PipingPlover_FeralCat_Stevenson_Jim_GalvestonTX_24August2022_Reel4124.mp3

Jim Stevenson [00:00:00] What happens to these feral cats, and to some people's cats that they own, is just, is just terrible.

Jim Stevenson [00:00:11] I mean, I, even though I don't like what these cats do to birds and small snakes and lizards and frogs and things, I feel sorry for a domestic animal that is turned loose in the wild.

Jim Stevenson [00:00:25] It has no idea what it's going to go eat. It has to dodge cars, snakes, and we have plenty of poisonous snakes on this island.

Jim Stevenson [00:00:34] And it's almost like the people who turn those cats loose need to be arrested for torturing a domestic animal.

Jim Stevenson [00:00:46] So, I don't, I don't feel a lot of, I don't, I don't have a lot of beneficial feelings for these people. It's like they really need to sit down and have a long think about what they're doing with a domestic animal.

Jim Stevenson [00:01:02] Even those who keep their domestic animals near their house, in their neighborhood, cats can still, and dogs, can go out and catch diseases. They could get run over. There's all kinds of bad things that can happen to animals that are roaming neighborhoods or, or whatever.

Jim Stevenson [00:01:26] And it's just hard to get the sense that these people really care about those animals in a way that animal husbandry would, would approve of.

Jim Stevenson [00:01:36] So, maybe it's none of my business, but, but I think that what one bullet might do to a feral cat that's killing an endangered species is not nearly as bad as weeks and months of misery that a cat might experience when it became a feral cat.

Jim Stevenson [00:01:57] And from all the research that's been done, and I've read pretty much every word of it, the longest any cat is going to live in the wild is about six months, and most of them die horrendous deaths. So I mean, the lucky ones get shot, or are run over, or something like that.

Jim Stevenson [00:02:19] So, I don't blame the cat; I blame the owner. And it's hard to understand how people can have so little respect, not just for the animals that the cats are eating, but for the cat itself.