They reason there are so many stray cats is because of irresponsible pet owners. If you are going to have a pet please keep it up to date on shots spay/neuter and by all means if you aren't going to do this then don't let them outside where they will get pregnant or impregnate another, so as that irresponsible pet owner then releases those new unwanted into the city to fair for themselves. Or worse yet another person picks them up because they are so cute when they are little, and thus there goes the cycle again, you get the picture. Be a responsible pet owner or don't have a PET.....

jstwndr, true, but only if you change the scenario. The scenario I had in mind had other people eventually in the house. ;~)

gazettefan: In the scenario you describe, more likely the cat will be the appetizer and the human the entree. :-)

In the last month I've been to two local family farms that were over-run with "barn" cats of various sizes and colors. Many were scrawny, sickly, sneezing, wheezing and snotty-nosed, and on occasion, they were engaging in territorial brawls due to the over-population of them.
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Farmers, neuter, spay and inoculate, PLEASE!!!
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I've also been to homes/yards where people have bird "feeding stations". The ground was covered in a mixture of old moldy seed and seed waste and bird feces and the feeders looked like they hadn't been cleaned since they were purchased years ago. At one home, children were playing around this filth and then running through the house.
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If you are going to feed birds, clean your feeders regularly and rake the ground underneath and properly dispose of the waste, PLEASE!!!!

If you have a cat and a dog and you drop dead on your kitchen floor, your dog will mourn you, your cat will look at you and wonder: "Should I eat it or walk around it?"

Cats! Nothing me and my red rider can't handle.

Cats are just little people with fur.

All insects, bugs, animals may carry disease and prey on other wildlife. Cleanse the world of all of them? Why just stray cats? What an ignorant perspective. I have spayed & neutered cats. I don't condone those that promote feral cats or dogs that are allowed to contact others. But I don't consider a few feathers a threat, especially when people encourage "feeding" grounds. My cats enjoy a few feathers, just as I enjoy my breakfast, lunch and dinner....and I'm fine with it. Of course they do get a regular diet of processed/ canned dead meat from the store too.

There seems to be a whole lotta unlovin' goin' on. But judging from some of these posts, it has some bearing on what kind of people they really are. Some find it a great excuse to be blatently narciccistic and lacking in decent empathy. Others are confused by the opposing political skewedness of the subject matter. IMHO

There are many animal welfare organizations, some at odds with the each other, and some with ulterior motive. Animal Rights versus Animal Welfare. Opinions stated as fact are all over the internet. A good researcher makes sure that the sources that are used are very authorative in nature as they would use the right kind of studies and polls and statistical information. That is why there are double blind studies.

The only real threat is ourselves. Nature has been handling things fine. Yes, cats kill birds, but it is no reason to target them for extermination and dig up unsupported mud on a program that WORKS. Saying TNR leads to increased populations at all is rather shooting your own foot is it not? When nuetered, an increased population is kinda, like, difficult, is it not?

So quit yer hatin' soapbox cattleproddin' so these yayhoos can stop soundin' like the morons that they obviously are. Life is the most precious thing of all, obviously some people do not understand that, and being willing executioner without decent hearing and just deliberation of evidencial facts says a lot about your true character.

Lol!! "I see feathers!" Try shaking your walkers at those cats. Little whipper snappers need to go on now and get. Get a life people.

gazettefan: No more than my neighbors.

mgcarguy, do you scratch yourself a lot?

ImJustSayin: What if the peers in this case are using the same faulty data? Isn't it always a good idea to look at other peer reviewed studies? Especially if those other studies challenge the study that has conclusions you prefer (for whatever reasons you prefer them)? Bottom line is that the Gerhold and Jessup study simply isn't the last word on cat predation or disease transmission. You might, for example, want to look at the CDC's page on toxoplasmosis - if you're really interested in truly authoritative information.

As for the VoxFelina author wondering if he's been banned from the Mother Jones website (for raising questions about their article on free roaming cats), so what? Is this an example of how you judge validity? Seriously?

TomHering - The first sentence on that blog is "Is it possible I’ve been banned from posting comments on the Mother Jones website".
Sorry, but I'm going with the peer reviewed studies on this one.
I'm just sayin'...

We live in a nice neighborhood in Bryant Arkansas. Our neighbors have free range chickens just across the street. Down the street the folks have two pot-bellied pigs. We have lots of birds, owls, Mississippi Kites, small birds and we have possums and spiders snakes and lizards and we have a rat population. We have an outdoor cat and a small dog. They have caught four rats this summer that we know of. We are happy and so are our neighbors. We all seem to be healthy. My next door neighbor is 90 years old. Little kids live next door on the other side. Living here is a lot like living in Janesville 50-years ago.

my dog does a fine job with the stray kittys,bite, shake, bite, shake and no more stray kittys problems.

frogger- Why don't you try it?

shopiere- hope somebody does this to you.
We have a few cats roaming and yes I see feathers sometimes. oh well. We have adults roamming that should be caged too and have disease but we cannot do anything about them either. Take care of your cats. Don't let them wonder to be gassed by a nasty neighbor.

I'm disappointed with the column greg. I thought it was gonna be about drunk girls at closing time.

By the way oldtimer, if the police advised you to use toxic wasp spray on a free roaming cat, they gave you some pretty bad advice. You'd be opening yourself up to a lawsuit, even if the cat's owner is in violation of local ordinances. Not to mention animal cruelty charges.

I recommend visiting VoxFelina.com. You'll learn how the study cited in this opinion piece is filled with highly questionable methods and findings, and just how far the American Bird Conservancy is willing to go in its campaign against TNR (trap, neuter, release).

I have feeders in the front and back, four cats run loose In our neighbor hood, the lady behind us leaves her porch door open day and night so the cat can come and go. I have found feathers under the feeders many times, it hides in the bushes and scares my wife when she is working outside, the police said to use pepper spray or wasps pray.

I have feeders in the front and back, four cats run loose In our neighbor hood, the lady behind us leaves her porch door open day and night so the cat can come and go. I have found feathers under the feeders many times, it hides in the bushes and scares my wife when she is working outside, the police said to use pepper spray or wasps pray.

"animal-transmitted serious diseases"
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The nutcases who think it's clever to livetrap and release skunks, opossums and other of these types of animals cause this very same thing.....If I'm not mistaken, some of the "conservation organizations" were doing this very thing....In the past, ALL skunks were shot on sight for a REASON.