AR-News: Fw: PETA Sides with Audubon Society to Kill Feral Cats in PA

[Elizabeth Forel]

--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: BHGazette at aol.com

  Fur flies over issue of stray cats 

Friday, September 26, 2003

BY MONICA VON DOBENECK 
Of Our Palmyra Bureau 

Stray cats roam in the wild and on city streets, much to the dismay of
pet 
lovers and pet loathers alike. 

Debate is growing about what to do with them. 

Some animal welfare groups, including PAWS, advocate trapping them, 
neutering them, vaccinating them and letting them go if they are not
adoptable. 

Other groups, including the Pennsylvania Game Commission, say that's a 
terrible idea, and moreover illegal. 

The issue has surfaced in several midstate municipalities, most recently
in 
Palmyra. Carmen Roth, a borough resident and volunteer with PAWS,
approached 
Borough Council this week with a plan to trap and release cats. Council
members 
declined to make a decision until they get more information. 

The topic that concerns Roth is causing debate nationwide and will be the

focus of the American Veterinary Medical Association's annual Animal
Welfare 
Forum in Illinois in November. 

Lining up in favor of the trap/neuter/release movement are the American 
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, several veterinary
schools, the 
Fund for Animals, the Cornell Feline Health Center and several other
national 
animal welfare groups. Some cities, including Pittsburgh, have been using
the 
program for years. 

Among the organizations opposing the program are the National Audubon 
Society, the American Bird Conservancy, Dauphin County Wildlife Rescue,
and People 
for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the extreme animal rights group.
PETA 
advocates euthanasia for wild cats that cannot be tamed, because
"otherwise they 
will almost certainly die a painful death," according to its literature. 

Roth said this week that nobody has proposed a better solution. The other

choices are to leave the cats alone to reproduce indiscriminately or to
trap 
them and kill them. It is hard to find homes for feral adult cats who
cannot be 
tamed, according to Roth, and euthanizing is more expensive than
neutering. 

Volunteers, including veterinarians, who are willing to help with 
trap/neuter/release programs are unlikely to be willing to trap and kill,
she said. 

It remains unclear whether the practice is legal in Pennsylvania. 

Jerry Feaser, spokesman for the game commission, said it is illegal. He 
points to a section of law concerning the "importation, sale and release
of 
certain wildlife" which says "house cats may be possessed but not
released into the 
wild." 

However, a proposed new rule by the Game Commission in the current issue
of 
The Pennsylvania Bulletin, seeks to make releasing cats illegal and notes

"currently, the Commission has no laws or regulations that prohibit the
release of 
captive held wildlife or domestic dogs or cats into the wild." Feaser
said 
the apparent discrepancy is a technical glitch, and the proposal is
designed to 
make laws consistent. 

He said feral cats "wreak havoc with Pennsylvania's native wildlife,
compete 
with native predators like hawks and owls and are second only to raccoons
in 
spreading rabies... They don't belong there and it's inhumane for them to
be 
out there." 

Feral cats are often killed by cars or predators or die young of disease,
he 
said. 

Roth said she is not sure what the Game Commission hopes to accomplish
with 
the law. 

"I can understand them wanting to protect wildlife, but I don't see how
this 
proposal would do that," she said. 

She points to studies listed on the PAWS Web site (www.pawsofpa.org) that

talk about successful trap/neuter/release programs, such as the one at
Stanford 
University which began in 1989 and reduced the number of new kittens from
60 
the first year to four after five years. There are also studies which
show cats 
do not seriously harm native wildlife in most areas. 

She said people have been quietly trapping and releasing cats for years.
She 
has caught eight cats in the borough, but has found homes for all of
them. 
She thinks it is time to bring the issue into the open. 

"We need community involvement," she said. "There are people in the 
neighborhood now feeding these stray cats." 
  
MONICA VON DOBENECK: 832-2090 or mdobeneck at patriot-news.com 

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