ironglow: I differ with you, I shoot some every year. I put out the word, any cats found on my property will be shot on site. So have several of my neighbors.
We also set traps during the winter in out yards. I usually catch one or two coyotes at my well head during the winter. I will also catch two or three dogs, and two or three cats, in the same trap. Since it is in my front yard, I know when something gets caught.
The dogs I go out and you have never seen a more grateful dog. They understand the only way they are getting out is if I let them out of that trap. Even the meanest Pit Bull, or Husky, becomes very friendly. Once released a dog will never come back, and as people walk their dogs in the evening, when those dogs see me they always want to come over and say Hi.
But a house cat is totally different. If you get within their reach they will eat you alive. When I first started trapping I would release cats. Next night I would catch the same cat again, usually in the same trap. Now the .17HMR does the job, and coyotes or foxes clean up the evidence.
When people started letting cats run loose in the neighbor hood, I caught them killing the baby birds (Robins) in the small birch trees in the back yard, and in the nest under my barn roof. That's when I started shooting cats, as did my buddy two doors down the street, and also the guy two doors up the street. From comments made by other men at neighborhood meetings I am sure we are not the only ones either. By fall there was no cats left running loose in the subdivision. Lots of upset women, and young girls, out scouring the neighbor hood. When I was asked if I had seen a particular cat, I was in most cases able to tell them no I had not, but I reminded them that the borough had a leash law and cats were not allowed to be let run loose, neither were dogs.
On one occasion I had to tell a woman that yes I had seen her cat, it would have been much easier to have lied, but I won't do that. I told her that I had shot it as it killed and eat the baby robins out of a nest in my back yard. She got real upset, threatened to sue, and went home and sent her husband over to talk to me. Told him the same thing, and to keep his cats at home, if another one comes over here I'll shoot it too. Reminded him of the leash law and that I too could sue him for letting a predator of wildlife and domestic animals run loose in the neighborhood. How a house cat had gotten into my duck pond enclosure and killed some ducks. Never heard another word from it, and they don't speak to me to this day.
Every spring there is a fresh batch of cats running around, they don't last long. Was at a party last month, when we heard a shot. One of the guys yelled out in response of the shot, (That's just Hunter shooting another cat) everyone looked at me. Then the responder yelled, "Oops Hunters is here, could not have been him. Someone else is shooting cats". I yelled "Yea, another one bites the dust".
I openly hate cats, let everyone around me know it, and if they don't like it, that is their problem, not mine. Most of the men in the neighborhood agree with me as well. Every quarter we have a meeting of the people in the three subdivisions that make up our Road Service Area. There are always new families attending, and we welcome them into the neighborhood. Also while we have them there Dave the guy running the meetings, tells them pertunate information about the area. One thing he always brings up is pets. Pets are more than welcome, just don't let them run loose, especially cats.
