Subject: Re: cats at the land fill.
Date: Sep 25 09:39:43 1995
From: Roger Olstad - rolstad at u.washington.edu


You said it yourself: "Life is a cycle and we need to work with the
cycle, not try to stop it." Feral (or reintroduced) cats are not a part
of the natural cycle at Montlake.....the rodents and reptiles (and birds)
will be in sync as a part of the cycle without the assistance of cats!
Sounds to me like you would like to try and stop (or at least alter) the
cycle by reintroducing nonbreeding cats.

Roger Olstad
Univ. of Washington, Seattle

On Mon , 25 Sep 1995, Jan Vafa wrote:

> 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
>