This is a David and Goliath type tussle and it does bring home to us the stark difference in mentality between independent minded women who wish to care for feral cats out of the kindness of their hearts with absolutely no gain in it for them other than the pleasure of helping and saving a vulnerable animal trying to survive in a metropolis and big business who have only one concern: how to make a profit and how to satisfy their shareholders.
With those starkly different objectives there’s bound to be a clash and it is taking place at Boerne, Texas. A colony of feral cats lives just outside the local Walmart. Quite expectedly Walmart wants the cats removed and they are using their clout when asking the city administrators to relocate them.
The two women (one of whom is Claudia Boettcher) who have been caring for the cats in a wooded area not far from the parking lot for about three years object to this because they say that the cats are spayed, neutered and vaccinated and therefore well cared for. They say that the cats were born on the hill where they live now and that they have always been fed and to relocate them at this stage would be “just cruel”.
The city administrators have predictably supported Walmart in saying that the cats must be relocated by December 15th or Animal Care Services will step in and do it for them.
As a consequence, the feral cat caretakers are now planning a rally during the forthcoming weekend to protest. The rally will be held on Saturday and Sunday from midday to 4pm across the street from the Walmart store.
A spokesperson on behalf of the city of Boerne has told the press that they are hopeful that they have found a compromise, meaning that they have found a safe location to relocate the cats to which should satisfy the feral cat caretakers. They are going to make an announcement shortly and in fact one may have already been made but I don’t know the outcome at this stage.
I wonder if Walmart have any evidence that the feral cat colony is affecting their business. Or is that the managers simply don’t like feral cats and have misconceptions about them.
As I said, this is a classic contest between two groups of people who have completely opposing objectives one of which is kind to animals and the other that regard animals as a hindrance to making a profit unless they can use animals to turn a profit. Ultimately, big business has a starkly detrimental effect upon the wild animals living on this planet.
You can guess who I am for.
I am not sure that you have this completely right. The vacuum effect does exist in this way: where there is a supply of food of any kind then clearing out cats will leave space for others to take up the void. Food need not be deliberately supplied by anyone. A classic is cat colonies near docks where there are fishermen.
The mythical “vacuum effect” is a 100% LIE. A study done by the Texas A&M University proved that any perceived “vacuum” is just the simple case that CATS ATTRACT CATS. Get rid of them all and there are no cats there to attract more. If you want more cats keep even one of them around, more will find you. That university study also found that sterilized cats very poorly defend any territory. Non-sterilized cats, being more aggressive, take over the sterilized cats’ resources (shelter & food if any). If there is any kind of “vacuum effect” at all, it is that sterilizing cats cause non-sterilized cats to restore the reproductive void.
If your mythical “vacuum effect” were true then there would be cats on every square foot of this earth. Explain why there are no cats in all those empty “vacuum” areas that will just mysteriously suck in more cats to fill all those empty habitable voids. You can’t. Stop spreading manipulative self-deceptive misinformation and LIES.
Helloooooooo…are you bean brains at Walmart unfamiliar with the Vacuum Effect? Move all those kitties, who I’m sure are annoying to no one but you, and the void WILL be filled by…tah dahhhh – MORE ferals! The tiniest amount of research would have revealed this fact. BTW, the cats are feral ONLY because some moronic individual kicked an innocent kitty to the curb, or dropped it off for “someone to find” or maybe they just neglected to do the responsible thing and CARE FOR THEIR PET RESPONSIBLY.
Thank you!
You’re welcome, Michael. And thank you for going after him and banning him. I don’t know what he thinks he’s going to gain by coming on here. His hatred is really tiresome and downright boring after a while.