OK, all this cats & birds stuff is driving me insane!

I'm forced to respond with:

THE SAGA OF THE PORTLAND AUDUBON SOCIETY'S CAT POGRAMS

Yes, indeed, way back when - in the 1930s, if I'm not mistaken -
PAS (then known as Oregon Audubon) conducted search-and-destroy
missions to free the nocturnal streets of these pesky pestilential pets.

Actually, apparently it was a single member of the board who was
freaked by felines to the point of implementing kittyicide.

He'd drive the streets at night, looking for cats on the loose.
"Here, kitty kitty!". He'd put them in a large sack, fill it with
rocks, and drown them in our duck pond.

I kid you not.

As Dave Marshall, retired head of the USF&W Endangered Species
Program under the Carter Administration, fifth-generation
PAS member and currently on the Board of Directors says:

"He was a strange guy".

This went on for years. No, we have not excavated the pond, even when
drained, in any attempt to estimate the number of cats which met
their end, mewing pitifully "I've never killed a bird! Honest!".

For all you cat lovers out there, I hope the levity doesn't offend
you. This is an Official PAS Dark Secret which gets reverently
repeated during our annual Board/Staff retreat's social hour. Usually
after a reasonable amount of time has been spent sipping the Official
Drink of the Portland Audubon Society - Jose' Cuervo. Straight.
No lime. No salt. No bullshit.

And, most certainly, no cats.

The uncovering of this secret is probably why all those other
chapters in the state were founded, splitting Oregon Audubon
asunder. They probably couldn't handle the guilt of being
associated with a society with such grim secrets lurking in
the archives.

An additional tidbit: during that time the Society also built
a "cat-proof" fence around our 140 or so acre Sanctuary (now
expanded to about 220 acres). We are uncertain whether it
was more effective at keeping cats out, or, once in, keeping
them from escaping.

Cat owners have been exacting retribution for years: hardly
a week goes by without either an unwanted cat or batch of
kittens being released in our parking lot in the middle of
the night. "Portland Audubon - oh yeah, that's the organization
that loves cats!" You figure it out, I can't.

Or, perhaps they are simply the reincarnated inhabitants of
our duck pond!

Seattle Audubon: betcha can't beat this!


-Don Baccus-