Unique stray tom cat predator situation

[soccermom36]

Thank you for the information. I'm going to try and trap the feral cats. Our county shelter will accept them for a $7 fee. I assume they put them to sleep. We also have seen a decrease in wildlife,bird's especially. Also with the cat's come the coyotes who prey on them. We spot and hear packs in our back field at night. Rule of thumb here is when you see a coyote during daylight there's definitely a problem. No sightings during the day yet.
My coop is set up like Ft.Knox or I would have hardly any chickens!

 

[bumpercarr]

1 big male goose.... He keeps my cats on the side of the wire

I'd love to get one. My husband is resisting. He will lose eventually, but he just doesn't know it yet.

 

[Wrooster]

I understand how you feel about cats. I've had cats and loved them. But cats are an invasive species. Studies are showing they are the greatest cause of bird deaths and may have completely wiped out some bird species. Even well-fed and well-loved domestic housecats which are allowed outside kill an average of one animal for every 16 hours they are out.

"Cats are one of the top threats to US wildlife, killing billions of animals each year, a study suggests.
The authors estimate they are responsible for the deaths of between 1.4 and 3.7 billion birds and 6.9-20.7 billion mammals annually.
Writing in Nature Communications, the scientists said stray and feral cats were the worst offenders...."

You have several good suggestions about trapping it. I hope that after trapping it, you will consider that if you return the cat into the wild you will be responsible for a large number of bird and small animal deaths.

[Edit: that link to Nature isn't working right now. I don't know if that's a temporary problem or it's gone (perhaps killed after cat-lover protests). Here's the article I quoted: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21236690 You can easily find more.

The earlier post in this thread is right on and has some good links.]

 

[raizin]

I live out of town and found out last year that the townies were live trapping the predators in town and releasing them just down the road from our house. I had no idea until a neighbor caught someone doing it. Please deal with the problem yourself and don't transfer it to someone else. I kill on average at least 10 predators a year (skunks, possums, raccoons) and by far the hardest to deal with are raccoons. They do not go away, they check every night to make sure you locked up the coop. They climb over the run walls unless you have enclosed the roof. If you forget one night they get a free chicken meal.

 

[bumpercarr]

I live out of town and found out last year that the townies were live trapping the predators in town and releasing them just down the road from our house. I had no idea until a neighbor caught someone doing it. Please deal with the problem yourself and don't transfer it to someone else. I kill on average at least 10 predators a year (skunks, possums, raccoons) and by far the hardest to deal with are raccoons. They do not go away, they check every night to make sure you locked up the coop. They climb over the run walls unless you have enclosed the roof. If you forget one night they get a free chicken meal.

I try to never release an trapped animal anywhere close to civilization. Fortunately, I have a national forest about 3 miles away, so it isn't hard to find a place in the middle of nowhere to release. You are right, moving the problem to someone else's backyard is irresponsible. I'm lucky to have a wild place to release them, if I didn't I would have to take care of the problem.

One interesting thing that I found out was that our local animal control agent

 

[bumpercarr]

I live out of town and found out last year that the townies were live trapping the predators in town and releasing them just down the road from our house. I had no idea until a neighbor caught someone doing it. Please deal with the problem yourself and don't transfer it to someone else. I kill on average at least 10 predators a year (skunks, possums, raccoons) and by far the hardest to deal with are raccoons. They do not go away, they check every night to make sure you locked up the coop. They climb over the run walls unless you have enclosed the roof. If you forget one night they get a free chicken meal.

Sorry, double post. Darned laptop.

 

[bumpercarr]

I try to never release an trapped animal anywhere close to civilization. Fortunately, I have a national forest about 3 miles away, so it isn't hard to find a place in the middle of nowhere to release. You are right, moving the problem to someone else's backyard is irresponsible. I'm lucky to have a wild place to release them, if I didn't I would have to take care of the problem.

One interesting thing that I found out was that our local animal control agent

sorry...hit submit by accident. Anyway, the local animal control agent releases everything that they catch about a 1/2 mile from our little town. This is totally unacceptable, so I now release all of mine myself instead of turning it over to them. Some locals don't want to handle the skunks or raccoons, so after they are caught they call to have animal control remove them. Then they don't understand why they still have so many around, they don't realize that they are just coming right back.

 

[soccermom36]

Update on cats. I called animal control and our county doesn't release feral cats. I was told by the time I got back into my car the cat would be dead.
As far as trapping any other predator I would never do it. My husband and I have a .22 for predators who are persistent. We do this while upholding the law for protected wildlife.
Trapping and dumping animals is a horrible thing to do because it moves one problem to another location. Its like dumping your trash into your neighbors yard, it becomes your neighbors job to clean up. I live in the country and constantly notice dumped dogs and cats. Its sad.