Ignorance means: lacking knowledge or awareness in general; uneducated or unsophisticated.
Even smart people can be ignorant. Even educated people can be ignorant. This is because they are educated in one area. They do not have a wider education which makes them wise. Also, even if a person is educated widely, they can still behave in a way which is the same as someone who is ignorant if they are biased and if they are supporting a hidden agenda.
It is immoral and unethical to try to exterminate feral cats or to kill them in any way because we created them through irresponsible cat caretaking or what is called “cat ownership”. I prefer “caretaking” because it indicates care but unfortunately many people who own cats don’t care for them in a way which guarantees their safety. A lot of people do not care for them in a way which guarantees that they will not end up being stray cats and then creating feral cats or becoming feral cats themselves.
To allow this to happen is, it is sad to say, ignorant. And then for people in authority, including scientists, to suggest that we should kill these cats is piling ignorance upon ignorance.
We cannot compound the first set of ignorant behaviors with further ignorant behavior. We need to cut off the cycle and change things in an ethical and permanent way by treating feral cats humanely, consistently, and with commitment so that their population gradually fades and so that we retain a clear conscience because if we simply try to eliminate them we will know that it is unethical and we will know that we have done wrong.
If somebody creates a problem and then they wish to rectify the problem, the only way to do it is in an ethical way. Many highly educated but ignorant people want to kill feral cats. They are educated with degrees and further degrees but they are unethical and inhumane because they are ignoring the most important aspect of feral cats: we created them. We are obliged to relate to them, and treat them, ethically.
There can be no other conclusion.
And then there are other more practical issues:
“Cats are part of nature`s checks and balances. Without cats many creatures upon which they prey would experience a population explosion” (Harvey Harrison)
I agree. Many years ago the same ignorance caused world catastrophe. People where killing cats left and right since they believed they were the cause of the bubonic plague. In fact the plague was caused from fleas on rats. Ironic how such callous cruelty and ignorance drove away the force that would have helped get rid of those rats.
There is ignorance and there is sheer cruelty, just look what is happening in our country and how ironic it is that some people have the nerve to say that cats decimate birds and wild life.
🙂 I have deleted his comment because he knows that he has to be polite but be can’t manage it. He simply has to insult people all the time and he still expects to get his comments published. Weird.