Stopping the Slaughter, In My Own Backyard

SO ANYWAY, i ended up adopting, if you want to call it that, three (3) stray kittens, all cuter than bug's ears, energetic, friendly, affectionate, seemingly healthy and smart. Got their vacinations, had 'em fixed. So we're in business.

Three months ago I hadn't the slighest intention of having a pet of any sort, but was overhelmed by a gang of kittens. They had been living on the street, homeless, for at least awhile, but they transitioned nicely into my house.

But they were used to being outside, and didn't want to give up the outdorrs altogether. This to me seemd reasonable, and the neighborhood in which i live seems safe, though of course every time an animal is outdoors, it is at risk, like the rest of us.

Then the big, awful report hit th einternet informing that each year in the united states the eighty four million pet catskill several billion animals, mostly birds and rodents. People must be shocked all over the country, and maybe the world, by these numbers.

The biologists say that to suddenly eliminate all housecat killing of animals would not be a good idea, because we do not yet know the overall impact on the ecological system. Pretty bizarre. Billions more, many more, animals are killed each year by the thirty to eighty million estimated stray cats in america.

stray cats kill more, obviously, because they are not being fed, generally , by humans. Today is the big day when all three of my cats get little bells on their collars! Well fed now though they are, they still want to hunt, and kill, and having been stray, they learned how to do it at a very young age.

taking on a stray cat as a pet is a bit different than weening one.  Until this article came out, i was almost thinking that having a stray cat population in urban areas is a good thing. and indeed maybe it is, at least in a place where birds don't alight on the ground, like new york city, and rodernts run rampant, like new york city.

We need to call an emergency session of the united nations to agree about what to do with the stray cats of the world. If you suddenly had three stray cats in your house, you'd agree with me. But in the meantime, I'm gonna get those bells put on, before something happens I don't really want to think about.