By Steve Sommers
A friend of mine in Minnesota asked me recently about the feralcat hunting proposal in Wisconsin and whether feral cats weresuch a problem here that we needed a special law about it. Feralcats are not 'wild cats', per se, but rather house cats gonewild, that is feline domesticus (I'm pretty sure that's thecorrect latin designation) or as they're more colloquially known'barn cats'. Or maybe just homeless cats would be a more fittingdesignation for these animals.Are they a problem in Wisconsin?
Well, I'd never heard they were before this and frankly mostfarmers who have problematic barn cats just take care of themwithout bothering to worry about a hunting license.Cats are - ofcourse - the only domesticated animals that did not start outoriginally as either a pack or herd animal. They weredomesticated by the Egyptians aeons ago for the purpose oftaking care of vermin in grain silos. Possibly thepro-cat-hunting lobby here was concerned that these wild housecats were themselves vermin, representing a disease vector,since they tend to still hang around with humans and aren't soclean.
Or there could have been a concern that these feral house catswere now part of the Wisconsin eco-system and represent a newspecies with nonatural predator and thus could overwhelm itsfragile balance. Although, I can think of plenty of animals outhere in the woods that would find them a wholesome snack -wolves, hawks, eagles, maybe bears. (oh my)
What I really think is that these hunters figured that thesecats are animals, they're out in the woods, so why not huntthem? You need a little target practice between all the otherhunting seasons, don't you? And, I don't know this first hand,but I hear that cats are real yummy if you cook them right.
I've never been a hunter myself and will never get exactlywhat's 'fun' about hunting. There's something atavistic andchemical that must happen in most male brains that seems to beentirely absent in mine. I can understand it from the aspectthat it's sort of a coming-of-age male bonding type thing andyou're going out and enjoying nature and most often drinking-which I've also heard can be fun. But other than that, it holdsno interest for me.
Don't get me wrong. I don't have anything against hunters. Iknow far too many people that I respect that also hunt. So, evenif I don't understand why it's enjoyable for them and doesn'tseem like it would be a good time for me, I can still acceptthis difference of opinion. And I do appreciate the aspect ofthem getting potential road hazards out of the way (deer, wildturkeys, ducks, etc). Thank you for that, Hunters.
My only real problem is that since I live so far out in thewoods, there are certain times of the year that I can't safelygo out of my house wearing my favorite antler hat and brownfurry suit. Also, there's this rumor that certain twistedmultimillionaires in Minnesota have been buying up land inremote areas of the state and then kidnaping famous sportsfigures and hunting them down as human game. I'd definitely drawthe line there.
That's only a rumor, though; If I hear anymore about that, I'lllet you know. By the way, the Governor of Wisconsin said that hewould veto any bill like this that came his way. I'm not evensure that this was a bill thatwas actually introduced aslegislation or just a proposal that was floated aroundsomewhere. It got a lot of national attention and tended tomakethe whole state of Wisconsin look real silly, when it wasonly a few people who thought it was a great idea and I'm notsure why they did.
Maybe if I heard their reasoning they could convince me.
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