoever, you'll respond you f-ck faced sh-t heads.

Joshua Paul Belisle

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Cat Poo Not the Problem

Read your guest view “TNR Feral Cats Are Still Destructive Killers and Nuisance,” by Lori Ogozalek, which is nothing but a person used as your mouthpiece.

She clearly knows nothing and makes up facts to boost her point of colored view?

She says toxoplasmosis is spread from cats? Toxoplasmosis is actually spread from birds to cats and dogs!

And really? she says all the deaths of walrus, whales and dolphins are caused by cat poo in our run off?

I thought it is from fertilizer and industry waste.

How can any organization, or even our Fish and Wildlife Dept. afford to count all the free roaming cats to come up with the hundreds of millions of cats nationwide that she used in her article?

Love to see her data, methods and by whom and how many! Throwing out a huge figure on stray cats you know damn well no one will bother to challenge!

It is easier to have the desire to be accurate when the subject is the one you so love and want to conserve instead of wanting to be killed!

The truth is, colonies of ferals have diminished due to Trap Neuter and Release.

If you bother to do research and ask the caretakers. The oldest colony which located in FL shrunk from over 1000 to under 100 cats!

And my friend's colony are gone because all the cats died of old age !

I know it works!

Dumping or leaving pets behind is illegal. Why don't I see anyone demand the law enforced? Why don't I see any articles bitching about such people and law enforcement ?

Your author is wrong also regarding rabies and cats!

About 300 cats were with rabies.

So how would 300 cats bite over 10,000 people, as she says?

Ad the media, like you, never told us about it? It should have been on the national news on all TV channels!

Most rabies are carried by raccoons and other wild animals, including bats!

Animals like raccoons do not take kindly to a lowly cat!

And as for her contention that cat poo kills whales? Baluga ? Really?

Aren't people killing wolves up in Alaska ? Don't they have black bear, grizzles and foxes? Predators in the wild to contain that prey on pets ?

As for manatees, they die from being run over by boats, pollution and lack of clean water ! And tourists!

I support the group for manatee in Florida . They never blame or point their finger at cat poo or cats, like they do with people !

S. Sang

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Rebutting Ms. Ogozalek's

Anti-feral TNR article

I think just about everyone, but a select few are missing the point on TRap Neuter Release (TNR).

This ranges from well-meaning humane workers to rabid birders.

TNR was originally instituted by the RSPCA in Liverpool, U.K. back in the 1970's to control dock cats.

It worked, which is why it became begrudgingly popular.

Nowadays, however, far too many cats are being neutered and left on the streets when they have no business remaining in a situation they were obviously not acclimated to.

When I did TNR on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C. in the early 1980's, we removed all kittens and friendly (obviously dumped) cats and found indoor homes for them.

The only cats remaining were definitely feral and they were vaccinated and neutered. They did their job as 'place holders' and in keeping other cats from moving into their territory and controlled rodents via non-toxic means.

As spay/neuter became more of the norm (especially through shelters requiring sterilization), the risk of new cats fell and the colony died out of natural causes.

Miami has a terrible pet overpopulation problem and it is not due to 'feral' cats. It is due solely to humans and certain cultural misgivings about sterilization.

Please quit beating the Toxoplasmosis 'horse'. It is dead and should be buried. Cats might be the top infective agent in the United States for toxo, but that is because cats are also the most popular house pet.

The actual infection rate in cats is very low.

Cats must consume animals that are the vectors of Toxo and that would be birds and rodents.

When I was pregnant with our son, 20 years ago, France was having a terrible outbreak of Toxoplasmosis due to Pigeons which also were popular as a meal. In Finland and Sweden, hares are the carriers of Toxoplasmosis.

Because I did feral cat work and was pregnant, I was tested repeatedly for Toxoplasmosis and did not seem to contract the disease.

I will state, however, that a puppy we recently rescued was diagnosed with Toxoplasmosis along with two other lethal parasites. Based on the breed, cats were not the issue.

I mourn the loss of the world's birds as much as anyone and especially Ms. Ogozalek. I am active in wildlife rescue and frequent sites slated for development. I have seen firsthand the damage of lost habitat.

As an active hiker, I have notified local bird rescuers of what I suspected was West Nile Virus ravaging local species. Sadly, this turned out to be true.

Birds are lost by the thousands to wind turbines, solar fields, chemical contamination, poor husbandry (dirty bird feeders) and wildlife predation. Cats may not help a bird's cause, but they are not the undoing of the species. It still boils down to humans.

Puller Lanigan

Silver Spring, MD

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Another Rebuttal to Cats

I have spent most of the weekend volunteering to help free-roaming community cats. I have delivered traps to other volunteers, picked up cats that have been trapped, prepared carriers for them to rest in after their surgery and driven the cats in traps and the carriers to a veterinary hospital. There, I joined more than a dozen people including veterinarians, technicians, assistants and other volunteers. Together this team worked to sedate, perform surgery, vaccinate for distemper and rabies, apply flea treatment and clean the cats’ ears.

One of the cats’ ears is also ‘tipped,’ to indicate they have had veterinary care, then they are placed in recovery carriers and watched while they awake from anesthesia.

Later, volunteers take the cats home to rest and recover in their carriers for a day or two, then they are re-released to their familiar outdoor homes. Today we cared for more than two dozen cats in this way.

I arrived home very tired, to read the letter to the editor in your paper calling people like myself ‘ignorant,’ if we believe free-roaming cats have a place in our communities. I am really too tired to argue with this individual’s sentiment, except to ask the following questions:

If you believe that free-roaming cats are responsible for declines in bird populations, what part do you think development, both commercial and residential, has played? Cats have been around for thousands of years, but humans have only overdeveloped our coastal areas very recently. Research indicates humans and the development they cause are a more dangerous enemy to our native bird populations than cats, particularly if the cats are part of a colony that is fed regularly.

If allowing spayed, neutered and vaccinated cats to live in our communities is wrong, what would you have us do with them? It has been shown that removing cats from an area results in a ‘vacuum effect.’ Other cats move into the vacant territory that has been recently cleared of cats. Rather than continually removing cats from an area and killing them, the more effective, economical and humane alternative is to trap, spay or neuter, vaccinate and release (or TNR) the cats

If all the volunteers stopped taking care of community cats, preventing rabies and the explosion of kittens we know would result otherwise, would that be a better outcome? People regularly tell me I am wasting my time by working on the pet overpopulation problem. I can only say that, for the cats we worked with today, their future has definitely improved. That is enough for me.

Donna Bloomer

Wilmington, NC

 

 

 

 

 

 

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