GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

30-07-2003, 12:02 PM

(paghat) wrote in message ...
[someone said]

Looks like I was behind the times on that post. Cats outdoors & off
leashes have already been banned state-wide in Florida (will soon be
banned state-wide in Illinois), in several entire counties, & in such
diverse cities as Gaitherburg & Rockville MD & all Prince George County ;
Houston & Arlington TX (Austin considering it); Laurel City, Montana;
Naperville, IL; Hendersonville TN; Fayetteville Arkansas; Tulsa OK; San
Jose, CA & all of Holister County; Akron OH; & many other places, with Cat
Leash Laws under consideration in every other part of the country. Laws
typically levy fines of $100, sometimes less, but can be much more,
especially for repeat violators. Second offenses commonly require full
court appearances.

Such laws are not enforced in most jurisdictions. I never had more
rogue cat problems than I did in San Jose.

The Akron cat leash law resulted in thousands of cats just trapped &
killed. Witham & Charlotte Counties in Florida had cat leash laws before
it went state-wide, as did many Florida towns & cities. When the Witham
law went into effect, there were some outcries against it, but the voices
in favor far outnumbered the voices of cat advocates. And the only reason
a great many more cats weren't trapped & killed was because the Sherrif's
Animal Control Unit did not have funding for the extra staff to answer the
sudden radical increase in complaints demanding the trapping & removal of
neighbors' wayward cats.

Leash laws kill cats in two ways.

Nope. Owners who do not contain their cats are the ones responsible
for killing them. Responsibility starts at home. I love my cats
dearly, but rogue cats are a nuisance, and it is the people who allow
their cats to interfere with other's enjoyment of their OWN property
are that to blame, if their cats are caught and destroyed as a result
of their negligence.

First because any cat that is not also
collared & liscensed will be taken to animal control and in the majority
of cases destroyed.

Not if the owner is responsible.

Second because cats on leashes frequently hang
themselves on trees and fences.

Any cat owner who tethers their cat is a complete idiot.

For this reason a good cat collar has "pop
bead" break-away feature so that when it struggles in the hanging
position, the collar comes off before it strangles to death.

"Break-away" collars can cause death or injury as well. One of the
worst degloving injuries I have ever seen was caused by a "break-away"
collar.

Then it is
trapped for wandering free, taken to animal control, and destroyed.

The real reason so many legislators want these laws is NOT because of a
sudden burgeoning of hatred for cats. It's a windfall of hidden taxes.
Every time Bush cuts taxes for the richest 2% in the country, everyone
else gets higher local fees, fines, liscenses to pick up the slack --
fees, fines, & liscenses that regulate every aspect of daily life. The
Illinois legislation will permit multiple fees be charged every one who
has a cat even if their cat never roams free. High fees that will be
raised higher year by year.

While I agree with your politics, one can rebel by simply not
registering their cats. If your cats are controlled and you take
responsibility for them, not registering them is never a problem.

The public health & well being is NOT the real
consideration of (as present example) Illinois legisation.

Cats are not currently a threat to public health. Some are, however,
vectors for toxoplasmosis which is serious only for the
immunocompromised and pregnant. (Although the primary route of
infection in humans is undercooked meat).

It is a MAJOR
revenue-enhancer for the state, as even if they don't get to fine you,
you'll be paying three separate fees or your cat is not legal. There will
be a cat REGISTRATION FEE, annual LISCENSE fee, a LITTER TAX if your cat
reproduces,

Well, people who breed *should* be deterred since cats are being
klilled for lack of homes already, by the thousands.

FINES if your cat so much as suns itself on the sidewalk in
front of where it lives. Plus the cost of cutting out its sex organs,

Once again, responsible cat ownership...

plus
the cost of legally required microchipping, because the Illinois
legislation also proposes to require microchipping of all cats. Note that
microchipping protects animals only if an owner signs up & pays for a 24
hour service for tracking lost animals;

Microchipping is inexpensive and *essential* for anyone who loves
their cat, and wants to get it back, if it were ever to be lost.

otherwise the whole purpose of
microchipping is to track down & levy fines against owners. If there is
insufficient funding to call & let an owner know its cat will be killed if
not picked up within the day, then no phone call will ever be made, but a
ticket will arrive in the mail since come what may money must be given to
the state. If Illinois does get this state-wide legislation in place,
which is by far the most draconian of cat leash laws to date, it will be
the model for all other states that need to come up with novel methods of
raising revenues -- & there aren't a lot of ways to get MULTIPLE hidden
taxes all in one swell foop, so this one's a big winner.

In favor of cat leash laws: bird advocates have claimed increasing
populations of some of the more easily captured songbirds after cat-leash
laws & mass-round-ups & cat-killings lowered the population of roaming
cats. It is estimated that in an average small city, cats kill a
quarter-million birds annually, with delicate birds more easily preyed
upon. Cats kept indoors also have longer average lifespans, no longer
susceptible to diseases from encounters with feral animals, getting run
over by cars, poisoned by irate neighbors, or mauled in cat fights or by
dogs. For these and other reasons, the Humane Society supports cat leash &
confinement laws.

As they should. Responsible pet guardianship is essential to overall
animal welfare. Domestic animals wreak havoc on natural populations
of many different species.

So my prediction that cat leashing was going a FUTURE certainty was
offered too late to be merely alarmist. My sense that such laws would
mainly occur in cities & suburbs but not rural areas was dead wrong, as it
is already a counties-wide & state-wide bans are in effect or pending. It
is estimated that in less than ten years the age of the free-roaming cat
will be over. Since cat-disdain recurs so often in this gardening group,
among people who don't want cats fertilizng their gardens, I assume there
is more support for this than I personally feel.

I love cats. I have had cats all my life. I would like nothing more
than for all cats to revert back to their wild state and live in
harmony with nature, never to be domesticated again. But what we
currently have is a state of artificial indentured servitude wherein
domestic cats are dependent upon humans for survival. People who
harbor cats as pets *must* be responsible for the actions of the
animal, just as they would if it were a child. Otherwise, they have
created a situation where the burden lies on society. And that's
where we are today.

To me it's just one more
of the million little ways every breath any of us take, man or beast, is
criminalized or otherwise regulated by the government. These laws empower
loony animal-haters to harrass even the most responsible pet owners at
risk of fines or having animals carted off & destroyed to the delight of
Mister or Missus Evilshits

Perhaps, but it also allows "normal" people to take action when other
people's animals interefere with the enjoyment of their own property.
I'm sorry, but when YOUR cat becomes MY problem, it WILL become YOUR
problem, too. I feel the same way about children, and thankfully,
laws exist to support parental responsibility, as well.

who wish they could also burn down your whole
damn house with you & your kids in it, but will settle for the legal right
to trap & destroy your cat if it sets foot in their yard,

As far as I know, very few jurisdictions allow the killing of cats by
individual citizens. They have to be turned in to proper animal
control organizations, if captured.

or report you to
the government if your cat lounges even so far from the house as the
immediate sidewalk.

Public property...

What is so hard about keeping your cats contained? Seriously? There
are fences that are cat-proof, and cats are *not* that hard to
control, if they are properly socialized and cared for. If you are
the guardian of the cat, you owe it the insurance of being safe and
well cared-for. The only way to do that is to contain it.

I'm sorry, but cats *are* a problem for many people. Just as I
wouldn't allow my dogs, cats, snakes, turtle, husband, child, or
myself, to urinate or defecate on, or otherwise destroy, your
property, I expect the same level of respect from my fellow citizens.
Some sense of decorum must be maintained.

-L.