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I see no violation of the 10YO daughter rule.

...a 10-year-old realizes the difference between a pet and a feral animal...

Oldgringo wrote:

flb_78 wrote:

Oldgringo wrote:What are y'all doing with the carcasses of all of these feral cats you're killin'? You just leave 'em lie or what? Just askin'...

Texas BBQ...

Jumping Frog wrote:Buzzards gotta make a livin' too!

So, 10 YO daughters don't frequent this forum no more ?

Back when we were a rural society and 90% of the population lived on farms, every 10 year-old already knew that creatures in nature did not die a peaceful death from old age, and they also knew that once dead, the bodies were never wasted. Whether we are talking buzzards, coyotes, or beetles, everything in nature needs to make a living.

I don't see where it hurts a 10 year-old to learn that truth about nature today.

Oldgringo wrote:What are y'all doing with the carcasses of all of these feral cats you're killin'? You just leave 'em lie or what? Just askin'...

I have a bunch of chickens and thus eggs. We get a lot of unwanted critters around trying to kill or steal a meal. Raccoons mostly, possums, snakes. When checking the barn at night we usually tote a shotgun but sometimes I use my carry weapon and do some speed drills. I like to throw the cracasses in the pond for the catfish. I've killed a dog, in the act of killing my chickens, but no cats...yet....

couzin wrote:

Ldy AlliDu wrote:

flechero wrote:I forgot to mention that trapping is indeed a great solution- to the first 1 or 2 cats... these cats have all seen the trap and won't go near it even with fresh tuna in it.

Yes, I have one now, and guess what, he marks my door every night, discussting.

I have found some stuff at Tractor Supply (Shotgun Repels-All) that I put on the perimeter of my yard - keeps the roaming dogs out and I have not had but one stray cat get inside the secure area. And then it was only because my indoor cat was taunting it from the window. When we lived in Longview out in the county I used the same stuff to keep armadillos from coming out of the woods to tear up my lawn and garden. A couple of applications will usually break the habit and the animals will move on to somebody elses place. Repels-All is nasty - it would knock a buzzard offa manure wagon...

I am going to have to buy some of that stuff. My neighbors are not considerate enough to keep their pets from using my yard to do their business. I realize how many people love their cats and dogs, but they should respect their neighbors. I get tired of smelling cat urine in my flower beds and walking through dog poop while I walk through my yard. Heck, Friendswood has ordinances about keeping pets from roaming around unleashed and people in my neighborhood still do not care. I never allow my dog to roam into other peoples yards and do her business - and if she does I pick it up. I know killing these feral cats offends some, but at some point any animal can become a nuisance. And, after all, at the end of the day they are just animals. Some people care more for animals than they do for human life, I will never understand that. Rant off, now back to our regularly scheduled topic...................

cbucher wrote:If you choose to do something like this that is your option. You might want to keep in mind that there are alot of people on these forums that have cats and dogs as pets. I am one of them and don't see them as targets to discuss what weapon to use to kill the. I would hope a moderator would lock this as it doesn't to be worthy of discussion given the intent. I hope you don't have pets that end up in someones yard like yours.

That is a fine if you control your cats. I'm the only resident on this street that no longer has any pets. 24 hours a day we have cats defecating in any loose dirt (gardens), flower pots, decorative gravel, urinating on and killing potted plants, chasing birds at our feeders, climbing on my vehicles and urinating on the windows. I can't leave my garage door open without having cats crawling through my shelves and my shop. Another neighbor had a wrecked car under a tarp in his drive for a short time. When he went to move it out there was a mother cat that gave birth in the back seat. Cats are fighting outside my windows at nightly. Complaints to the neighbors are unheeded. Repellents DON"T work. This town has no animal control. The county says I have to catch the cats and take them 20+ miles to the shelter. I too am working on a more reasonable solution. Maybe the Coyotes will help. Owners please keep your pets under control.

flb_78 wrote:I see no violation of the 10YO daughter rule.

Well there's a bit of subjectivity in there... I didn't post a joke a while back because, even though it wouldn't have bothered me personally*, I've known reasonable people who wouldn't have wanted their 10 yo daughter exposed to the subject matter.

*At least I don't think it would... My sense of humor and what's ok changes when I'm around my niece, so maybe if I had a daughter I would think it be inappropriate.

2farnorth wrote:

cbucher wrote:If you choose to do something like this that is your option. You might want to keep in mind that there are alot of people on these forums that have cats and dogs as pets. I am one of them and don't see them as targets to discuss what weapon to use to kill the. I would hope a moderator would lock this as it doesn't to be worthy of discussion given the intent. I hope you don't have pets that end up in someones yard like yours.

That is a fine if you control your cats. I'm the only resident on this street that no longer has any pets. 24 hours a day we have cats defecating in any loose dirt (gardens), flower pots, decorative gravel, urinating on and killing potted plants, chasing birds at our feeders, climbing on my vehicles and urinating on the windows. I can't leave my garage door open without having cats crawling through my shelves and my shop. Another neighbor had a wrecked car under a tarp in his drive for a short time. When he went to move it out there was a mother cat that gave birth in the back seat. Cats are fighting outside my windows at nightly. Complaints to the neighbors are unheeded. Repellents DON"T work. This town has no animal control. The county says I have to catch the cats and take them 20+ miles to the shelter. I too am working on a more reasonable solution. Maybe the Coyotes will help. Owners please keep your pets under control.

About 30 years ago a woman living down the street from where we lived at the time had at least a 100 cats. They seemed content to hang in and around her house so no big deal, until she died.
Relatives came and took everything from the house but the cats. Fast forward a year and you can imagine what the whole neighborhood was going through.
Then one day a guy moved into the neighborhood and after a week decided he'd had enough. Within 48 hours everything roaming around the neighborhood on four legs was stiff as a board. He never owned up to what he did but we all had a pretty good idea.
None of us agreed with the method, but it sure was nice to sleep at night with out hearing Tom cats courting and all the things you mentioned.

speedsix wrote:...a 10-year-old realizes the difference between a pet and a feral animal...

Is that a fact?

Oldgringo wrote:

speedsix wrote:...a 10-year-old realizes the difference between a pet and a feral animal...

Is that a fact?

...yup...you might say it's elementary...

speedsix wrote:

Oldgringo wrote:

speedsix wrote:...a 10-year-old realizes the difference between a pet and a feral animal...

Is that a fact?

...yup...you might say it's elementary...

Well, it should be.

Unfortunately, in the last few generations, a lot of suburban and city kiddos make it to middle school before they realize where their food comes from. . . and they are likely to end up with a Disney-understanding of nature - where all of the animals get along and only man is evil - which in turn leads to major misconceptions of the world around us (like Grizzly Man).

Wild animals are wild animals, even if they resemble the animals we share our homes with.

fickman wrote:Wild animals are wild animals, even if they resemble the animals we share our homes with.

Bingo! I think this is something society fails to see today.

pbwalker wrote:

fickman wrote:Wild animals are wild animals, even if they resemble the animals we share our homes with.

Bingo! I think this is something society fails to see today.

[not my personal opinion!]
Some people are troubled on a deeper level than simply whether or not the animal in question is wild. Many people believe that animals in the wild either have the same rights as humans, or lacking that, believe that wild animals are merely being themselves, and we are the ones who have pushed them into the position of preying on us and our resources—so there is some kind of moral equivalency going on there.
[/not my personal opinion!]

Back in the late 1990s/early 2000s, a friend of mine from my Sunday School class had an adult female mountain lion hole up in his suburban backyard in Monrovia. The cat could not be dislodged, and for whatever reason, it could not be darted and moved. California Fish & Game officers ended up shooting and killing it. The outcry from some corners was quite loud. How dare they kill this cat? It was only being the way God made it!. None of those who protested the killing of the mountain lion acknowledged that the property owner (my friend) has a right to be safe in his home......without worrying about a big cat killing one of his kids or a pet. And he did not live out in the sticks. He didn't even live at the edge of town. He lived 3 or 4 blocks away from undeveloped foothills land, but well within the city limits.

Sentient people all understand that big cats (and bears, which were a problem in Monrovia too) are just reacting to the perfect storm of drought in the foothills and plentiful food and water in suburbia. They're going where the food and water is....same as you or I would do. BUT, if that is where your thinking stops, then you have a very limited view and you're failing to take into account that humans have rights, and your failing to observe some kind of priority in favor of your own species. People have rights, and among those rights are the right (secured by our founding documents, none of which include animals in their benefits) to be secure in the persons and their property.

I've owned a number of cats over the years, and I like cats just fine. But they are animals. I have had several of them put down by veterinarians over the years—something I wouldn't even dream of doing to a person I loved—and I loved those cats. We have a moral responsibility to not be unnecessarily cruel to our animals.....all of our animals......but we own them. They are legally our chattel. Those that nobody owns and are feral are legally subject to the same kinds of laws that regulate how we are supposed to deal with other feral nuisance animals. That is to say that, if somebody really does object to the way that a homeowner or farmer is dealing with nuisance animals which are affecting that homeowner's or farmer's quality of life, and nobody else is taking care of it, then let the protestor come on down and solve the problem. If they are not willing to do that, then the protestor should at least have the good grace to shut up about someone else's efforts to deal with a difficult problem.

My guess is that the OP doesn't generally get a kick out of going around and killing cats, but he has a significant problem on his hands and nobody is helping him fix it. He's asked for a caliber recommendation probably partly because he wants to make sure that if he shoots a cat, he dispatches it humanely. Nothing he's said has indicated that he enjoys the suffering of feral cats, but he does need to get rid of them, for sanitation reasons as much as anything else. If one of us doesn't like how he's handling it, then send him a PM asking how you can help, and then actually go down there and help him. Otherwise, trying to shame him or criticize him for the decision he's made to fix it on his own is pretty much no help at all, and it certainly isn't going to prolong the cats' lives.

That's my 2¢.

@TAM: But what caliber do you recommend?

Well anyways... This thread becomes alot more fun once you search and replace "cat" with "democrat".

Sevral gems emerge

I have a problem with feral democrats... yes, lots of them......

I'm talking about FERAL democrats, at a population level that is unhealthy and causing issues for the PEOPLE living here is what I'm talking about... not shooting some neighbor's democrat. Imagine 30+ democrats (many sick and starved down) living right around your house that are wild, none have ever seen a vet and the fleas are so bad you and your family are not able to go outside in your own yard, not to mention the stench of the...... [edited]

A lot of those feral democrats come from the unwanted pets that urbanites have disposed of by driving them out to the country. Every day there is a new one dumped off. If I captured them all, and drove them into town, and paid the $35, it would be a full-time job, and cost me a lot.

I forgot to mention that trapping is indeed a great solution- to the first 1 or 2 democrats... these democrats have all seen the trap and won't go near it even with fresh tuna in it.

Feral democrats are unnatural and damaging to the native environment. Shoot em for coyote bait. This is coming from a person with 3 indoor democrats.

They do get fed some from neighbors that feel bad seeing starving democrats. As for shelter- they stay under/in sheds, barns, deer blinds, and in a couple natural caves around here.

If you have that many democrats nearby and that are that sick/starving - I bet you have a democrat hoarder nearby. Very unusual to find 30+ different democrats as completely feral and sharing that tight of a space. They are probably getting some food and shelter very close.