Best way to kill cats? *Yeah I think the cats could have done it*

[furbabymum]

You could, I don't know, at least attempt to call animal control to see if they'd collect them before saying something like, I don't think they'll come so I'll just kill the cats myself. Next, you could also attempt to contact local humane societies and rescues. How about talking to the neighbors to be sure they're indeed a feral cat and FYI not all stray cats are feral. If your neighbors are in fact feeding them, then it's possible that they're not responsible for your missing ducks and you're killing animals for no reason other than your ignorance. If they are attacking your ducks, and you shoot them, something else will simply take their place. Best solution? Provide adequate fencing/protection for your ducks if you're going to have them at all.

Animal control can't go onto other people's land and just take animals. They'd have to catch them on my land. Since my live traps aren't catching them what makes you think AC will have better luck?

 

[speckledhen]

My personal view is that I would never put out poison. A quick, clean, never-knew-what-hit-'em death is what is best, IMO, for all nuisance predators. The objective is to remove the problem, not torture an animal. Wild predators mostly are nocturnal, though some do hunt in daylight, especially when feeding their young, but they are not the main cause of losses, it seems to me. Domestic dogs are. Cats, I dont know. I've seen plenty of stray cats come and go here and none bothered my birds, other than to pretend-stalk them. They never actually pounced and ran like heck when the birds spotted them and advanced on them. We've never shot a cat on our property, but if one became a confirmed nuisance killer, you bet we would.

Whether or not the predator in question, be it dog or cat, is someone's pet, is not even relevant as far as I am concerned. My chickens are someone's pet-MINE. I fail to see why my pets are less valued than theirs when mine are on their own property and theirs are not. Seems pretty simple to me.

 

[furbabymum]

My personal view is that I would never put out poison. A quick, clean, never-knew-what-hit-'em death is what is best, IMO, for all nuisance predators. The objective is to remove the problem, not torture an animal. Wild predators mostly are nocturnal, though some do hunt in daylight, especially when feeding their young, but they are not the main cause of losses, it seems to me. Domestic dogs are. Cats, I dont know. I've seen plenty of stray cats come and go here and none bothered my birds, other than to pretend-stalk them. They never actually pounced and ran like heck when the birds spotted them and advanced on them. We've never shot a cat on our property, but if one became a confirmed nuisance killer, you bet we would.

Whether or not the predator in question, be it dog or cat, is someone's pet, is not even relevant as far as I am concerned. My chickens are someone's pet-MINE. I fail to see why my pets are less valued than theirs when mine are on their own property and theirs are not. Seems pretty simple to me.

I do agree about poison. It took us years of trying other methods to even consider it for our mouse population and then we only do it in the house and garage. I've seen them during the day but it was always at the neighbors house. Otherwise I only spot them running at night. My DH has found them in the coop before but by the time he's come back inside for the gun it was gone.

 

[HeatherEmme]

It's not your desire to have cats off your property that people are appalled at. It's your methods of obtaining that. Poisoning cats with rat poison..shooting them and possibly injuring them so that they die slowly (you said it yourself, black cats at night are hard to see), being glad that your dogs maul them, or 'take care of them'. SMH. There are 70 Million stray and feral cats on the streets. You gonna shoot, poison, and maul all of them? Good luck with that. You must be a real nice individual....

 

[speckledhen]

I've been considering getting a barn cat to take care of our mouse issue around here, which is ironic, considering the subject of this thread. If the cat went somewhere killing someone's livestock or being a nuisance, I would expect it might not come home.

Heather, that last comment was uncalled for. Let's try to stay civil. Maybe re-read the rules of Predators & Pests at the top of this section? There are special rules for participation here.

I might consider poisoning mice if I didn't have chickens. My comment about poison was more about dogs, cats and other predators. We currently have no other animals that live here that might accidentally get hold of poisoned mouse. Best thing we've done is beat back the jungle from the coops, keep places from being easy hiding spots for the rats/mice. The only place we can't currently fix is the stand up crawl on our house. Has a lattice work double door so mice live in the insulation that is overhead, insulation for our house floors. Ick. Disgusting. Maybe I can borrow a cat and let it stay in there for a day or two with some water and feast, lol.

 

[WYNot]

My personal view is that I would never put out poison. A quick, clean, never-knew-what-hit-'em death is what is best, IMO, for all nuisance predators. The objective is to remove the problem, not torture an animal. Wild predators mostly are nocturnal, though some do hunt in daylight, especially when feeding their young, but they are not the main cause of losses, it seems to me. Domestic dogs are. Cats, I dont know. I've seen plenty of stray cats come and go here and none bothered my birds, other than to pretend-stalk them. They never actually pounced and ran like heck when the birds spotted them and advanced on them. We've never shot a cat on our property, but if one became a confirmed nuisance killer, you bet we would.

Whether or not the predator in question, be it dog or cat, is someone's pet, is not even relevant as far as I am concerned. My chickens are someone's pet-MINE. I fail to see why my pets are less valued than theirs when mine are on their own property and theirs are not. Seems pretty simple to me.

Actually, in most places the chickens are considered livestock and thus have greater protection under the law than simple pets. As mentioned in a previous post, here in Ohio at least, if your dog chases livestock then it is perfectly legal for the livestock owner to shoot it. And, you as the dog's owner will pay any damages. Cats are not mentioned specifically in the ORC like dogs are but I'd bet that the case wouldn't be that hard to make if one was chasing livestock and was dispatched.

And yes, I agree that animals under my care and on my property have a much greater value than someone else's animals coming onto my property. While many of you think it is cold or cruel, I will dispatch any animal that is on my property bothering my livestock. My livestock are not just pets. They are income and investment. You may think the chickens are not a great expense but add up what it cost to raise one to layer and the income/food lost while waiting for that replacement to be raised. Or better yet, figure the cost for a calf or cow to be raised to replacement.

If people don't want their pets killed, then they need to keep them under control and on their own property. Given the choice between destruction of my property and destruction of an animal that is out of control and trespassing? No contest.

 

[HeatherEmme]

Uncalled for? I'm sorry, did I miss the part where I called someone a name or used vulgarities?

Yeah, I didn't think so. Trust me, I've followed those 'special rules' to a T considering I haven't voiced a true opinion here. I work in rescue and this thread is absolutely appalling. To encourage and endorse animal cruelty is the lowest form of low and I'm surprised this thread hasn't been pulled. I am not a PETA nut or some crazy animal person, but I am PROUD of working in rescue and volunteering at the animal shelter. Shame on anyone who has endorsed poisoning or hailed mauling a DOMESTICATED animal. Now that should be in those 'special rules'.

 

[RedPulletMama]

I have 2 indoor/ outdoor cats and they are VERY well fed daily, but due to a cats nature, every time they go outside, they come home with a new 'present'. Sometimes its a bird, a squirrel, even a rabbit. They will catch and kill almost anything. They never eat it though, they just leave it at the back door like a gift to me. They have never messed with any of chickens that happen to be free- range. Not saying that they won't or can't but they just haven't as of yet. I like my chickens to be free- range so I take the chance, I also like my cats to be free- range so I take a chance with them also. I would naturally expect that if any of my animals were messing with someone else's livestock, they would not come home that night. Same goes for my neighbors pets if they were to mess with my livestock.

 

[furbabymum]

I've been considering getting a barn cat to take care of our mouse issue around here, which is ironic, considering the subject of this thread. If the cat went somewhere killing someone's livestock or being a nuisance, I would expect it might not come home.

Heather, that last comment was uncalled for. Let's try to stay civil. Maybe re-read the rules of Predators & Pests at the top of this section? There are special rules for participation here.

I might consider poisoning mice if I didn't have chickens. My comment about poison was more about dogs, cats and other predators. We currently have no other animals that live here that might accidentally get hold of poisoned mouse. Best thing we've done is beat back the jungle from the coops, keep places from being easy hiding spots for the rats/mice. The only place we can't currently fix is the stand up crawl on our house. Has a lattice work double door so mice live in the insulation that is overhead, insulation for our house floors. Ick. Disgusting. Maybe I can borrow a cat and let it stay in there for a day or two with some water and feast, lol.

We've used poison but kept it in live traps if that makes sense. The mice go in and eat the poison and can't get out. We weren't sure how else to kill them once they were inside the live trap and releasing them just wasn't an option. When you live in the country mice are just something you'll always deal with. We feel like we have super mice though. When we first used poison we just dropped a few pieces behind the stove because that's where they were. They were smarter than we were. One day I turned on the oven and they'd moved every single piece of poison into the oven. They tried to kill us. lol Since that day we just put it in the live traps.

We've thought about cats a few times but because of our dogs they aren't an option. They'd be indoors though, to control the indoor mouse population. We usually have a pretty lassez faire outlook on outdoor animals. They don't bother us and we don't bother them.

Part of what gets me about the cats is that I take such pains to make sure my dogs aren't a nuisance to anyone. We've spent a great deal of time, money and sweat to make sure they don't get onto other people's land. If the cats were a natural predator, such as the great horned owls we housed over the winter, I wouldn't be so steamed about it. Fact is those cats shouldn't be my problem. Someone made them my problem and now I'm being insulted for taking care of it (Not by you obviously).

 

[furbabymum]

Uncalled for? I'm sorry, did I miss the part where I called someone a name or used vulgarities?

Yeah, I didn't think so. Trust me, I've followed those 'special rules' to a T considering I haven't voiced a true opinion here. I work in rescue and this thread is absolutely appalling. To encourage and endorse animal cruelty is the lowest form of low and I'm surprised this thread hasn't been pulled. I am not a PETA nut or some crazy animal person, but I am PROUD of working in rescue and volunteering at the animal shelter. Shame on anyone who has endorsed poisoning or hailed mauling a DOMESTICATED animal. Now that should be in those 'special rules'.

I honestly don't remember hailing it. I'm not going to say I was sad to see the cats were dead but MY DOGS WERE INSIDE THEIR FENCED IN DOG RUN 100% OF THE TIME AND THE CAT MUST HAVE COME INTO IT TO BE CAUGHT AND KILLED. Next thing I know you'll be telling me to put a roof and cat repellent on my dog run.

BUT that's what the dogs are for. You get livestock guard dogs to guard livestock. Something threatens the livestock and it's dispatched. Fact of the matter is, if they were contained by responsible, loving owners this would not even be a topic of conversation. They aren't.