Time for cat hunting in New Jersey

Dino Flammia's article on the growing stray and feral cat population really got me thinking. If this is true that as many as 2 million cats without owners are wreaking this much havoc in the Garden State, is it all that different than a problematic deer population? Or bear population?

Communities are using trap-neuter-return programs. Feral and stray cats are caught, then neutered or spayed, vaccinated for rabies and other things and released back into the same area where they were trapped. Ear-tipping is how they monitor the stray cat population to see which ones have already been fixed and vaccinated. No matter where this money is coming from, these programs cost something. I understand the desire to be humane, but let's face facts here. Two million stray cats are causing problems. Yes, after being altered they won't reproduce, but that's also not making the current problem immediately smaller.

The executive director of the Monmouth County SPCA, which has not endorsed any form of hunt, says “every single municipality is plagued with a feral cat population. It is truly one of the number one problems out there with every shelter and rescue group.”

If every single municipality is plagued with feral cats, why are we releasing them, and giving them rabies shots, and spaying and neutering them? As long as it's not someone's pet, and as long as the cat is not an endangered species, why not trap them and kill them? Wouldn't that be a much more cost effective and quicker solution to the overgrown feral cat population problem?

Sure, it sounds so unthinkable; I get it. We associate cats with pets, but these cats are not anyone's pet. We associate them with cute Friskies commercials and with Disney characters. But ultimately these are animals that are living in the wild and have grown too large in number. If it's a bear, a deer, a squirrel, or any of a number of other animals, we have a hunt. Why not have a hunting (or trap and kill) season for feral cats?

I'm sure people will now go on to tell me how sick I am. But challenge your conventions here and consider it. If you still think I'm wrong explain why that wouldn't be a practical solution?

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