Cats are an invasive species

Editor:

What unabashed BS from “cat lovers.” From the Ledger’s 27 Feb 2020 edition.

I suppose it would be okay for them to have their children run amok, crap in neighbors’ gardens, rip apart lawn furniture, kill and leave (or eat) native birds in their neighbors’ yards, spread leukemia and allergies among the neighborhoods they invade, and otherwise stink up areas in which they were not welcomed in the first place.

How would cat lovers like it if their properties were invaded and they had found dead or ripped apart animals in their own bird feeding areas?

Cats, despite what some lovers of cats think, are “invasive species,” of which it is against Montana law to “transport” or encourage (think boat restrictions) - when feral they breed like viruses throughout the land - sometimes living in groups of a dozen or more, each female capable of producing a dozen or more per year.

Despite all the efforts of catch-and-release “ex spurts” [drips, formerly under pressure], cats — feral and domestic — kill and maim billions of birds per year world-wide (ask the National Audubon Society if you doubt my word), and murder millions of native reptiles, amphibians, and small mammals.

Why not apply the same rules that are imposed on dog owners and fisher-people with boats? Curbing the invasion of mussels is the same we ask of “pet” owners (their cuddly little family members to some) — vast injuries caused by cat lovers for which the rest of us must comply regarding fishing? I need a license to hunt game. I need a license to own a dog in town — if not in a county. Why are “cat people” exempt? Because some old dead white guys say some stupid things about cat behaviors?

License and require complete incarceration of domestic (non-native) cats. For the good of “the last best place’s” small native wildlife and birds.

We do not need a plague of leukemia-carriers, or crap in our yards, because a few selfish “pet owners” do not want to control their “family members.”

Jim Greaves,

Thompson Falls