The War on Feral Cats

[Hilljackoutlaw]

This 21lb monstrosity takes care of all other cats near our home and property. Watched him take on 2 at one time one day. He has only ever brought me one bird. A western meadowlark. Mostly sticks to voles and ground squirrels. One day he got scooped up by an owl. The owl eventually lost the battle tho.

 

[matt0550]

This 21lb monstrosity takes care of all other cats near our home and property. Watched him take on 2 at one time one day. He has only ever brought me one bird. A western meadowlark. Mostly sticks to voles and ground squirrels. One day he got scooped up by an owl. The owl eventually lost the battle tho.

Holy smoke! I cant believe an Owl tried to take a cat that size...good on your buddy there to win the engagement.

 

[noharleyyet]

Any cat not in a house or on a leash is feral...and are treated accordingly.

We call em Hunan's #4...and it's not bad really.

 

[Dave N]

Those cats die of lead poisoning where I live and then get hung from the mailbox of the offender - no apologies.

WOW! Glad I'm not one of your neighbors! Whatever happened to shoot, shovel and shut up? I kill any "stray" cats I find on my property but I get rid of them without making a scene out of it.

 

[Glockster]

Feral cats are the worst, as are the people that let their house cats “roam”. I enjoy watching the birds and squirrels at the feeder in my backyard, unfortunately so did a few neighbor cats, Daisy 760 pumpmaster at 12 pumps solves the trespassing issue. Toss them over the fence into the ally and enjoy the rest of my day.

 

[mtmuley]

WOW! Glad I'm not one of your neighbors! Whatever happened to shoot, shovel and shut up? I kill any "stray" cats I find on my property but I get rid of them without making a scene out of it.

I used to know some guys that used them for "training" purposes. Better just to shoot them. mtmuley

 

[406dn]

A neighbor's cat likes to hang out under my pick ups. I appreciate its mousing efforts. It might as well be feral, you can't get close to it.

Many years ago now, just my brain told me to pull the trigger, it also told me no,,,it's not a hun it's a very young pheasant. Too late, to do the young bird any good. To further complicate things it was a hen. About then I heard meow, turned around and saw a young cat. I don't remember it purring for me when it received a free meal.

I leave them alone.

 

[DouglasR]

There’s this really interesting doc I saw on YouTube the other day called “how cats change rivers.”
You guys should check it out.

 

[Dunning Kruger]

This 21lb monstrosity takes care of all other cats near our home and property. Watched him take on 2 at one time one day. He has only ever brought me one bird. A western meadowlark. Mostly sticks to voles and ground squirrels. One day he got scooped up by an owl. The owl eventually lost the battle tho. View attachment 164221

You need a bigger box

 

[MJE2083]

I work with a lady that has like 6 cats. She thinks it's so cute that one of the cats will leave home for months at a time, but always comes back.

 

[Hilljackoutlaw]

Holy smoke! I cant believe an Owl tried to take a cat that size...good on your buddy there to win the engagement.

Put a hell of a gash between his shoulder blades.

 

[Losing_Sanity]

I work with a lady that has like 6 cats. She thinks it's so cute that one of the cats will leave home for months at a time, but always comes back.

Sounds like a challenge...

 

[isu22andy]

Usually a 220 Connibear in a bucket set will thin the herd out . The square kitty litter buckets work great ironically !

 

[BrentD]

I work on small mammals (ie, rodents), so you might guess, I'm not a real fan of feral, wild, or free-ranging cats. Really cats are probably not very important to most game species. Where they really hurt is with with nongame wildlife, especially rodents. I could go on a long time about that, but that's pretty far afield for a hunting forum.

However, without getting too much into the verbiage of the differences between those three categories of cats, I will say that really only one is a major problem with an exception. Free-ranging kitties that go home to bowls of Friskies in the kitchen or barn are the problem. The other two groups are really just another predator. No worse or better than any other really. Their numbers will ebb and flow with the abundances of prey (again, mostly small rodents, some small birds, and a few other things from time to time).

But when they have Friskies to fall back on they don't' starve when the game gets low, they don't have reduced litter survival, they don't suffer. Predators that do not suffer during shortages of prey are a real problem.

The exceptions are those feral and wild cats that are maintained during shortages (and other times) by the stereotypical little ol' lady who goes out and puts bowls of Friskies in the bush. Those cats will not starve before the last of their prey are killed. That is a big problem.

If you know of any of these "cat colony" people you might alert authorities. They are generally doing this illegally (feeding cats like that is illegal in some places, or they are often trespassing). However, authorities are often reluctant to do more than politely ask for a "cease and desist" which never works.

 

[mtmuley]

I work on small mammals (ie, rodents), so you might guess, I'm not a real fan of feral, wild, or free-ranging cats. Really cats are probably not very important to most game species. Where they really hurt is with with nongame wildlife, especially rodents. I could go on a long time about that, but that's pretty far afield for a hunting forum.

However, without getting too much into the verbiage of the differences between those three categories of cats, I will say that really only one is a major problem with an exception. Free-ranging kitties that go home to bowls of Friskies in the kitchen or barn are the problem. The other two groups are really just another predator. No worse or better than any other really. Their numbers will ebb and flow with the abundances of prey (again, mostly small rodents, some small birds, and a few other things from time to time).

But when they have Friskies to fall back on they don't' starve when the game gets low, they don't have reduced litter survival, they don't suffer. Predators that do not suffer during shortages of prey are a real problem.

The exceptions are those feral and wild cats that are maintained during shortages (and other times) by the stereotypical little ol' lady who goes out and puts bowls of Friskies in the bush. Those cats will not starve before the last of their prey are killed. That is a big problem.

If you know of any of these "cat colony" people you might alert authorities. They are generally doing this illegally (feeding cats like that is illegal in some places, or they are often trespassing). However, authorities are often reluctant to do more than politely ask for a "cease and desist" which never works.

Randy is going to eat a wolf. Maybe throw in a few feral cats. Yum. mtmuley

 

[BrentD]

Randy is going to eat a wolf. Maybe throw in a few feral cats. Yum. mtmuley

I'd much rather eat a cat than a canid. Never heard anything good about that.

Speaking of canids, you all know that the best cat preventative medicine out there is coyotes. If you love small game, especially birds, do NOT shoot coyotes (and it's not just because of cats).

 

[mtmuley]

Sorry Brent. Dumping every coyote I see. mtmuley

 

[BrentD]

Sorry Brent. Dumping every coyote I see. mtmuley

Whatever. Just a dumb idea, if you are a bird hunter.

 

[JustinsDad]

I agree. Shoot the coyotes. Far out in the wild shoot feral cats but I don’t agree with shooting every cat that’s not on a leash. Come on, guys. We hunters get a bad enough rap already. And if someone shoots my cat and leaves it in my mailbox you can bet it ain’t over.

 

[rjthehunter]

Randy is going to eat a wolf. Maybe throw in a few feral cats. Yum. mtmuley

Well since we're on the topic... Anyone have any good feral cat recipes? Lol...

My fiance informed me that we're going to be getting her 2 cats when her mom and step dad move in 2 years. I'm a really easy going guy. Not much bothers me. I'll take a dog living inside. But I will not have a cat living in the house. Especially not these 2 chit heads. They're dicks to the dogs and I'm not gonna have them swatting at my pup. We bought a smaller house coming in at just over 1000 sf. There's not room for 2 cats, especially when they're not going to be allowed in the bedroom or the hunting/fishing room. So that leaves them the living room and kitchen... The problem is my fiance is insistent that we can't rehome them or bring them out to her dads farm and leave them...

I've never been a cat person and never will be. But as far as feral cats go I have no issues shooting them. My fiance obviously hates the thought of it but they're just as bad as coyotes. We used to have a good grouse population, then I saw a few cats around. So they got taken care of and now the grouse are starting to show up again. Proof enough for me to shoot them.

We used to have the same issue with wild dogs. They'd come through chasing deer while we were deer hunting. My grandpa always told me if I ever saw a a dog chasing a deer or a Coyote it gets shot on scene. Obviously it would be hard to shoot a golden retriever or a lab, but wild dogs are no different than coyotes.