Hi, I would like to subscribe to your newsgroup, but can't seem to do it,
so I am attempting to send you a message without subscribing. Hope it
works. I am concerned with some of the comments I have heard bandied
about, regarding the elimination of the feral/abandoned cats at the
landfill. I guess my concern is that the "hole" that would be created by
their removal, could lead to larger problems. One person did note that
if the cats were removed, others would probably move in. I think the
problem with the current situation is that the cat population is not
stabilized. If the adult cats were to be trapped, tested,
spayed/neutered, and returned to the colony as non-breeders, the
population and territories would stabilize. I also know that many ground
dwelling mammals, ie rodents, love bird eggs and chicks. Rodents are cat
food, and most cats find rodents and reptiles easier to catch than
birds. I have an indoor/outdoor cat, and she is a bird watcher (teaser)
but the only things we have ever found evidence of her catching are
rodents, snakes, and lizards. She will sit on top of the cars in the
carport and stare at the swallows in their nests, but there is no way she
can get to them, though she has tried. I have seen a garter snake
slithering down a blackberry bramble slope, from a nest in the fork of a
tree, with a suspicious buldge in its middle. Life is a cycle, and we
need to work with the cycle, not try to stop it. By stabilizing the cat
population, the rodents and reptiles will be kept in check, and I firmly
believe that more birds will survive to adulthood with the cats presence,
than without it.

Take care,

Jan Vafa
pendari at u.washington.edu