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

[Tom Hansen]

Having lived, and currently residing, in Otto Hill Properties apartments since February '96 . . . 90% of the residents being UI students . . . I have observed one atrocity that occurs so regularly, I can almost set my calendar to it.

That atrocity . . .

Many, not all, students will take a cat into their apartment and care for it during the two, three, or four years they are attending classes.  Once those classes end, do does their attachment to their feline roommate.  These cats are, often, tossed out of the apartment  into the streets as the student heads out of town.

I know this to be the truth . . . as I have often corralled  a few of these wayward felines and . . . if they have no collar . . . taken them to HSOP (Humane Society of the Palouse).

Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Care"
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"There's room at the top they are telling you still.
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,
If you want to be like the folks on the hill."

- John Lennon

> On Aug 30, 2016, at 9:36 AM, Ron Force <ronforce at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 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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>>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>>                http://www.fsr.net
>>           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
>> =======================================================
> 
> =======================================================
> List services made available by First Step Internet,
> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>               http://www.fsr.net
>          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> =======================================================
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