[Vision2020] More BAD UI Publicity: Dr. Death Gassing Campus Cats & Kittens

[Ron Force]

Unowned kitties are serious predators for wild birds and mammals, as are
free-roaming cats. We breed more than can be sustained as pets or placed if
captured. Keep your pets indoors.

http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2380
We conducted a data-driven systematic review of studies that estimate
predation rates of owned and un-owned cats, and estimated the magnitude of
bird and mammal mortality caused by all cats across the contiguous United
States (all states excluding Alaska and Hawaii). We estimate that
free-ranging domestic cats kill 1.3–4.0 billion birds and 6.3–22.3 billion
mammals annually, and that un-owned cats cause the majority of this
mortality. This magnitude of mortality is far greater than previous
estimates of cat predation on wildlife and may exceed all other sources of
anthropogenic mortality of US birds and mammals.

Ron Force
Moscow Idaho USA

On Tue, Aug 30, 2016 at 1:19 AM, Saundra Lund <v2020 at ssl1.fastmail.fm>
wrote:

> Visionaries:
>
>
>
> I’m surprised the topic hasn’t come up here yet, but The Arg did an
> excellent article about Dr. Death (Autenried) rounding up and using a
> jury-rigged gas chamber to kill campus cats and kittens that weren’t his
> research animals:
>
> https://www.uiargonaut.com/2016/08/29/seven-strays-gone-
> campus-vet-euthanizes-seven-feral-cats-during-the-summer/
>
>
>
> Reading The Arg is one of the things I enjoy most about the new academic
> year starting, although I most sincerely wish this story wouldn’t have been
> necessary.  The whole debacle is just unfathomable with the available
> resources.
>
>
>
> The discussion of how to best and most humanely manage campus cat
> populations is a complex one, but the “trap & gas” route the UI opted for
> is an unacceptable one in *2016*.  The UI has the resources on all levels
> to develop, implement, and fund a humane campus cat management program –
> with all the fund-raisers they employ, I’m certain they could even get
> corporate sponsors to help out.  Or, maybe they could fund a catiary at
> HSOP so that HSOP would have the facilities to appropriately house , rehab
> if necessary, and place the cats & kittens trapped on campus.  An
> internship program could be designed to allow credit in appropriate fields
> of study for interested students.  And so forth.  There are *lots* of
> good possible solutions that don’t end up with Dr. Death gassing cats &
> kittens.
>
>
>
> I have friends who live near the UI campus, and some of them have
> inside/outside cats.  They are *not* happy to learn that any of their
> kitties could have been trapped and gassed with no warning if they were in
> the wrong place at the wrong time.
>
>
>
> And, it doesn’t help the UI’s black eye when Dr. Marty Becker –
> “American’s Veterinarian” – shares the shame with his *hundreds of
> thousands* of supporters.  OTOH, maybe that’s what it’s going to take to
> ensure that the UI remove its head from where the sun don’t shine!
>
>
>
> Anyway, I hope those so inclined with join me in letting the UI know what
> they’ve done is unacceptable and must STOP.  They need to come up with a
> responsible and *humane* campus cat management policy, and stakeholders
> need to be included in the discussions.
>
>
>
> Here's the link to the petition for those interested:
>
> https://www.change.org/p/stop-trapping-and-killing-free-roaming-cats/c
>
>
>
>
>
> Saundra
>
> Moscow, ID
>
>
>
> *Not to hurt our humble brethren is our first duty to them, but to stop
> there is not enough.  We have a higher mission -- to be of service to them
> whereever they require it.*
>
> *~ Francis of Assisi*
>
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