Tune in tomorrow to Animal Wise Radio, when I’ll be on with hosts Mike Fry and Beth Nelson discussing the Smithsonian’s recently published “killer cat” study.
For schedule, a list of local stations, or to listen online, check out the Animal Wise Radio website.
How many of you are willing to get a tattoo of the Vox Felina logo? Well, two San Francisco SPCA employees are.
Maybe.
As part of SF SPCA’s upcoming Be Mine Adopt-a-thon, Laura Gretch and Daniel Quagliozzi (both of whom I’m proud to call friends) are going head to head in a very unusual fundraising auction, as described on the SF SPCA website:
Two of our resident cat-tat employees, Laura Gretch and Daniel Quagliozzi, will be up for bid on eBay—or rather, their skin will be. The winning bidder for each will get to choose the next tattoo to grace Laura’s and Daniel’s bodies—forever! Bragging rights of who can raise the highest bids are at stake. Don’t miss this head-to-head challenge!
Now, I happen to know that both Laura and Daniel are fans of the VF logo and would wear it proudly. (As for exactly where, that’s another matter altogether—and their decision.) Interested in bidding? Laura’s auction can be found here; Daniel’s is here. (At last check, they’re neck and neck—hers at $162.50; his at $152.50.)
Bidding ends at noon PST Friday. For additional details, check out the SF SPCA website.
On May 25, 2011, J. Scott Robinson, Director of the Office of Sponsored Projects for the Smithsonian Institute, sent a three-page proposal (PDF) to Randy Dettmers, a biologist in the Division of Migratory Birds for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, outlining the scope and budget for a project called “Effects of subsidized predators on bird populations in an urban matrix.”* The work was to begin in just one week and continue through the end of September, conducted by Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute researchers Peter Marra and Nico Dauphiné.
“We look forward to working with you on this important project,” Robinson wrote in closing.
The budget request was just $14K, but it’s difficult to imagine any proposal being approved and funded in a week—never mind one with a three-day holiday weekend. For this particular proposal, though, there was more than the usual bureaucracy to contend with.
Two weeks earlier, on May 11, Dauphiné had been arrested, charged with attempted animal cruelty for trying to poison neighborhood cats outside her Park Square apartment building. Read more
By now—just about 72 hours after the story broke—it’s probably more difficult to find people who haven’t heard about the Smithsonian study claiming “that free-ranging domestic cats kill 1.4–3.7 billion birds and 6.9–20.7 billion mammals annually” [1] than it is to find people who’ve heard the news somewhere—the New York Times, the BBC, NPR’s All Things Considered, or any number of other media outlets.
Very few scientific papers receive the kind of press coverage that’s been given “The impact of free-ranging domestic cats on wildlife of the United States,” published in the online journal Nature Communications. Then again, very few studies make the kinds of claims made by the paper’s authors—claims the media has accepted without the slightest bit of scrutiny. Which is, unfortunately, to be expected.
And, I suspect, exactly what these researchers intended. Though they describe their work as a “data-driven systematic review,” [1] it’s difficult not to see it as part of a concerted effort to undermine TNR. Read more
I swear, I really didn’t want to put any energy in to the Gareth Morgan story—didn’t want to give the thing any more oxygen. As a former co-worker used to say, “Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty, and the pig likes it.”
But, as if often the case with such PR stunts, the media is having a field day with Morgan’s just-launched campaign to rid New Zealand of cats. All of them. “The fact is,” he explains on his Cats to Go website, “that cats have to go if we really care about our environment.” For Morgan, “a New Zealand businessman, economist, investment manager, motor cycle adventurer, public commentator and philanthropist,” according to Wikipedia, “that little ball of fluff you own is a natural born killer.”
Which, I suppose, would have been easy enough to ignore. Not so easily ignored, however, if the way Morgan and others have co-opted various scientific studies in an effort to justify his proposal. Read more
It’s taken a very long time, but there is now an unmistakable momentum. At long last, shelters across the country are beginning to reconsider their long-standing policies about stray, abandoned, and feral cats.
Among the pioneers were, of course, Jacksonville, FL, and San Jose, CA, with their “Feral Freedom” programs. Late last year, Sutter County, CA, decided to, as The Sacramento Bee put it, “no longer accept healthy wild cats at its animal shelter.” [1]
And last week, the community of Chico, about 50 miles north of Sutter County, announced a similar move. According to the Chico News & Review, the city’s shelter “is instituting a new policy to not accept healthy stray, feral and surrendered cats” beginning the first of next month. [2]
“We’re starting to rethink and re-examine how to do animal care,” explained Tracy Mohr, a 35-year veteran of the animal-welfare business, and animal-services manager at the Chico Animal Shelter. Referring to feral cats in particular, Mohr told the paper: “They’re scared, stressed; they don’t want to be handled by people… Basically it’s a one-way trip for those cats.” [2]
Of course, that’s still the case in far too many shelters across the country. Witness last week’s story coming out of Monmouth County, NJ, for example. Read more
Last Wednesday, I reported that the Indian Harbour Beach (FL) City Council had voted in favor of ordinance revisions that would effectively ban the feeding and care of feral cats. At the time, I hadn’t seen the final wording of the ordinance, however. Nor did I have any details of the lively discussion that preceded the council’s decision.
According to Florida Today reporter Rick Neale, the council “softened the proposed terms of a citywide cat-colony crackdown.”
“Initially, City Council considered a blanket-style ordinance that would prohibit registered cat colonies across the community. After debate, council members unanimously adopted a version that prohibits future colonies on public property… [but] allows future colonies on private properties, so long as landowners secure City Council approval.” [1]
As for exactly how one might go about securing such approval, I’ve seen nothing spelled out in either the paper or in the ordinance itself. Given what I have read, though, this looks to be a concession only in theory. Read more
Unlike the Florida communities of Indian Harbour Beach and Pompano Beach, New York City allows—even encourages via the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals—the ongoing care of stray, abandoned, and feral cats. And, thanks to Architects for Animals, some of these cats are going to be living in style.
Although, as New York Times Home & Garden writer Joyce Wadler observed, “not a single client was present” at Giving Shelter 2013, it was clear that participants in the competition “had taken pains to address the needs of the users.” Read more
The same day the Indian Harbour Beach (FL) City Council voted to ban the feeding of, and caring for, feral cats, the issue was making headline 150 miles to the south, in Pompano Beach.
According to Tuesday’s Sun Sentinel, “Gretchen Sheehan’s labor of love”—feeding homeless cats—”netted her a $50 fine,” thus creating a bit of an uproar in the community. Sheehan, it turns out, “had no clue she was breaking the law.” [1]
And a second offense could cost her $100, a third $250, and any subsequent violations $500 apiece. Read more
Late Tuesday I received word that Indian Harbour Beach, Florida, went through with its proposed ordinance, thereby making it illegal: “for any person to possess, harbor, feed, breed, maintain or keep any feral animals on any public or private property located within the corporate boundaries of the City of Indian Harbour Beach.”
The approved ordinance* reads, in part: Read more
Regular readers will recall that last summer, officials in Brevard County, FL, threatened to impose restrictions on TNR by way of changes to their ordinance governing free-roaming cats. This came after a moratorium on new colonies in residential areas was declared by the Brevard County Commission during its May board meeting.
According to a Florida Today article posted yesterday, it looks as if the community of Indian Harbour Beach is taking the lead. Tonight its city council “will conduct a public hearing and cast final votes on an ordinance that would make it illegal to ‘possess, harbor, feed, breed, maintain or keep’ feral cats within city limits.” Read more
As I often to say: It’s hip to be tipped. And, thanks to Architects for Animals and the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals, some of New York City’s hipster street cats will soon have accommodations to match their image. Thursday evening is the third annual “Giving Shelter” fundraiser, a friendly competition for which area architects design innovative outdoor cat shelters (which are later donated to caregivers).
This year’s event will feature entries from Callison Barteluce Architects, Francis Cauffman Architects, a team of students from City College, H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture, M Moser, Pilot Projects, Stonehill Taylor, Zimmerman Workshop, and last year’s winner, designer Kathryn Walton—who also happens to be the founder, president, and treasurer of The American Street Cat, Inc. (“just blue collar folks working for blue collar cats,” as the organization’s website puts it).
If the photos from previous years are any indication, there’s bound to be some spectacular designs!
All proceeds go to the NYC Feral Cat Initiative, a program of the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals. For tickets, reservations, or to make a donation, click here.
Where: Steelcase Showroom (4 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10019)
When: Thursday, January 10, 6:00–8:00 pm
Wellington, Kansas, rings in the new year by introducing a pet limit law aimed at reducing the number of free-roaming cats. The likely outcome? More cats—and more of them killed.
According to a news report Monday, the city of Wellington, Kansas (8.19 square miles, population approximately 8,057), recently modified its animal ordinance to include a provision that “no person or household shall own or harbor more than four cats of more than six months of age or more than one litter of kittens.”
“We were picking up, compared to years past, a couple hundred cats per year,” Wellington Police Chief Tracy Heath explained. “We’re hoping that this new ordinance may lower that number.”
Hoping?
Well, OK. I suppose that’s all Tracy’s got in this case. There is, after all, no reason to think the four-cat limit will lead to fewer intakes. Read more
Although I wasn’t planning to post anything until next week, I changed my mind after watching this video about Stray Cat Alliance’s I Spayed L.A. program. “A year-and-a-half ago, when we started this program, we believed that the community would embrace us,” observes founder and executive director, Christi Metropole, “but they have embraced this program more than we ever could dream possible.”
Indeed, they did. This year, the organization spayed and neutered more than 1,000 cats in South Central Los Angeles, and they’ve got plans to sterilize another 2,000 by summer.
For more information, check out the Stray Cat Alliance website.
(Video not working? Click here to watch it on YouTube.)
The National Geographic Society is, according to its website, “one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational institutions in the world.” I’m not going to dispute the relative size of the organization, but an article posted Tuesday on its News Watch blog raises doubts about their commitment to science and education.
The piece, which is billed as “an interview with Dr. Michael Hutchins,” is not much of an interview at all, but an easy platform for Hutchins, former executive director and CEO of The Wildlife Society, to vilify invasive species in general and—not surprisingly—free-roaming cats in particular. As I pointed out in my online comment (still awaiting moderation), one would expect some insightful follow-up questions on a topic that, as contributing editor Jordan Carlton Schaul acknowledges, “has generated contentious debate among a number of factions, including conservation scientists and activist communities.”
For starters: How would restrictions or outright bans on TNR, such as those proposed by Hutchins, benefit the wildlife he claims to want to protect? Read more
Putting on any conference is a tremendous undertaking. But the challenges involved in pulling together The Outdoor Cat: Science and Policy from a Global Perspective went far beyond the logistics of wrangling 20-some speakers and 150 or so attendees. For starters, there was deciding who should (and should not) be invited to present. (More on that shortly.) And then there’s the fact that, no matter what happens, you’re bound to be criticized.
There’s simply no way to get something like this completely right, no matter who’s in charge or how much planning goes into it.
And so, I give a lot of credit to the people involved—who knew all of this, and did it anyhow. Those I know of (and I’m sure to be leaving out many others, for which I apologize) include John Hadidian, Andrew Rowan, Nancy Peterson, Katie Lisnik, and Carol England from the Humane Society of the United States; and Aimee Gilbreath and Estelle Weber of FoundAnimals. Many of you told me, very modestly, that this conference was “a start.”
Fair enough, but it’s a very important one. Five or 10 years from now, we might look back and call it a milestone.
Here, then, are some snapshots of the various presentations (in the order in which the they were given). Read more
“The UK has lost more than 44 million breeding birds in less than half a century,” reports a recent article in The Guardian, “including an average of 50 house sparrows every hour.”
“Scientists estimate the number of nesting birds has plummeted from 210 million in 1966 to 166 million today. The shocking statistics are contained in the State of the UK’s Birds 2012 report (PDF), published on Monday, and charting the ups and downs of the nation’s bird populations.” [1]
The story was brought to my attention by two Vox Felina readers (thank you!), both of whom were quick to point out that there’s no mention of cats at all. The same goes for the report itself. Which isn’t entirely surprising, actually. As some of the online comments point out, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds suggests that predation by cats is largely compensatory, not additive:
“Despite the large numbers of birds killed, there is no scientific evidence that predation by cats in gardens is having any impact on bird populations UK-wide… It is likely that most of the birds killed by cats would have died anyway from other causes before the next breeding season, so cats are unlikely to have a major impact on populations.” [2]
It’s important to note, also, that outdoor cats are the norm in the UK, unlike here in the U.S. where about two-thirds of pet cats are indoor-only. [3–5] (I read somewhere that the figure in the UK is closer to 10 percent, but haven’t seen any credible numbers for recent years. If you know of any, please send me an e-mail.)
Unlike similar stories in U.S. papers, there are very few comments suggesting that cats play a role—with a couple of notable exceptions, who (not surprisingly) don’t use their real/full names, and whose “research” seems to begin and end with Google. According to one of them, “the RSPB seems not to want to upset some of its members who keep cats.”
Could be.
Or perhaps the RSPB is genuinely interested in addressing the critical issues—the ones for which rigorous scientific evidence exists—in their conservation efforts.
1. Davies, C. (2012, November 18). UK breeding bird population shrinks by more than 44 million since 1966. The Guardian,
2. RSPB (2011) Are cats causing bird declines? http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/gardening/unwantedvisitors/cats/birddeclines.aspx Accessed October 26, 2011.
3. Clancy, E.A., Moore, A.S., and Bertone, E.R., “Evaluation of cat and owner characteristics and their relationships to outdoor access of owned cats.” Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. 2003. 222(11): p. 1541-1545. http://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/abs/10.2460/javma.2003.222.1541
4. Lord, L.K., “Attitudes toward and perceptions of free-roaming cats among individuals living in Ohio.” Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. 2008. 232(8): p. 1159–1167. http://www.avma.org/avmacollections/feral_cats/javma_232_8_1159.pdf
5. APPA, 2009–2010 APPA National Pet Owners Survey. 2009, American Pet Products Association: Greenwich, CT. http://www.americanpetproducts.org/pubs_survey.asp
Coming up December 3rd and 4th: The Outdoor Cat: Science and Policy from a Global Perspective, a conference with an ambitious—and admirable—goal:
“To bring together scientists, technical experts, and others with an interest in the constellation of issues tied to the presence of free-roaming, abandoned, and outdoor cat populations in our world, and to take the measure of contemporary scholarship with the goal of forging a stronger union between knowledge, evidence, insight and policy.”
Although I won’t be presenting, I’ll be in attendance—with plenty of questions and comments, of course. And I’m encouraging anybody with an interest in the science and policy issues surrounding free-roaming cats to attend as well. It’s an excellent—and all too rare—opportunity to hear a broad range of perspectives, with speakers from the fields of conservation biology, wildlife rehabilitation, veterinary medicine, municipal animal services, animal law, and more.
I’ll be posting more about the conference in the near future, but wanted to get this out there so that anybody interested can make plans. Registration is just $135.
Many thanks to the Humane Society Institute for Science and Policy, FoundAnimals, and the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association for making the conference possible!
In Nature Wars, to be released next week, award-winning journalist Jim Sterba argues that it’s time for Americans to reconnect with nature—and what better incentive than a massive lethal control campaign against any number of plants and animals, including feral cats? His book reflects attitudes that are out of step with contemporary culture, and a rationale that’s not supported by the science. As the song says: War! What is it good for? Absolutely nothin’…
“People have very different ideas regarding what to do, if anything, about the wild creatures in their midst,” writes Jim Sterba in his new book Nature Wars: The Incredible Story of How Wildlife Comebacks Turned Backyards Into Battlegrounds, “even when they are causing problems.”
“Enjoy them? Adjust to them? Move them? Remove them? Relations between people and wildlife have never been more confused, complicated, or conflicted.” [1]
Agreed. And I largely agree with Sterba’s diagnosis: “Americans have become denatured.”
“That is to say, they have forgotten the skills their ancestors acquired to manage an often unruly natural world around them, and they have largely withdrawn from direct contact with that world by spending most of their time indoors, substituting a great deal of real nature with reel nature—edited, packaged, digitized, and piped in electronically.” [1]
So what’s the solution? Here, Sterba and I part company. Read more
Ordinarily, this is the sort of thing I would post on the Vox Felina Facebook page rather than the blog itself. But, since (even a week later) Superstorm Sandy has many pet owners and colony caretakers in New York and New Jersey doing all kinds of things they don’t ordinarily do, I could hardly say no.
Sarah Donner, who describes herself as “a singer/songwriter/creative type who likes cats, 90s mixtapes, musicals, and sequins,” is putting on a special online “pay-what-you-can” concert this Thursday night to raise money for Staten Island Feral Initiative. The 30-minute show begins at 5:00 pm (MST).
To buy a ticket and “tip the artist” (the tips are what will be donated to SIFI), visit the Stageit website. For more information about SIFI’s disaster relief effort, and to make donations directly, please visit the Survivors of Sandy ChipIn! page.
I had the pleasure of meeting some of the folks from SIFI at the No Kill Conference in August—these are good people doing good work. If you can help them out, please do so. And even if you can’t, please help spread the word.
Thank you.