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roaming cats

<Barn and estate cats are a different matter, I think. They are needed to
keep grains, large animal housing, etc. sanitary. But farmers usually
have enough property that their outdoor cats don't find it necessary to
use neighbor's flower beds and window boxes as litter pans.>

Now this is an interesting slippery slope you have embarked down. So you
would advocate my cats stay inside while the barn cats at the dairy farm 300
yards up the street from me or the others at the goat farm right across the
street from me, can roam free, goading my cats through the windows, killing
the birds that venture into their yard? This is so insensible it's almost
funny.

The animal control people in our town (all 64 square miles of it, the
largest town in this state) have their hands full dealing with the regular
gamut of issues. Dog leash law enforcement is very low on their to-do list.
Pass all the cat leash laws some city slicker utopian minds can come up
with, I'd bet they won't be enforced by any agencies around here or in most
towns.

I am sympathetic to the declining song bird issue, so let's advocate an
effective strategy for reversing that: habitat protection, serious and
radical development limitations, and educating the species that is doing 99%
of the damage: humans. Blaming cats is a distraction, IMHO.

Growing up we had an outdoor cat that was forced to live indoors  - she was
miserable for the rest of her life. Cat's are hunters more than anything
else, not toys or entertainment for us. It's nice that we can live together
when we can, but crippling them by ripping out their claws or forcing them
to live indoors for their entire existence changes them into something other
than what they were meant to be for our personal convenience.  Controlling
feral cats is another issue entirely.

Sorry for the rant.

Rich

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