The management at Sandy Pines, a vacation destination, in Dorr, Michigan are unable to bring themselves to act humanely towards feral cats on their 800 acre park. They have shunned a TNR program worked out with Carol’s Ferals and insist on adopting a trap and kill policy.
Not So Pristine
The Sandy Pines management describe their vacation destination as occupying 800 acres of woodlands around a pristine lake. Clearly, the people who manage this beautiful site do not possess minds which are as pristine as their lake.
Cat Froze To Death in Trap
A little while ago I reported on a cat who had died in a trap set by one of the rangers at Sandy Pines.
The photograph is upsetting. We now have an update on Facebook from Judy Lynn who is a member of Carol’s Ferals, as I understand it. She writes a clear summary of what is happening with respect to the feral cats at this vacation destination as at today’s date.
The first point to make is that the cat I refer to froze to death in a trap that was baited and placed by Sandy Pines. A necropsy had been performed to confirm this. The cat had intestinal parasites but as Lynn says these are commonplace among feral cats and are not life-threatening. It looks as if the management are vicariously liable through their ranger for a breach of state animal welfare law because on the face of it they left this cat to die in a trap that they had set.
Cynically, Sandy Pines tried to bury this story.
Refusal to Adopt TNR
It would appear that the Head of Security at Sandy Pines resigned as a result of the necropsy report on this cat. Previously Carol’s Ferals through Judy Lynn had been in discussion with Sandy Pines management about setting up a TNR program on the estate. She had met with Gene, the president of Sandy Pines and Mel, the Head of Security and Josh, the Social Media Director. They had made progress towards setting up a TNR program. Then Mel resigned as mentioned.
Despite Carol’s Ferals agreeing to foot the bills for spaying and neutering the cats and handling every aspect of the TNR program, Sandy Pines management opted for trap and eradicate.
This obviously means killing feral cats because taking feral cats to a shelter is a death sentence. No doubt, Sandy Pines will say that they have to clear the feral cats from their vacation destination in the interests of their business and their clients. Having read about feral cats for many years it is my impression that a lot of people like to see cats. It gives them pleasure and if they are managed properly as has been recommended and proposed then their presence should not be a problem. I would suggest that community cats can add to the environment especially on a park the size of 800 acres. Their presence would be very low-key and certainly would not be a detriment to the business.
Publicity
This story is probably negative publicity for the business. To see feral cats handled humanely and decently would have provided the opposite.
In fact, Lynn suggested that a photograph was taken of the traps being removed from the park and loaded into a Carol’s Ferals vehicle as a means of promoting the park. However, the president, Gene, showed his true colors in suggesting that the photo shoot be a complete sham. He said: “let’s load them in, take the picture, and you give them back to us”.
Non-feral Cats
If you are setting traps you are open to the possibility of trapping “owned” cats. Lynn has a warning to the members of Sandy Pines. She says that if you own a cat do not let him or her outside of your dwelling when visiting the park this summer. And she makes a good point that even a domestic cat when trapped for a while and then shipped off to a shelter will behave quite possibly like a feral cat because the whole thing will be so stressful. When a cat behaves aggressively they are assessed as having behavioral issues which in turns means that they are unadoptable which then leads to one thing: death, euphemistically described as euthanasia.
You will not see cats treated humanely at Sandy Pines. You will not see carefully manage feeding stations for the cats at Sandy Pines. You might glimpse the surreptitious removal of a captured cat in a van never to be seen again.
Michael Broad said on March 22nd, 2018 at 05:00…
“I am sorry…”
This is your only true statement. To continue:
“…but (a) you genuinely detest non-native ‘pests’ like feral cats…”
This is a bad thing? I genuinely detest the ecological destruction wrought by human introduction of invasive African clawed frogs which spread the novel invasive Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis fungus to vulnerable native amphibians in North, Central and South America and Australia, and which has caused the extinction of numerous amphibian species in less than three decades. I also genuinely detest the damage wrought by invasive Aedes aegyptii mosquitoes which are spreading the Zika virus to vulnerable human populations in the US, and genuinely believe we should do all in our power to combat this scourge. Does this make me the devil? To continue…
“…and (b) you are unable to prove scientifically and beyond doubt that feral cats have the harm on children as stated and…”
The CDC itself warns that toxoplasmosis causes up to 5,000 serious birth defects each and every year. Peter Hotez, MD Phd, Dean of the Tropical Medicine Institute at Baylor College, has warned that cat-vectored toxocariasis has infected ONE out of every THREE black American children living in poverty in the US, subjecting them to risk of developmental disability and blindness. These are facts you can verify just as easily as I. But black children are clearly even less a concern to you than other segments of humanity. As I am grandfather to five black children, my priorities are diametrically opposed to yours, for which I will not apologize. To continue:
“(c) ignore the damage that humans do and which rebounds on humans e.g. plastic in oceans poisoning fish and then people and air pollution by diesel vehicles killing people and (d) diesel particulate pollution damaging children’s minds etc etc….”
This, boys and girls, is a classic example of the logical fallacy known as “deflection”. Fact is that my concern for the threats posed by the feral cat scourge to public health and wildlife conservation doesn’t mean I don’t have other concerns. YOU’RE the one who only cares about cats, not me. You prove that with everything you write.
Ask yourself, Michael, for example–do you REALLY think I’ve IGNORED such issues as Michigan Governor Rick Snyder deliberately subjecting the–mostly black–children of Flint, Michigan to LEAD poisoning, LEGIONNAIRES’ DISEASE and a half-dozen other deadly toxins by switching that city’s drinking water supply from Lake Huron to the corrosively polluted water from the Flint River? Or other threats to our environment and vulnerable populations by selfish, entitled individuals and greedy, criminal corporations? Again, YOU’RE the one pathologically focused on cats–not me!
I’ll bet you $100.00 USD (70.25 GBP) you don’t have the integrity to print this, much less respond to it.
I have the integrity to publish it. I have more integrity than you can imagine. However, I don’t have the time or inclination to read your comment. You are in a very small minority in your thoughts which in itself tells us how valid your thoughts are. Please desist from returning to this website for the simple reason that I and I am sure many others are tired of your quasi-scientific arguments which in my opinion are full of fallacies, exaggerations, distortions and bias for the simple reason that you hate feral cats.
Utter nonsense, and you know it. Quoting the CDC and the Dean of Baylor College’s Tropical Medicine Institute hardly constitutes ‘quasi-scientific’ arguments. They’re arguments for which you have no facts to refute. Dr. Hotez was the man who first warned that the Zika virus was coming to the US, long before it arrive. He has considerably more credibility than you. As for fallacies, you are the one who engaged in deflection, not me.
This conversation is over. I don’t want to hear from you again. You are an unpleasant person using semi-scientific arguments which do not stack up in my view. I have challenged you in the past to produce scientific evidence meaning hard scientific evidence and you have failed to produce it. Enough is enough. Please do not comment on this site again. If you try you will be deleted.
I accept your surrender.
Sad and childish that you interpret it that way.