My article/blog was indeed a conversation piece, written to generate discussion. It was purposely left open-ended. I’d like to thank you for your eloquent response. It was not at all rambling, I think you under-sell yourself.
Firstly I have a two ‘issues’ to raise, before we get to the crux of the discussion.
Issue one; I am not a cat hater, like you i see no problem in keeping cats indoors. We have three pet cats, two of whom were ‘rescued’ feral cats from a trap-neuter-release programme we performed on a neighbouring farm to the colony of feral cats that I studied for my undergraduate thesis resided. So, i repeat, i am not a cat hater, but I am a hater of the damage that cats inflict on wildlife. It’s funny, because I am quite often called a cat hater, but I’ll return to this point later.
Purdey, one our rescued feral cats, and fat maggie (bambalam) with Aldo, a rescue dog from Ayia Napa, both house cats.
Issue two; I cannot say too much about the conflict between Scottish Wildcat Action and Wildcat Haven , but I can defend RZSS’s corner. You will not find a direct quote from Scottish Wildcat Action about ‘blasting cats in the face’ and that’s for one good reason; that quote came from Mr Wildcat Haven, Paul O’Donohue, who made this statement after* gaining access to an application for a trapping licence that the RZSS submitted to Scottish Natural Heritage . O’Donohue, for some reason, seemed to take delight in going public with this. The application document stated ” “Any individuals which are obviously feral domestic cats will be dispatched according to standard predator control practices, by the land manager, with appropriate firearm in one shot with minimal time to death.”
Now I’ll explain the state of play with this issue. It was alluded that Scottish Wildcat Action were going to be trapping feral cats willy-nilly, but what they have done is some rather sterling work creating good relations with some of the big hunting estates, which is where the traps are going to go. This is crucial as the hunting estates cover some of the parts of Scotland where the wildcat is currently hanging on by the skin of its claws. They have managed to get the gamekeepers to take a different approach to predator control when it comes to cats. Rather than going out at night, with powerful lamps, and blasting anything cat-like, they have abandoned this and are instead setting live cat-traps. This eliminates the risk of any Scottish wildcats being shot. The cats are then taken to the RZSS where they are pelage and DNA tested. If they are not wildcats then because the estates do not want feral cats released back onto their land (it is also probably illegal) they are humanely euthanized.
This whole issue was made to look like Tiddles was going to get his face blasted off (sorry to keep mentioning Tiddles) with a shotgun as part of some RZSS wide-scale cat trapping project. The whole issue is distracting away from the main topic at hand, but one last comment; the mud is only being slung from one direction. Wildcat Action are wasting valuable time, and resources, preparing responses to these accusations , time and resources that could be better spent on the task at hand; saving the Scottish wildcat.
Now I agree completely with what you are saying about our, as a nation, attitudes towards free-roaming cats, and the contradiction of this attitude when it’s applied to dogs. I agree completely that cats should be kept indoors, even from the angle that you suggest; for their own safety.
My ‘sparring’ session with the crazy cat lady occurred because I shared an advisory on what people should do with their cats to minimise their effects on wildlife. One of the things that the article suggested was a catio, caviary. or kittykat cat kennel . The article also stated numbers in regards to the damage that cats inflict on wildlife. This is where the “why do you people always blame cats” came from. Around that same time i was involved in several debates with cat-nutters. One in particular insisted that little Tiddles (him again) was simply filling the niche vacuum that would have once been filled by one of our once-native carnivores. Tiddles is sitting on his rightful throne at the top of the food chain. Therefore the damage that Tiddles inflicts is minimal. I can’t remember his answer when I suggested that we should let dogs roam free to fill the void left by wolves.
I did see a PhD that interested me. It was performing research on cat-owners attitudes towards their cats and their effect on wildlife. It interested me until less than a minute later i began to get cluster migraines at the mere suggestion of sparring with cat-nutters again. I’m sorry if this is confrontational, but some cat owners are clearly nutters. It goes beyond love. They think that their cat has a right to prey upon birds in neighbouring gardens and to shit in their flower beds for good measure..and to call anybody who has a problem with that, a cat hater.
I read recently that some new build housing estates in New Zealand are banning keeping cats as pets. I think that is a step too far, but i think that they’re on the right track. Instead I would like to see it phased in that free-roaming cats are outlawed. The RSPCA say that the UK is home to 8 million pet cats and an ‘unknown’ amount of feral cats. Going back to my dissertation, and off the top of my head, i think i found research which suggested we have 13-15 million cats in the UK – up to 7 million wild living cats. That is a problem that needs urgent action. My own research concluded that trap-neuter-release is limited, it is only effective when performed in conjunction with a euthanization programme. Sounds horrible, but it’s ‘our’ problem, and we have to solve it somehow. Unless you can think of a anything better?
*word removed. Thanks to Wildcat Haven for pointing out my unintentional misuse of the word “supposedly” – it was not my intention to mislead, my providing of a hyperlink to as reference is testament to that
Michael Willett 