Wisconsin is considering allowing the hunting of cats. Not cougars or mountain lions or tigers on the loose but putty-tats: Sylvester the cat. Morris the cat. Garfield. Fear among hunters that the proposal would tarnish their image, already hurt by a painful debate over a mourning dove hunt, prompted enough questions during discussions preceding an advisory vote to leave the outcome uncertain.
The proposal drew harsh criticism from several Waukesha County veterinarians who said that cat shootings already are a problem, and that the proposed law change would only increase the carnage. Randy Schuett, a vet and a Town of Mukwonago farm owner, said he did not want his barn cats hunted and killed. "Every time you shoot at a cat and think you've killed it, you're wrong," Schuett said. "I'm tired of patching up these animals."
04/15/05 UPDATE: "I don't think Wisconsin should become known as a state where we shoot cats," said Gov Doyle, a Democrat who neither hunts nor owns a cat. "What it does is sort of hold us up as a state that everybody is kind of laughing at right now." They consider Senator Frist, a known cat-killer, too big a risk to the cats to allow to cross the state border. Staffers in the governor's office report that Frist is also considered a danger to the state's precarious reputation since he is quickly becoming a national laughing stock himself due to his pioneering of the Fristian Method of Video Diagnosis.
I quess noone has thought of solving the feral cat over population by having the state pay vets to neuter and spay the wild creatures that can be located. Since vets say that pet cats are already being shot and killed, what do you think will happen after the season opens?
