You just can't win!

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by specialone

1, My cat eats its kills, so not for fun. my female cat is scared of her own shadow, so wouldnt kill anything.
2, Most cats down my road roam, but will spend a lot of their time on their own driveways so you could probably identify them quite easy.
3, Thats your opinion, i f**king hate dogs that bark for hours on end, far more annoying than any cat, i like dogs BTW.

The point I was making is that as they are introduced into the local food chain to prey on all manner of things means they are in no way natural. So the whole thing about them killing things being natural arguement falls on its rse, because they aren't naturally there!

You think I could be bothered walking around the neighborhood looking for a cat?

lol...just remind me, what the indiginus animals are again?

to the UK? Wild Boar, Dinosaurs and the greater burberry crested chav.

lol...good call.

...and Robins, gotta love Robins

I've got a cat that would annoy the hell out of the pro water deterrent voters....

He loves water, gets in the bath and shower with me.....He's a house cat so he also has baths on his own.....

He'd probably look at a supersoaker in much the same way a dog would!

I've also got a dog and out of the two of them?

I'm more tempted to shoot the dog

Great....now I have George Michael in my head with dodgy animation >_<

Originally Posted by missyorkie_chris

Oooo this could open up a whole can of worms...What about the poor defenceless birds that many cats find great pleasure in killing just for the sake of killing? Don't get me wrong I like cats, they're great. However, all pets have their pros and cons, to call them defenceless animals is a bit of an exaggeration. They have damn sharp claws and can run damn quick too, not really defenceless

I might open this can if I may...

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

I hate the fact that cats will kill anything for a laugh, birds that are no threat to anything (and an important part of the ecosystem, so 'r lass tells me). AND I hate the fact that one was looking at my fish longingly the other night, AND the fact that one once had a habit of taking a dump behind my shed/workshop and stinking the place out.

For f***s sake. I have a dog, it doesn't run wild killing stuff, if it did I'd 100% expect someone to blow him to bits with a shotgun!

If you have so few friends you need a pet to curl up with and are too fat to walk a dog then keep the thing under control or buy yourself a Bratislavan sex slave or something.


Right, I wouldn't shoot a cat with an air rifle. Unless you have an FAC air rifle then you are nowhere near guaranteed a humane kill. I might risk it with mine but only at less than 20 yards (shorter than the garden) with a definite headshot. 12 ft lbs is not enough muzzle energy.

Airsoft guns, (with really low energy as is allowed in airsoft) then yeah go for it if you are confident you can make the shot.

I have however set a steel plate up where I had seen the cat, and put a shot into the plate. PING and the cat goes supersonic over the fence Not seen that one since...

BUT if I see that ginger thing looking at my fish again, I'm going to nail it to the shed with the crossbow and feed it to them!

Your lass is right, one of the largest killers of songbirds are cats.....
12ftlb is more than enough! I can kill a rabbit stone dead at 60 yards with my air rifle. At 100 yards a 12ftlb air rifle has more power than a 12 bore! Treat them with the respect they deserve!

Originally Posted by specialone

Cats killing birds unfortunatly is part of the food chain, i hate it when my male cat kills birds, if i see him stalking a bird ill spray him with the hose.
Most animals as you know, have a predatory enemy so its not fair just use cats as an example.
Animals die from natural predators all the time, death by humans is not natural.
What right as human beings have we to kill another living thing if its no gain to us for food etc, i know this sounds a bit hypocritical as im a meat eater, but thats the way i feel.
Phil

The domestic feline is not part of the UK food web; it is a human problem, therefore needs a human solution just like rabbits!
Cats do an enormous amount of damage to ecosystems, but that doesn't matter because they are cute!
The problem with cats is that not a single species in Britian has evolved with the domestic feline as it's predator, so does not have the mechanism to deal with it. So yes, it is fair to use the cat as an example! Also can you please tell me what the natural predator of the cat is?
The right to kill is a duty to conserve the precious ecosystem that we as a species constantly destroy - we have to become the predator to keep the balance.

Originally Posted by Dan

Cats killing birds is their instinct, it's part of the food chain. It's nature in action - I'm sure your OH will be able to reconcile these facts
Instinct is instinct - broad-brush generalisations are poor means of fighting an argument in my opinion.

That's an action in the wrong place, it has taken hundreds of thousands of years for mammals to find their place in the ecosystem, and now man just moves species around willy nilly - how many tribes in South america have been killed by the cold virus? How long until the backbird becomes a rare sight in the UK?
I'm afraid you're the one with the broad brush...

Originally Posted by specialone

Again, cats = easy target = woody for macho tw*t doing the cruelty.

I'm not a tw*t, just someone who earnt a degree in conservation, and now works trying to save as much of what we have left.
I am all for controlling species that have no control, whether that's rabbits, grey squirrels, or even cats.
Please remember that there is more than one way to do things (I nearly said to skin a cat, but didn't think that'd go down well), so I'm not talking about shooting cats, yet. But I do think that cat owners need to take more responsibility of their pets as they are the most ecologically damaging of all our pets.

[timwilky]

Oi Ralph

I have deliberately kept out of this one, and you drag me in.

Personally I wouldn't bother shooting a cat, they have their place in the food chain keeping down the rats and mice. Far better to shoot the people who think they own them and feed them up on whiskers and the like instead of letting them do what nature intended and feed themselves on vermin.

Anyway one guaranteed cure for a moggy problem

I suppose the same people who would harm a cat or any other animal without it being a food source are also the same people who would quite happily club a seal pup to death or torture a hamster.

This is my last post on this subject because it seems people are divided on this, but one thing i am sure about, if someone harms my cats and i find them, they are gonna wish they hadnt.

Originally Posted by timwilky

Oi Ralph

I have deliberately kept out of this one, and you drag me in.