# Cats



## saveaduckkillaskybuster (May 29, 2005)

The other day i was fishing with a friend. i noticed a cat killing a baby duck. needless to say i took an active role in the food chain at that point. is there any one else out there who sees these things as problem. i read an article published by the US fish and wildlife service, and it said that 58 species of song bird extinctions can be linked to house cats. i'm not gonna lie i kill everyone i see with out a colar. What do you think?


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## bratlabs (Mar 11, 2005)

Yea, everybody jokes about Wisconsin making it legal to kill cats, but I personally dont take it as a joke. The marsh I deer hunt in use to have a booming pheasant population, until people dropped off a couple cats in the country because maybe they dont want them anymore, or they crap on the floor once, who knows. We're lucking to see half a dozen pheasants when we are driving the marsh for deer, when we use to kick one up every 20 yrds.. Now we kick up atleast a cat every 50 to 75 yrds., then the shooting starts. Now when somebody asks how we did in the marsh we tell them colors not points. :beer:


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## Goose Guy350 (Nov 29, 2004)

I agree with you guys and there is no place outside for your house cat, hense the name "house cat". I had a professor that drew devil horns on every picture of a cat he saw and he was a non hunter, hated them with a passion, they are a major problem and I think as many steps should be taken to control them as are for other predators. They can be extremely destructive, I saw a study from England and the number of kills and the species one house cat killed in a month was amazing.


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## buckseye (Dec 8, 2003)

You guys must be bored silly.... for gosh sakes if you want to shoot cats do it, just don't advertise it all over the world.


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## oklahomawatrfwlr (Jan 31, 2005)

I am not a cat person...... :sniper:


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## bratlabs (Mar 11, 2005)

buckseye, I dont think its a matter of wanting to shot them as it is having to shot them. Im also not advertising it, just telling what happens when people decide to let their cats "be free" around here. Im not ashamed to admit that Im helping the wildlife by taking care of a couple non- natural predators.


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## stolenbase (Aug 23, 2003)

Find something better to shoot...I understand the problem..but I seriously doubt it has that large of an impact on the populations...Cats are pets not targets.


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## saveaduckkillaskybuster (May 29, 2005)

if they arent a problem then where are the wipor wills, and other song birds. a farm i hunt use to have a ton of quail on it, then the next season they were gone. i trap that same area for coyotes. i caught a cat in every other trap i set that whole season. not a problem though! you see cats all the time killing stuff from birds to baby ducks and geese to rabbits : KILL'EM


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## bratlabs (Mar 11, 2005)

stolenbase, If you understand the problem then how can you doubt the seriousness of it? How would you like it handled as cost effectively as letting sportsmen take care of the problem? I agree that cats are pets, when in the owners supervision, not in a fence line or a marsh.


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## rowdie (Jan 19, 2005)

I love cats, and firmly believe that they keep mice out of homes. If I lived on the farm, I would have barn cats, and keep a couple in the house.

I still shoot every wild cat I see in while hunting!!! I'm from SD where this is leagal, and now that I live in ND....well I still kill every wild kitty I see. Which has only been a handfull in my lifetime.


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## muskat (Mar 5, 2002)

I have a cat, in my house, which is where they belong (unless on a farm).
While I think that wild cats can be a nuissance and somewhat problematic, I doubt that the presence of cats can wipe out an entire population of, say, pheasants. There were probably more factors than just wild cats that lowered the population of your deer marsh, bratlabs.


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## Jiffy (Apr 22, 2005)

I dont think we will find to many sportsman that will disagree that ferel cats devistate bird populations. They do more damage than anyother "natural" predator out there.

Not to many get away from me!!!!!!


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## sotaman (Apr 6, 2004)

I was watching most extreme on animail planet the other day. and they did there cat epoisode and the most extreme cat was the house cat one of the few animals that will kill for fun..


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## Lance Pardee (Oct 28, 2004)

I hate cats. I even have 1 in the barn as mouse/rat killer. If they are more than 100 yards from a house they get it. We use to have a big cat contest down here. The winner for the longest cat from tip of nose to tip of tail. I've personally watched them just kill for the thrill.


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## bratlabs (Mar 11, 2005)

muskat, I dont know what else would have changed the pop. as fast as it did. Within weeks of seeing the first cat we started seeing less and less pheasants.


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## 870 XPRS (Mar 12, 2003)

I'll tell you what it was, it was that damn sasquatch.


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## bratlabs (Mar 11, 2005)

If it is, he's got a a$$ load of buck shot coming for screwing with my pheasants. :lol:


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## saveaduckkillaskybuster (May 29, 2005)

talk about my fat wife, i dont care. talk about my house, i dont care. bad mouth my dog, or screw with my duck or pheasant hunting and you'll have a fight on your hands


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## Aussie (May 22, 2005)

We have a pet cat, lives in the house and around the sheds,BUT.
Feral cats and fox's have arguable caused the extinction of more native species than,white settlement,urbanisation and agriculature.
A pregnant female is pound for pound one of the most prolific hunters on the planet.
From Xmas 2001 until FEB 2003 we had a realy bad drought,only had 6 inches of rain.Domestic and native animals were dieing,tree's started dieing towards the end of the drought it was so dry.Even the feral fox population had surcome to hard times, mange had drastically reduced their numbers.
However right through the drought every cat I shot was in perfect physical condition.When ever I shoot a cat I always pick them up by the tail to feel how heavy they are.They are without exception always heavier and in better physical condition than the average domestic cat


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## adokken (Jan 28, 2003)

If you are opposed to killing feral cats, do like I do. I neuter all cats that come to my place with a 30-06, Have been considering upgrading to a 243WSM for a neuter rifle. :beer:


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## saveaduckkillaskybuster (May 29, 2005)

the 243 wsm would do the job for sure, but there is nothing like tearing one up with 3 1/2" double ought buck


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## Habitat Hugger (Jan 19, 2005)

Stolenbase - I live a few miles outside of Bismarck. A few years ago i started p;utting a live trap our for skunks, and probably have averaged at least one feral cat (these are wild, not house cats!) per week. Once in a while I get one that is obviously someone's pet (they purr and act friendly when they see you coming, but the majority of them are totally wild! I wouldn't even think of releasing them from the trap without at least thick welding gloves and a face shield. These things have never had any human contact and are totally wild. I see them hanging around my bird feeders picking off everything from tiny wrens to full grown roosters. I have a couple of neutered and declawed HOUSE cats,(one caught in a live trap, but I give the feral ones no quarter!! I've also been impressed that for every one you see there are a few more out there that are never seen as they are as skillful as a mountain lion at avoiding being seen. Despite my heavy trapping them, every time we get a bit of snow there are still tracks out there, even though none have been spotted, and I'm always looking! The majority of them are unwanted cats dropped off by Bismarkers and Lincolites. We get quite a few dogs dropped off, too, sometimes with a bag of dog food dropped off with the dog! Wish they would be responsible and get their animals fixed. Both kinds of irresponsible "littering" I can't stand!!


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## rowdie (Jan 19, 2005)

I hope you're not just letting those ferrel cats loose? :sniper:


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## stolenbase (Aug 23, 2003)

Huntnfishnhabitathugger, I guess I see your point. I just hope people aren't out there shooting cats for the hell of it and house cats..I wish people would take care of their cats and not let them roam and there would be no need to shoot them. If they indeed are as wild as you say then I guess I don't see a problem with it.


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## Leo Porcello (Jul 10, 2003)

Kill the house cats too. We use to have a house cat that would sneak out and kill squirrels. It would eat around the neck till the squirrel was beheaded. It never ate the kill though. It would just carry the head around like a trophy. That is how I figured out that the house cats tasted better then the wild ones out in the fields. I have 4 cats right now in the smoker. I did the cajun injector to them and now I have a nice mesquite smoke on them. Should be great eats tonight!


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## 870 XPRS (Mar 12, 2003)

PorkChop said:


> I have 4 cats right now in the smoker. I did the cajun injector to them and now I have a nice mesquite smoke on them. Should be great eats tonight!


Same recipe I use......what a small world.


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## GooseBuster3 (Mar 1, 2002)

I will shoot a cat when ever I get the chance!! 
The only good cat is a dead cat!!!


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## saveaduckkillaskybuster (May 29, 2005)

AMEN to that!!!!!!!!!!


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## CatManJack (Jun 19, 2005)

Some of you guys need to get a grip with reality. You have to be chemically imbalanced. Your talking about cats. :eyeroll:


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## bratlabs (Mar 11, 2005)

Yep we're talking about cats, ones that kill just to kill. The circles complete when I do my part. :sniper:


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## Leo Porcello (Jul 10, 2003)

CatManJack said:


> Some of you guys need to get a grip with reality. You have to be chemically imbalanced. Your talking about cats. :eyeroll:


hahaha sounds like your the imbalanced one posting that!


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## adokken (Jan 28, 2003)

I have been fighting a life long battle against feral cats. Just because you do not see cats doe not mean there are not around. Over a period of many years I have trapped hundreds of feral cats on my trap line and these were not house cats but big vicious wild cats that lived in the wilds. They are a killing machine and kill just for pleasure. Never caught a feral cat that was not in extremely good condition and well fed.and this was miles from human habitation so they were not farm yard pussies. We know what the consequences are with feral cats in Austrailia. You will not find to many cat lovers down under.Anyway it is refreshing to find all these poster with the same opion about cats. Madtrapper


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## GooseBuster3 (Mar 1, 2002)

It really fun when you shoot them with a 300 mag. :wink:


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## Lil Sand Bay (Feb 2, 2005)

Having lived all over the West and Midwest I know how invasive feral cats are and what a problem they are seemingly everywhere. Having said that let me make one exception. Living in N. Wisc., the northermost home in the state, I enjoy a very large fisher population locally. Our feral cat problem is absolutely ZERO. No place for 'em to run or hide, if you think a cat can climb a tree, you've never seen a fisher! You guys keep reducing your feral cat population every chance you get!


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## Goose Guy350 (Nov 29, 2004)

Lil Sand Bay - is the fisher population real high in your area yet? Here in yooperland the fisher population has really gone down in the last 5 years, for a while you couldn't do anything without seeing fisher sign or seeing one and that really put a hurting on the grouse and snowshoes.


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## h2ofwlr (Feb 6, 2004)

I shoot them every chance I get. It does not matter if they have a collar or not--if they are away from the barnyard-they are fair game since they are hunting wild game at that point.

In the cities, they are the #1 predator of song birds. Just put out a bird feeder and look at the tracks in the fresh snow in the morning--cat tracks all over the place hunting at night. :sniper:


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## Lil Sand Bay (Feb 2, 2005)

Goose Guy

The fisher population is down, but not naturally. A couple of the local trappers have been targeting them for the past few years and it is making a difference. Just last season they took twenty eight and that is in just our Township alone. In addition they got a contract from the Indiana DNR for twenty live trapped animals for transplant. The Indiana guys were planning on coming up by plane to pick em up over the season and do some filming etc. The local guys had the twenty animals within 72 hours which kind of upset the Indiana DNR's big promotional plans. Actually I'm happy to see the population go down a little, although I don't think the've upset our partridge noticably, it's a down cycle anyway; I'm finally seeing some porcupines again, and I haven't for many years.


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