This sporting life
Nine lives needed
Apr 14th 2005 | CHICAGO
From The Economist print edition
Miaow, miaow. Bang
BACKS were up and claws were bared in Wisconsin this week as animal lovers and hunters faced off in a royal cat-fight. When the fur stopped flying, the hunters claimed victory: by 57% to 43%, residents said that under certain circumstances free-roaming domestic cats can be shot.
Despite the tearful pleas of feline advocates (some of whom wore whiskers and tails to packed county meetings), the dust-up wasn't about their beloved pets. Rather, the April 11th vote focused on whether feral cats should be designated an “unprotected species”. The purely advisory public vote, in which 12,000 people participated, now goes to the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and will have to pass the state legislature before it becomes law.
The proposal was first made by a hunter in La Crosse who claims that free-roaming, feral domestic cats—those without collars and not under an owner's direct control—are a nuisance, killing millions of birds and other animals. He has since received death threats. Opponents of the proposal want better education for cat-owners (many domestic pets are let loose in the wild) or trapping, neutering and releasing of feral cats.
Misinformation has fuelled the frenzy. “We're not going to have a cat-hunting season in Wisconsin,” says Burt Bushke of Wings Over Wisconsin, a hunting and bird-watching group. “They think it's going be like deer-hunting season. It's not.” The DNR reckons about 15% of Wisconsin residents are hunters, putting it among the top hunting states in the country.
No one knows how many feral cats are roaming about, but one much cited study by a University of Wisconsin professor (discounted by cat advocates) says there are 1.4m of them in the state. The Humane Society, an animal-protection group, is less certain: it reckons somewhat vaguely that the feral cat population nationwide is somewhere between 10m and 70m. Their domesticated cousins are easier to count: about 78m pet cats live in America, meaning they still outnumber their canine rivals by 13m.
Wisconsin is not the first state to consider shooting cats. Wyoming, with lots of wide-open spaces and a gun-loving culture, has a statute that designates cats at large as a nuisance. Minnesota has allowed feral cats to be shot for decades, according to a state official, though unlike Wyoming (and now potentially Wisconsin), the cats are not specifically listed as potential targets.
It is unlikely that the Fish and Wildlife Service will intervene. Last month, the Bush administration somewhat wittily named a former chief lobbyist for Safari Club International, a trophy-hunting organisation, as the acting director of the service. Sylvester and Garfield had better keep their heads down, along with Bambi and Thumper.
