Re: Brian Bobke concerns
I also grew up on a farm. We had always more than one cat and one dog. It was a must to keep mice and rats under control. They were called in and trained for it. I showed up with my air gun and they came to help me, the cat often higher up on a ledge or beam, the dog in the straw below, chasing and jumping on critters to kill. Sure cats are sneaky with mostly very private doings.
They litter mainly in soft grounds as close to the house or garden so they can dig and cover it up; it is their nature. The main point is to have not too many – basically one is often enough.
Back home once in a while we had visitors in nature, arriving to mate for a day or two – hiding, waiting, howling, screeming. Then after a while, having beautiful kittens. Word got around with neighbourhood folk, and if someone needed a kitten we’d give it to them happily. The others were destroyed, not tortured. Here we have other bureaucratic regulations, most costly through veterinarians, SPCA, etc. I know one woman who had over 70 cats – what for? As she died in her house, cats got hungry and thirsty, so they were eating on her face, nose, fingers, etc, plus eating each other in the house. Later it was bulldozed down.
Cats are looking always for something to play with or to kill, they even torture mice before killing them, and they are eager to catch birds, to eat and kill them; it is their nature. Cats are good pets in captivity (as in jail) to be looked after. But cats can be a nuisance, and like to go stray in neighbourhood yards. The owner should be responsible to clean up the mess and the damage done to other’s yards; to clean up the mess to meet the demands of the neighbour, or pay for the cleanup – $20 for a shit in your yard. Take a picture of the fact and the cat as evidence to collect the money or court to destroy the cat. That way many bureaucrats and helpers would get jobs to clean up the shit or make better laws. To neuter cats solves not the problem, only reproduction.
I love cats, most of us do, so look after them. Keep in mind, birds, mice, yards etc. Be respectful to all; guide yourself to it.
Henry Unger
Valemount
