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Originally Posted by unclegus:

Contenda, why don't you just put a sign in your yard that says "No Cats Allowed"? That should take care of all your problems!

___

Sure, insofar as the cats involved are (1) able to read and (2) will comply with the prohibition. If you believe there is any chance of either of these, then you  need to re-think your ideas about cats.

 

My concern as a bird enthusiast and biologist is not merely with cats that might enter my yard, but with the overall problem of massive wildlife depredations by cats all over this country.  Thus, your suggestion offers no relief.

 

I suspect, however, that you are writing with tongue buried deeply in cheek.

More on the killers.  Note especially the last listed item concerning DISEASES:

 

 

by Susan Roney Drennan,
National Audubon Society

 

:<<<At the most recent meeting of the National Audubon Society Board of Directors, the cat issue was addressed both as a policy matter and because some Audubon chapters have become involved in the issue in their local communities. After lengthy discussion, the Board voted to adopt a resolution regarding the cat issue. It took the following salient and science-based points into consideration before passing the resolution:

  • Feral and free-ranging cats kill millions of native birds and other small animals annually;
  • Birds constitute approximately 20%-30% of the prey of feral and free-ranging domestic cats;
  • The American Ornithologists' Union, American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians, International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians, Inc., and the Cooper Ornithological Society have concluded that feral, homeless, lost, abandoned, or free-ranging domestic cats are proven to have serious negative impacts on bird populations, and have contributed to the decline of many bird species. Worldwide, cats may have been involved in the extinction of more bird species than any other cause, except habitat destruction;
  • Feral cat colony management programs known by the acronym TTVNR (Trapped, Tested, Vaccinated, Neutered, Released) are not effective solutions to the problem. In fact, these cat colonies are usually fed by very well-meaning cat welfare groups. The unnatural colonies form around food sources and grow to the limits of the food supply. Feeding these strays does not prevent them from hunting; it only maintains high densities of cats that dramatically increase predation on and competition with native wildlife populations;
  • Free-roaming cats are likely to come in contact with rabid wild animals and thus spread the disease to people. They pose a risk to the general public through transmission of other diseases like toxoplasmosis, feline leukemia, distemper, and roundworm. >>>

Man, that  Audubon BOD meeting sounded exciting.  I bet after attending one of those meeting you were too wired to get any sleep....haha....the sad thing is I can visualize a bunch of emotionally constipated bird fanciers getting their panties in a wad over cats.  I bet you could have gone to the door of that meeting and threw a cat in the room and they would have shreiked like Janet Leigh in Psycho.....haha

Originally Posted by HIFLYER2:
 

No animal shelter in my area to take it too.  "Pickwick Lake" I usually trap and relocate problem animals  but not fair to drop the cat by someones house "to the cat or the homeowners".  Not sure what I am going to do no good way of dealing with this problem.  I never said drowning was the way, if it comes to killing it ill do it humanely as possible.  If you cannot train a cat to stay on your property then you should not own one unless you keep it indoors.

_____________

Is there no animal shelter anyplace in the county you live in? If not, I would catch it, carry it about 40 miles away, knock on a few doors, see if anyone wants a cat. If not, Colbert & Lauderdale Animal Shelters have a drop box. Your things should not be damaged by a cat that doesn't even belong to you.

One of the neighborhood kids just rang our bell. A car hit and killed one of our squirrels, it's in the road in front of our mailbox. I need to ask if they got the description of the car, the tag, and maybe even recognized the, most likely neighbor, that hit it. That way we can go drag him out of his house, put him in a sack and drown him. 

Originally Posted by Bestworking:

One of the neighborhood kids just rang our bell. A car hit and killed one of our squirrels, it's in the road in front of our mailbox. I need to ask if they got the description of the car, the tag, and maybe even recognized the, most likely neighbor, that hit it. That way we can go drag him out of his house, put him in a sack and drown him. 

LMAO. You do realize that's called murder/ homicide don't you? 

Free roaming cats take the place of the foxes, coyotes, and bobcats that have been killed off or lost habitat. I would rather have feral cats than a pack of 'neighborhood' dogs destroying property, attacking animals and people and running through my garden.  Shoot the dogs and the owners.

 

As for your disease list, it is incorrect.

Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic disease caused by the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii.[1] The parasite infects most genera of warm-blooded animals, including humans, but the primary host is the felid (cat) family. The parasite spreads by the ingestion of infected meat or the ***** of an infected cat, or by vertical transmission from mother to fetus. A 2001 study found that direct contact with pet cats is probably a less common route of transmission to human hosts than contamination of hands with cat ***** by touching the earth, and that "contact with infected raw meat is probably a more important cause of human infection in many countries".[2]

 

Unless people are eating feral cats or their *****, no problem.

You missed rabies, the number one transmissible disease, which is primarily found in feral raccoons in the south.

 

As for Panleukopenia, not transmissible, nor Feline distemper.


Panleukopenia is primarily spread through contact with an infected animal's bodily fluids, *****, or other fomites, as well as by fleas.[2] It may be spread to and by cats, minks and ferrets[2] and can be spread long distances through contact with bedding, food dishes, or even by clothing and shoes of handlers of infected animals. It is not, however, contagious or contractable by humans.


April 20, 2012

Understanding Rabies

Facts and safety guidelines clear up misperceptions

The Humane Society of the United States

With all the media attention that rabies gets, you may be surprised to learn that this disease is much less of a danger to Americans now than ever before. Thanks to widespread pet vaccinations, 100% effective post-exposure treatment, and the relative rarity of an undetected bite by a rabid animal, the number of human deaths in the United States due to rabies has declined to an average of only one or two per year.

Human fatalities caused by lightning strikes and bad hamburgers far exceed the number of human deaths caused by rabies. This doesn't mean you shouldn’t take precautions to protect yourself, your family, and your pets. The best ways to guard against rabies :

  • Don’t approach or handle wild animals, especially sick wild animals.
  • Vaccinate your pets.
  • Get prompt post-exposure treatment when advised to do so by a doctor or health department.
  • People and rabies
  • Given all the media attention that rabies regularly receives, it may be somewhat surprising to learn that very few people die from rabies nationwide each year. Over the past 10 years, rabies has killed only a total of 28 people in the U. S. This amounts to fewer than 3 fatalities a year nationwide.

    People who contracted rabies in the United States were mostly infected by a bat. Most didn’t even know they were bitten. Some may have been sleeping when bitten. Others handled a bat bare-handed without realizing they’d been potentially exposed to rabies. But don’t panic over every bat sighting. Less than one-half of one percent of all bats in North America carries rabies.

    Although raccoons suffer from rabies more than any other mammal in the United States (about 35 percent of all animal rabies cases), only one human death from the raccoon strain of rabies has been recorded in the United States. 

     

    http://www.humanesociety.org/a...es/facts/rabies.html

Sure, toxoplasmosis from cats to humans is no problem, as long as you follow all these precautions:

 

<<<Several steps can be taken to
protect yourself and others from
toxoplasmosis:
• Change cat litter boxes daily.
Toxoplasma takes more than
one day to become infectious.
If you are pregnant or have a
weakened immune system,
ask someone else to change
the litter box. If this is not
possible, wear disposable
gloves and wash your hands
thoroughly with soap and
water afterwards.
• Cover any outdoor sandboxes
when not in use to keep cats
from defecating in them.
• Avoid adopting stray cats,
especially kittens. Younger cats
are more like to be releasing
Toxoplasma in their *****.
• Do not eat undercooked meat.
Cook meat until the internal
temperature reaches 160°F.
• Wash all kitchen supplies (such
as knives and cutting boards)
that have been in contact with
raw meat.
• If you have a weakened
immune system, it is important
to talk to your health care
provider about getting a
blood test to determine if
you have been infected with
Toxoplasma.>>>

 

All of which means that there IS a possibility of this disease being transmitted from cats to humans; otherwise the web would not be crammed with sites where this potential problem is discussed by knowledgeable professionals.

 

http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/t...ources/catowners.pdf

 

From the ASPCA:

 

  • Have all cats in your household tested by your veterinarian for the parasite and make certain the test results are explained to you.
  • Keep your cat(s) indoors.
  • Do not feed your cat raw meat.
  • Do not eat undercooked meat yourself.
  • Do not allow your cat to hunt and eat wild mice, birds, etc.
  • Use disposable rubber gloves when cleaning the litter box.
  • Wear gloves and protective clothing when gardening.
  • Cover your child’s sandbox when not in use; this will prevent possibly infected cats from defecating in it.
  • Take proper hygienic precautions when handling raw meat.
  • Pregnant moms and immunocompromised people with cats who cannot get someone else clean the litter box for them should wear gloves, clean the litter box promptly twice a day before the oocysts can become infective and wash their hands when finished.

http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/...e/toxoplasmosis.aspx

Possibility for transfer to fetus of pregnant  woman; 5 out of 10,000 births from a study done in the Netherlands.

 

Chances of autism, 20 in 10,000.

Chances of developing any form of cancer, 1 out of 3.

Chances of dying from a car wreck, 1 out of 6500.

 

 

I would consider toxo a low risk and unless you play in your cat's litter box, non-existent. If you follow feral cats around and play with their *****, you have problems.


Good News: Your Cat Won't Give You Brain Cancer

 

Cat owners are no more likely than people without pets to have brain cancer, a new study finds.

If you're wondering whether you should be relieved as a cat owner or confused as to what Fluffy the Persian has to do with brain cancer at all, we're here to help. The story starts last year, when researchers released a study in the journal Biology Letters finding that infection with a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii may be linked to brain cancer in humans.

T. gondii can live in a variety of mammals and often infects mice. But to reproduce, it needs to get into a cat's gut. It seems to do so by giving its mouse hosts an uncanny bravery around the smell of cat pee, presumably making it more likely that the mice get eaten.

Given cats' role as natural T. gondii hosts, the brain cancer finding naturally raised some concern over whether housecats might pass the parasite to humans, increasing brain cancer risk. T. gondii is also linked with neurosis, schizophrenia and suicide attempts.

Now, researchers at the University of Oxford led by epidemiologist Vicky Benson have analyzed a national cancer registry in the United Kingdom alongside a cohort of 626,454 middle-age women and found absolutely no link between cat ownership and brain cancer. The scientists report their results today (Aug. 21) in the journal Biology Letters.

Frederic Thomas of the University of Montreal, one of the researchers on the original T. gondii and brain cancer study, responded to the new findings in the same journal.

"This is an important finding because the popular press is drawn to the headline that pet cats are a health risk to their owners," Thomas and his colleagues wrote. Nevertheless, they said, the finding does not disprove a link between the parasite and brain tumors. Cat ownership does not strongly increase the risk of T. gondii infection, the researchers wrote. In fact, eating unwashed vegetables and undercooked meat is a much stronger risk factor.

"[T]he study of Benson et al. should be reassuring to cat owners, but it does not test whether T. gondii affects risks of brain cancer," Thomas and his colleagues conclude.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/good-new...ancer-231359865.html

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