Alley Cat Allies is engaged in a battle of wills with the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD). I will call EBRPD “the cat killers”. I will call Alley Cat Allies “ACA”.
The cat killers have, for decades, been killing cats in parklands in Oakland, California. ACA have produced a nice video which actually sums it up very eloquently. I will add some words. The cat killers have been confronted by ACA over their policy of trying to eradicate feral cats on this strip of parkland by shooting them dead. They did not respond favourably to ACA’s advances and decided to continue with their policy of shooting the cats.
Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.
These are cats which are very well cared for by TNR volunteers. The video explains. They are vaccinated, they are neutered, they are well managed and the whole process is harmonious as it maintains the ecological balance. Feral cats are part of the ecosystem. The best way to deal with them is to manage them as described.
The cat killers are ignorant of these more refined methods and firmly believe that they should constantly be shot dead. This results in new feral cats entering the vacated space as anybody who knows about feral cats realises. In other words, if you shoot feral cats in a certain area you have to go on shooting them in perpetuity. It’s a never-ending process.
This is inhumane and ACA believe that the cat killers’ policy is unlawful. Because they didn’t respond favourably to their reasonable request, ACA decided to sue them. On July 21 ACA filed a lawsuit in a California court to stop the cat killers from hunting, killing and relocating cats. In the words of ACA, the lawsuit “requests the court to vacate or set aside the policy [of the cat killers] and issue a temporary restraining order. What they want is the court to issue an injunction to put a stop to this inhumane treatment of feral cats.
The video shows some of the volunteers talking about the loss of their cats. They’ve managed them for a long time. Suddenly the cats start to disappear. Cats that they have learnt to know well and love. It must be very distressing for them.
On a wider issue, this battle between ACA and the cat killers is played out across the United States every day of the year in various places. It is a battle between people who want to behave humanely towards feral cats, for all the right reasons, and those who simply don’t care whether they cause pain and distress in animals. They conveniently forget that humans put the cats there in the first place.
I would hope that I am correct in believing that the humane group of people is growing in number and that the cat killers are decreasing in number as the world becomes more enlightened about the reasons for the existence of feral cats and the issue of animal welfare is moving up the agenda. It is moving up the agenda in part because people are more aware of the environment because of global warming.
As I understand it, the cat killers work for an organisation which is publicly funded i.e. the taxpayer is paying these people to shoot cats. The public should complain that their money is being spent in this way.
SOME MORE ON SHOOTING FERAL CATS:
New Zealand journalist loves domestic cats and wants to shoot feral cats. Crazy?
Shooting cats as a form of euthanasia?
Emotional impact on TNR caregivers when their cats were shot by the authorities
Arrogant hunter addicted to killing feral cats
US troops shoot feral cats with air guns on their South Korea base
Mindless massacre of managed feral cats should be decried internationally
Meet Bill Lewis the feral cat terminator (audio)
Note: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified.