Time to stock up on cat collars
If you’re a seller of cat collars with bells, whistles and electronic bleepers then you may see an uptick in sales over the next few days. Springwatch presenter Chris Packham has warned of the danger pets can have on the environment. He’s calling for curfews with owners keeping their cats in at night and insisting that every cat should have a double bell on its collar. Apparently this will reduce cat kills of birds and wildlife by anything up to 45%.
I have a few problems with his reasoning though. His main point is that cats are affecting the natural eco-systems with bird and small mammal kills and could have an “apocalyptic impact” when they go “feral”. Well if that’s the case how will a few bells and a curfew help? Feral cats are hardly going to be curled up on the end of their non-existent owners’ beds and ownerless cats have no one to buy them a collar. All that will be achieved is a few pet owners buying new collars and the real feline predators will continue to roam looking for their next easy meal.
Cats were once traditionally kept specifically to keep wild life at bay – ask any farmer and they’ll have had a few cats running around the barns, preferable with one that’s “a good ratter”. If our towns and cities weren’t full of feline friends we’d soon discover the rats and mice were living a little closer to us then they currently do, which is why the Victorians were so fond of cats.
So will you by buying a double bell collar for your cat? Will you be keeping your cat in at night (which incidentally is against their natural behaviour and will simply cause them stress).
Whatever your views it’s good news for sellers of pet supplies, the profile cats are being given should cause an uptick in the sales of collars with bells.
John Pemberton says
10:14 am on 21/06/2012
Cats have the right to kill 24/7. I think putting a [double] bell on them is a form of discrimination
My 2 cats are responsible for keeping the local rabbit population in check. They appreciate that I allow them this privilege by bringing me various presents to the doorstep.
Neil says
11:25 am on 21/06/2012
Unless Chris Packham can point to an exponential increase in the number of cats over the recent years, he is talking complete and utter tosh.
Cats have not suddenly started to kill birds and rabbits – that’s a natural reaction and they’ve always done it.
So Mr Packham, why were cats not a major threat to the bird population 30 years ago when the majority were not neutered and therefore there were probably MORE of them around?
Chris Dawson says
1:59 pm on 21/06/2012
Cats are essential as
a) they don’t poo in their own garden and
b) they’ll stop other cats pooing in your garden too
Chris says
3:10 pm on 21/06/2012
The Ancient Egyptians had a very simple Law in regard to Cats. If you killed one you die. They had the Death Penalty for Killing a Cat ..Why? Because Cats kept the Rat and Mouse population under control.
Today every year or so we get some clown calling for restrictions on Cats. I have a Cat that in its younger days(She’s 13 years old) killed everything that moved(or should I say everything that came close enough to allow her to kill). What happened was that the Birds and indeed Mammals always kept a very good eye out for her and if she was about then they made themselves scarce.
Yet I always had a Garden Full of Birds and a fair few Mammals.
If you go back to the Black Death in the 14th Century the Church blamed the Plague on Cats and ordered the destruction of the Cat Population. I have always wondered if they had left the Cat population to do its job and kill the Rats if the Black Death might have either been controlled or reduced in its impact. LEAVE THE CATS ALONE.
Woodsman says
3:35 am on 22/06/2012
The only thing that I ever buy for any stray cat, feral or not, collared or not, are the most reliable and most inexpensive .22s. ALL problems that cats and their owners cause, permanently solved.
Oh, and Chris? Recheck your bastardized and biased history lessons. Only a FEW cats were kept for pets. All the rest were collected from nearby regions then immediately killed, disemboweled, and mummified. They were used for sacrifices. This is how they were all “worshiped”. Most of them were all young cats too. This is why 300,000 mummified cats were found buried in Ancient Egypt. If you want to worship cats today like the Egyptians did, I suggest you get busy killing and mummifying them.
You need to also learn a little something about The Plague. It is now being spread today in the USA by cats. People have already died from cat-transmitted plague in the USA. (Don’t believe me? Learn to use a search engine.) No rats nor fleas even required. CATS spread the plague ALL ON THEIR OWN. Completely dispelling that oft-spewed myth and lie that you just told. If more cats were around in Europe, the problem would have been exponentially worse, not better.
Here’s a few links to get you started:
Cat-Transmitted Fatal Pneumonic Plague …
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8059908
Plague confirmed in feral cat in Pagosa
http://www.pagosasun.com/archives/2011/07July/072811/webplague.html
Tularemia & Plague in West-Yellowstone Cats – Both are Bio-terrorism Agents
http://www.westyellowstonenews.com/news/article_02fceec6-f695-11e0-b752-001cc4c002e0.html
Oregon man suffering from the plague is in critical condition
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/oregon-man-suffering-plague-critical-condition-article-1.1094782
Health department said Taos cat has the plague
http://www.daily-times.com/ci_20849462/health-department-said-taos-cat-has-plague
During all my investigation of how this deadly disease-spreading, native wildlife destroying, man-made cat invasive-species ecological disaster has now happened on every continent on earth I have discovered something that is unfaltering without fail. Something that you can bet your very life on and win every last time. That being — IF A TNR CAT-HOARDER IS TALKING THEN THEY ARE LYING. 100% guaranteed!
Chris says
9:48 am on June 28th, 2012
What total rubbish. The Egyptians stored large quantities of grain and other foodstuffs in huge barns against the famines that they knew would come when the Nile Floods failed(as they did fairly regularly). They found very quickly that a Barn full of grain attracted the rats and mice in large numbers. But that the cats followed the rats and mice into the barns and were very happy killing and keeping the rats and mice under control.
So if the ancient Egyptians wanted to keep their emergency food supplies intact they needed the cats. Hence the Law that if you killed a Cat you died. Also that the Ancient Egyptiand worshiped the Cat because without it their civilisation was doomed to fail with the next major famine(and some famines lasted for several years)
Yes they mummified cats. But these were done not by the local population but by the Priests and were covered by the religion. Also the Ancient Egyptian Civilisation lasted for well over a thousand years so the total number of mummified cats as a percentage of the local cat population was very small.
Every so often there are attacks on Cats and Dogs in the UK. Very Evil people put poison down or traps or other methods of killing them. The Courts, RSPCA and Police take a very dim view of such activity.
Years ago I used to have a cat that often brought home a Rabbit and ate it. There is NO LAW AT ALL that makes it illegal for a Cat to kill Vermin and a Rabbit is exactly that.
There is a Law against Dogs worrying Farmers Animals. A Farmer is jusified in killing a dog he catches worrying such as his Sheep. But a Sheep is a domesticated animal.
Thinking about killing of domesticated animals. Hunts out in the Countryside have a long history of catching and killing such as cats and indeed other dogs. This does not mean that the hunts dogs should be killed. At best it would mean that the owner of the cat would get a visit from the Huntsman and either given a replacement cat or perhaps a few plounds compensation although in many cases they probably did not even get a visit from the Huntsman.
As I said before LEAVE THE CATS ALONE.
Liz says
10:06 am on 25/06/2012
A dog person then? All wild animals have the potential to spread disease, just as humans do.
My two cats live indoors and are quite happy. However indoor cats require you to be the mouse (aka run round the house with a piece of string) or they take out their frustration with destruction on things you hold dear. The more you love it, the more they will target it.
Nature Advocate says
6:15 pm on 27/06/2012
Feral dog-packs are a rarity in most rural areas. They are SHOT before things get that bad. It is mandatory BY LAW to shoot any dog that is seen harassing wildlife whether it is on your own property or not. Unfortunately, people moving to the country aren’t aware of this so they refuse to do their civic and moral duty by destroying that dog or cat that is harming other animals. I keep a paintball-gun loaded with red-pellets for any stray dogs. Stings enough to teach a teachable dog, and leaves a nice signal on their coat. The first time they get the paintball gun. If that doesn’t teach the dog’s owner and alert them to what could have really happened to their dog, then out comes the rifle next time. Cats aren’t so easily forgiven, because from past experience I know that warning cat-owners (for 15 YEARS) does no good. So out comes the rifle on the first sighting of ANY cat now instead of the paintball-gun. People in rural areas who actually care about their animals keep them PROPERLY SUPERVISED AND CONTAINED, or they lose them — permanently. You can tell who actually loves their animals, their animals are still alive. It’s the law of the land.
As for your concerns about indoor cats destroying your own things, why on earth would “cat lovers” want to release that destruction on their neighbors and all of nature? If YOU don’t want the behaviors of your chosen pet, then choose a pet with behaviors that you can tolerate. Don’t go making YOUR problem, borne of stupidity, everyone else’s problem. You might not like how they solve YOUR problem.
I just “solved” 5 more of these problems this week, because some lame-brained cat-lover thought she could release more cats that someone dumped on her, and she in turn dumped them onto my land (she has no respect for property boundaries). Fertilizer is all that these cats are good for. And that’s exactly what they are doing now. Are non-sterilized pure-bred Siamese cats expensive? I sure hope so. If so, those plants are now getting the best plant-food ever! And the ex-owner is now taking a nice financial hit.
Problem solved for another 2 years, unless the moron cat-lover accepts more cats from people who don’t want them. Then they too get shot within a day of her getting them. Some people never learn. If she’s taking them from local shelters or something, you think they’d ask her by now, “What did you do with the last 500 we gave you? Use them for stews?” But they don’t care what happens to cats either. They don’t want them either — no matter what happens to them after they are out of their sight, just like every other last “cat lover” on earth.
Chris says
10:01 am on June 28th, 2012
“Nature Advocate” this name hardly equates to the message of almost pure evil contained in his posting. Shooting domestic pets is illegal. If you do not believe me please talk to such as the Police or RSPCA before you next bring out your rifle. Indeed if the Police believe that you are shooting domestic pets with your rifle my guess is that it will be confiscated and you will never again get a licence for another(subject that is to you having a licence for your current one)
There is a very common belief(that has been unfortunately confirmed on numerous occassions) that the criminal that starts by killing domestic pets often moves on to killing children. So it is possible that in a few years time we will be reading about you on the front pages of the national press.
Anybody who expresses the views that “Nature Advocate” does is a totally evil and unpleasant person. As I said before LEAVE THE CATS ALONE
Chris says
11:17 pm on June 28th, 2012
In your posting “Nature Advocate” you give the impression that it is a “Civic Duty” to kill, to shoot a dog that is harassing wildlife whether it is on your property or not. As I pointed out above this is total rubbish and certainly directly opposite to what the Law actually states.
However it is illegal to take a gun onto land that you do not own unless you have the permission of the owner. If you shoot anything, indeed if you take a gun onto land that you do not own and do not have permission from the Landowner this is ARMED TRESPASS.
If the Police catch you then they will a) confiscate all your guns, b) withdraw all of your gun licences for life and c) Prosecute.
If you are wandering around the Countryside with a gun it is vital that you know where you are. If you own the Land then you can shoot various categories of creature. It does not include Domesticated Animals, except if they are such as dogs harrassing Sheep(and they are your Sheep). It does not include such as Song Birds and other protected Birds(only some categories of bird that are legitimately specified in the rules and regulations).
But you should be careful if you are walking around land where you have permission to be. In the countryside boundaries are often complicated. If you do not know the boundaries of the land where you have permission to be and stray over the boundary onto another Farmers Land or Land owned by another Land Owner then this is legally Armed Trespass.
It is no excuse that Farmer A has given me permission to shoot over his land if you are physically on Farmer B’s Land.
Both “Nature Advocate” and “Woodsman” have stated in their posting that they have broken the Law and give the impression that they have done so on numerous occassions. Surely Tamebay should bring this to the attention of the relavent authorities. After all Breaking the Law is a serious offence. Blasting away at Domestic Pets is a Crime. The Wholesale killing of protected animals and birds is a crime and those of us who live in the countryside, and who love and respect the countryside want the criminals who destroy so much in the countyryside like “Nature Advocate” and “Woodsman” to be arrested and imprisoned and certainly to have their guns confiscated for life.
There is another point years ago on some land that I had at that time I caught some young thugs with guns that their moronic fathers had given them for their birthdays. They claimed that they had permission to be there(but I had not given them permission). They quoted a Farmer whos land was about a quarter of a mile away from my land. In addition they had been happily blasting away at anything that moved. A rustling in the leaves and blast. They had no idea what was in the bush. It could be a cat or dog or rabbit but it could so easily have been children playing hide and seek.
Over the years there have been many tragic “accidents” caused by morons with guns shooting without knowing or indeed caring what they are shooting at. Farmers have a justified need for guns to control vermin. But many other guns are held by morons who believe that it is their right to shoot and kill everything that moves, including children. This has to be ended.
Nature Advocate says
7:05 am on June 29th, 2012
This must be just like all those deeply disturbed serial-killers in the making that are eradicating all those other invasive-species in N. America; like Kudzu, Purple-Loosestrife, Gypsy Moths, Emerald Ash-Borers, African Cichlids, Burmese Pythons, Brown Tree Snakes, and Eurasian Watermilfoil from their lands and lakes. MANY of which are escaped pets or were released from pets’ habitats (Eurasian Watermilfoil came from pet fish aquariums).
Or how about all those sickos that run animal-shelters, they’re nothing but a bunch of child-murdering pedophiles because they have to euthanize animals every day. And every farmer and rancher that has to humanely put down an animal with a gun must be molesting and murdering everything in their county. Those damned sickos! And what about all those people in stockyards murdering all those cattle every day for your McBurgers? I bet they’re a hide-out for all the serial-killers that nobody can find! And all those hunters that provide food for their family by hunting, I bet they’re the worst of all!
And of course, the ABSOLUTELY WORST, MOST MENTALLY-ILL OF ALL — all those people who are murdering all those animals to make your cat-food for you! A bunch of demented basket cases! (on this one I’d agree)
I bet you’re onto something!
Like your needing serious psychological help.
Paranoid psychotic much?
Nature Advocate says
7:08 am on June 29th, 2012
Who do you think advised that I shoot all the neighbors’ cats that had invaded my land? The sheriff did. Even he gave up trying to reason with the likes of you. (You useless psychotic doofus.)
Nature Advocate says
7:03 am on 29/06/2012
The law in the USA is that it is perfectly legal to destroy any animal, someone’s pet or not, that is threatening the health, well-being, and safety of yourself, your family, your animals, or even your property. Also true even in most densely populated cities, firearms laws permitting, if not then 700-1200fps air-rifles are commonly used. The only animals exempt from you taking immediate action, legally, are those listed on endangered or threatened species lists, and any bird species under protection of MBTA (the Migratory Bird Treaty Act). Even then variances can be given should there be sufficient problem but this requires further study by authorities. Since cats are listed in the TOP 40 WORST invasive-species of the world in the “Global Invasive Species Database”, this means they have no protection whatsoever from being shot on sight, they are not on any protected-species list anywhere in the world. Quite the opposite as a matter of fact. And if your area enforces and obeys invasive-species laws — as they should — then it is against the law to NOT destroy any cat on sight, someone’s pet or not. It is your civic and moral responsibility to destroy any invasive-species that is found away from supervised confinement and roaming freely in a non-native habitat.
Shoot to maim is punishable under the laws that define animal-cruelty. But shoot to kill is a perfectly legal way to humanely destroy an animal. The same laws that apply to methods of humanely hunting animals also applies to cats. Unlike your psychotic beliefs, the reality is that a cat is just another animal. It’s NOT your baby, your child, your offspring. Even if you do view your cats that way, letting them roam free is no less criminally irresponsible than telling your child to go play in the freeway and then blaming the cars for their death. If you let your cat roam free, NO MATTER HOW IT DIES, that is YOUR fault and you can be charged with all laws that clearly define animal-neglect, animal-abandonment, and animal-endangerment.
In fact, here’s a publication from a study done by the University of Nebraska on the best ways to HUMANELY deal with a feral-cat problem wherever you live. This documentation INCLUDES the best firearms, ammo, and air-rifles required to HUMANELY destroy cats. http://deenawinter.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/ec1781.pdf
Besides, what difference does it make if the cat gets shot or ran over by a car, attacked by another cat or animal, drowned, or poisoned by plants animals or chemicals (inexpensive 1-adult-strength generic acetaminophen pain-relievers gaining in popularity, for being so species specific). The result is the same. The cause is the same — the fault of the criminally irresponsible pet-owner that let their invasive-species pet roam free. They’ve already proved that their animal is 100% expendable. You can either destroy their cat for them humanely, or let their lack of care cause it to inevitably die inhumanely. They don’t care one bit how their cat might cruelly suffer to death if they let it roam free. Humanely destroy their cat for them before that can happen.
When flying over the USA on a clear day, look down. Then you’ll see that vast coast-to-coast patchwork-quilt of farms and ranches where it’s perfectly legal to destroy every last cat.
You might also like to know …
If you advocate for cats as rodent-control on farms and ranches you’ve already doomed them to being destroyed by drowning or shooting when it becomes a financial liability more than any asset. Ranchers and farmers worldwide are fully aware that cats’ Toxoplasma gondii parasite can cause the very same birth defects (hydrocephaly and microcephaly), still-births, and miscarriages in their livestock and important wildlife as it can in pregnant women. Consequently, this is also how this cats’ brain-parasite gets into your meats and onto your dinner-tables, from herbivores ingesting this cat-parasites’ oocysts in the soils, transferred to the plants and grains that they eat. Not even washing your hands in bleach will destroy this parasites’ oocysts if you have contracted it from your garden or yard that a cat has defecated in.
This is why any cats are ROUTINELY destroyed around gestating livestock and wildlife-management areas in the most efficient, humane, and least-expensive method available. Common rural practice everywhere. The risk of financial loss from dead livestock and important native wildlife from an invasive-species cat is far too great to do otherwise. This cats’ parasite is now even killing off rare marine-mammals along all coastal regions from run-off containing this cat-parasites’ oocysts.
The next time you bite into that whole-grain veggie-muffin or McBurger, you need to just envision biting down on a shot-dead or drowned kitten or cat. For that’s precisely how that food supply got to your mouth — whether you want to face up to it or not. It’s not going to change reality no matter how much you twist your mind away from the truth of your world.
If you want to blame someone for the drowning and shooting of cats, you need to prosecute yourself — every time you eat.
Chris says
9:20 am on June 29th, 2012
I’m sorry I took it from your earlier post that you were located within a Country that I would recognise as civilised and essentially humane. Obvioously if you are saying that you are in America and that the Laws in America make legal such behavious then obviously I was wrong.
ClarkP says
8:02 am on June 30th, 2012
Letting cats roam free is “civilized” and “humane”?!?
Really?
REALLY?!?
Well now … let us just look at how to become JUST AS HUMANE and CIVILIZED as EVERY LAST CAT-LOVER that let’s their cats roam free.
Shall we?
Don’t close your eyes, you don’t want to miss this …
“The Way That *ALL* Stray-Cats Die”
1) Aim your car for cats when it’s safe for all else to do so.
2) Put out poison for cats (Acetaminophen/Paracetamol (1-capsule generic tylenol) pain-relievers (the most cat-species specific), antifreeze, vermin-poisons, poisonous plants or animals — the ways that all TNR’ed cats succumb to “attrition” by poisons).
3) Infect them with deadly diseases.
4) Turn your dogs or other large predators loose on them.
5) Starve them to death.
6) Let them die of thirst.
7) Put them in heated boxes until they die of heat exhaustion (emulate hot weather).
8) Throw them in freezers until they are dead (emulate a harsh winter).
9) Scratch the cat’s eyes and gash their skin to emulate a cat-attack so they slowly die of infections. (Justifiably the same way they destroy all native animals. Though that involves more skinning-alive and disemboweling-alive so the cat can enjoy their play-toy writhe and twitch to death. The longer it takes an animal to die of wounds the more a cat enjoys it. The cat-lovers themselves also greatly enjoy this, or they wouldn’t let their cats do it.)
10) Trap and drown.
11) Shoot them.
Can you think of more ways that *ALL* stray cats die?
NONE of them die of old-age you know!
Any of these are the “natural” ways that stray cats die, so these cat-owners should have NO problems when you destroy their cats this way!
Right?
It’s how they’re doing it! TO EVERY LAST ONE OF THEIR CATS.
If these methods are acceptable to all cat-lovers then it’s PERFECTLY okay for anyone else to do the same!
If you kill their cats this way and they complain they’re just being whiny hypocrites. That’s all.
And THAT folks, is how to become just as “humane” and “civilized” as every last cat-owner that let’s their cat roam free!
Note: the advise from this criminally-negligent animal-abuser named “Chris”, coming from a culture that has already destroyed nearly all their native wildlife because they’re just that incredibly stupid and irresponsible with their land and planet. Not quite the resource of wisdom that the rest of the planet needs nor wants.
Chris says
2:09 pm on July 2nd, 2012
I can only take it that your posting is a wind-up. I cannot believe that you really can be so demented(although as the other demented posters on this subject seem all to be American it is possible that you to are American).
In the UK if you were to do almost every single one of the things that you advocate the Police and certainly the RSPCA would be very interested. They would arrest you and put you on trial and the Courts would likely to sentence you to the most severe of punishments that they have available.
Mind you if you are American would we be surprised. American TV that we see in the UK seems all to be based upon Murder and mayhem. It appears from the News Broadcasts that the American send their drones around the World to places such as Pakistan to blast Women and Children and then claim that babes in arms are Combatents and are a threat to the American Civilisation.
There is an important point about “American Civilisation”. is America Civilised? Certainly it appears as if America is controlled by Organised Crime and Drug Gangs and other such Low Life. Certainly the attitude towards animals such as Cats seems to confirm this.
In regard to claims about the UK’s Wildlife I can only speak about my local Wildlife and I can confirm that we have a good level of Wildlife. It has certainly not been wiped out. Maybe a part of that is that we have tight(although there are many who call for even more tight restrictions on Guns)Gun Laws. So we do not have “The Right to Bear Arms” which allows “Hunters” to roam around the Countryside blasting anything that moves as happens in the USA. In the UK few have a rifle or shotgun(I do not have either)
So All in All I would argue that we in the UK are many times more humane that Americans. Mind you with luck the Yellowstone Super Volcano will erupt and its due and will correct that severe error that Christopher Columbus made in 1492 when he discovered America. If he had not bothered the World would be a considerably better place.
ClarkP says
11:00 am on July 5th, 2012
Chris said, “In the UK if you were to do almost every single one of the things that you advocate the Police and certainly the RSPCA would be very interested. They would arrest you and put you on trial and the Courts would likely to sentence you to the most severe of punishments that they have available.”
And THIS is PRECISELY why there are animal-neglect, animal-abandonment, and animal-endangerment laws on the books in every state of the USA. TO PROSECUTE PEOPLE LIKE *YOU* WHO LET YOUR CATS ROAM FREE AND CAUSE THEM TO DIE BY ANY OF THOSE MEANS PREVIOUSLY LISTED.
Holy-sh** are you f***ing dense. Like that’s any surprise though. I’ve not ran into even one cat-lover that was any smarter than you are. Nearly all of them are dumber than their cats. Try not to strain your brain too hard, but what do you think it means when “your cat can outsmart you”? The answer is quick and clear, you’re f***ing DUMBER THAN A CAT.
Chris says
3:00 pm on July 5th, 2012
I have had cats in my household almost all of my life. In almost every case I would guess that if you had asked the many cats if they wanted to go out or stay in the house I would expect that every one would have voted to do as they did which was to spend a part of their lives in doors and a part out doors.
For a Cat to spend time outside is not Cat Neglect, Cat Abandonment, or Cat Endangerment. It is in fact allowing the Cats to live their lives as CATS. I know where my cat is at this moment. She is curled up on my bed, probably snuggled up to the duvet. However tonight about 10pm she will be standing by the back door and asking to be let out.
She would consider that I was being cruel if I did not let her out(unless it was raining when she might change her mind).
Those who threaten the lives and health of the cats are those such as you ClarkP who give the indication that you consider that you are justified to shoot your guns at, or put down poison, or set traps for Cats when they are out and about being Cats.
When I am about in my garden gardening often the Robin will come and sit on a branch and sing to me. At the same time my Cat will be sitting in the garden and also watching me gardening(probably because it is not a common occurrence). At the same time the Robin and the Cat are keeping an eye on each other. The Cat hoping that the Robin gets close and in the Robins case to make certain that he does not stray to close to the Cat.
There may be a threat to the Robin while the Cat is in the Garden but each respects the other. Just as it should be. There is no reason for anybody with a gun, trap, poison or anything else to threaten my cat. And certainly not to try to justify it as being to save the Wildlife, which is perfectly capable of looking after itself.
As far as the IQ of me compared with my Cat. I have never ever tried to measure or compare them and I doubt if you have either. However at least my IQ is capable of measuring, even if I have not measured it. While in regard to ClarkP’s IQ I would not believe that it is capable of measuring, or indeed finding.
st georges dragon says
8:32 pm on 05/07/2012
Cat owners are all BARKING lol lol lol