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84 responses total.

RAt poison or a .22 caliber... Ooowwwww, Oowwww, stop, Twila, stop....

For real, go out and buy a live trap box, bait it with some tuna, adn catch
them.

I have never thought the Humane Society was very helpful.  How much are they
gonna charge you to bring them in?

Call the county animal control officer for some advice on how to catch them.
Contact him thru the sheriffs office.

That's the ting I found very silly about the Humane Society -- I've
been reading the cat newsgroups since Mittens came along, and I've
seen more stories about the Humane Society either NOT being helpful 
with wild/stray cat problems or charging when one did bring them in. 
Now, I know that they probably can't tell if you're dumping a cat
you had or bringing in a stray, but it does seem unfair.

Live traps are good, though you have to be careful, since feral cats
are very wary.

  Maybe they have their reasons but the Ann Arbor branch of the Humane
  Society has never failed to be rude and unhelpful to me, leaving me
  with a very negative view of them.  Perhaps they're very focused on
  their work or something but contrasting them with the very kind and
  helpful bird rescue people it seems like they don't *have* to be that
  obnoxious..

  For an organization that relies on charitable donations for a large 
  part of its funding it puzzles me that they seem so uninterested in
  creating a positive impression.

  Valerie, for what you want it's probably appropriate to call the city
  government's animal control division and ask them to handle it or ask
  your landlord to address the problem.

If you really want to catch them, food is always good.  Strays usually don't
have excellent supplies of really good food.

I don't know about catching them... But I'm *really* unhappy with the
Washtenaw County Humane Society.  My roomate just got a cat there, and
they claimed he was perfectly healthy.  Well, he wasn't.  He had
massive ear infections (they claimed his ears were clean.).  So, I would
see if there is anyone else you could contact/give the cats to.

This item is now linked to pets, item number 22.  I thought it apprpriate.

Valerie, one thing I can suggest is to take the kittens before they get 
too old.  If you get them while the mammas are away and before they're 
old enough to run very far from the nest, you need only a clean 
fabric lined box, some leather gloves (they may be babies, but they are 
feral) and some soft cat food.  (Fish is best for this.)  
1)Put the food in a saucer in the box
2)Move it close to the nest.  
3)Pick the kittens up one at a time and put them near the saucer.  
They'll probably be too young to know how to eat well, but it will keep 
them curious.

If you have trouble getting one of the kits, pick up one of the kits 
that has managed to get covered in food and put it back in the nest.  
While the aggresive one is investigating the food smell all over it's 
sibling, pick it up and plop it next to the saucer and amongst it's 
quieter sibs.  Then in goes that last one.

I've used this method several times and it's been pretty effective, but 
have someone on the lookout for Mom and move away from the nest as soon 
as she shows up.  (Leave the food behind - especially if there are any 
kits left -- she'll probably move them anyway, but if she's not totally 
feral it'll make her easier to catch.)

Ohhh things like these break Beeswing's heart. Our local Humane Society will
not pick up strays... they will only intervene if the animal is injured or in a
cruelty situation. 

The Animal Shelter here will pick up strays. But, then they go to the pound and
are likely killed since they're so overcrowded. :(

I got my kitty from a suburban animal shelter. He'd been there for 2 months...
someone brought him in when it was 10 degrees outside.

Valerie... maybe check with some local vet's offices? I know of some who will
take in strays, although some fees may be involved. If anything, these cats
need to be fixed ASAP.

Why don't people just be responsible and take care of their animals?!!!!

The local Humane Society showed up at my door several weeks ago and asked to
see my cats.  I declined.  She asked why not.  I said they were my cats, and
of no concern to her.  She said that they had the right to inspect my animals
at any time, and that the neighbors had complained that my cats were in poor
health, and covered with sores.

My cats *never* go out.  My neighbors have never visited the house.  I told
the "lady" that she would not get to see my cats without a search warrant.
She said she would come back with one.  At this point, Pong and Ch'ueh came
to the door and stood up against it to look out.

"Oh," she said, "they look fine."

"I *told* you they were fine," I replied.  "Now who filed the report?"

"I can't tell you that," she demurred.

"You invade the sanctity of *my* home, demanding to see *my* cats, and
threaten to bring a search warrant against me over what is *patently* a false
report, and you won't tell me who filed it?"  I was full of righteous wrath.

"No, sir," the bimbo replies.  "The law forbids us from disclosing that
information."

Never again will I do anything to help that wretched organization; in fact,
anything I can do to destroy it, I will.  They have become fascistic.

The Ann Arbor Cat Clinic has a program to rescue/spay/neuter feral kittens.

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Goroke... while I agree that the woman from the Humane Society should have been
a bit more tactful, the animals in the shelter shouldn't have to suffer for it.
I mean the woman was trying to do her job... I'm sure when she gets a cruelty
investigation call, the people involved usually deny anything's wrong. Maybe
because in their puny little minds, there indeed is nothing wrong with letting
the animals be sick, underfed, or roam around. So she probably hears that "None
of your damn business" line all the time, and she has to get past that.
Apparently your neighbors are delusional.

Perhaps donating to another local city's shelter or to the nationwide ASPCA
would do, if you no longer wish to donate to your local Humane Society. Just a
thought. I mean the animals in the shelter don't know they have tactless people
working for them. :)

  I don't buy the "just doing her job" excuse.  If her job really involves
  trying to force her way into people's homes based on anonymous complaints
  and threatening to use the powers of the state to compel their cooperation
  then maybe she shouldn't be doing it (maybe *nobody* should be doing it..)
  That's a pretty scary story.

Yeah.  There are all kinds of things that cause problems that the police
sometimes have to search peoples' houses for, but they are supposed to gather
some credible evidence before they go in and do that.

There is always nastiness when neighbors butt into other neighbors business,
whether or not justified. I would put the visit from the Hunmane Society 
into the category of some of that nastiness. Consider who started the whole
thing - an uninformed neighbor. At least it wasn't the *police* at your door.

I seriously doubt that the neighbor was either delusional or uninformed.  I
strongly suspect malice.  However, that's not the point.  The point is that
my cats are my property.  As such, I am entitled not to be molested by some
third-rate bureaucrat acting on an anonymous tip.  Especially not by a
*private* agency which is not constrained by the same rules as a governmental
agency.  If it had been the county's animal-control officer, it might have
been a different story; but an eighteen-year-old bimbo who is operating
outside the bounds of our electoral system is *way* out of line trying to act
like a cop.  I really don't care if she *was* "just doing her job"; so were
the Nazi civil servants who drew long prison terms at Nuremburg.  There are
some fundamental freedoms at stake here, and people who don't see that are
just plain frightening, because *they* are the ones who let it happen.

How did you determine that she was 18 yrs old and a bimbo?

Always one in every crowd, isn't there?

Wonder if the Humane Society had been male, would they still have been a bimbo?

Anyhoo, I hardly consider my cat my "property". He's a living creature that I
pledged to take care of and nuture, not just acquire. He has emotions,
personality, needs and feels pain. If I were neglecting him, then I'd hope
someone with a conscience would see that and take action IF IT IS WARRANTED.
This "property" mentality, which seems pretty often applied to animals, kids
and spouses, scares the hell out of me.

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Re #16: I would not take offense if a private individual came to me
to inform me that a neighbor had made a complaint of some sort against me.
In fact, I would be very appreciative, so the issue could be addressed
and not allowed to become further inflated. I hardly equate attempts at
conciliation to be equivalent to Nazis.

Something similar to this happened to us recently. Our grass cutting
company had been cutting across a neighbor's yard for years, with their
permission, to reach our yard. Then they moved. The new people objected
but no one came to us - they complained to the cutting company - who
also neglected to tell us. I would *much* rather have had the neighbor,
or someone that knew the neighbors wishes, to have come to us directly.
(It got worse, because the cutting company then broke down one of our
fences and damaged shrubery to get into our yuard to cut it, still without
approaching us...then we *did* get angry!).

r.e. #19  Both extremes scare the hell out of me!

Re Charles' experience:  It sounds unpleasant, but what real harm was done?
Your cats were ok, the woman went away, and that's the end of it.  You *might*
have been some sicko who tortures cats and would burn your neighbor's house
down if you found out who reported it.  There *are* such people, which is the
reason the humane society does these checks, and if that had been the case,
the woman probably acted more or less properly.  Maybe she wasn't particularly
sensible or polite.  Thank goodness she wasn't a government official, or
Jemmie would start ranting about getting government off our backs.

There is a sort of syndrome with people in positions of power...it *is* very
prevalent amongst government servants, I agree, Jemmie...in which they tend
to view everyone as a potential enemy.  Cops do this, for understandable
reasons.  I've been stopped a few times by police officers who talk tough and
throw me around a little, and it would make them look real studly if they were
in fact busting a bad guy, as they hope and believe they are.  It pisses me
off considerably, and I always feel they should just be polite and friendly,
and if it turns out they were accidentally polite to a bad guy they can still
arrest him, after all, and they'd have lower blood pressure.  Your humane
society woman should take the same advice.  It would be great to have
intelligent thoughtful cops and humane society people, etc, but failing that,
I'm still glad to have a police force and humane society around.

How are your stray cats doing, Valerie?  Friend of mine was trying to catch
a nusiance raccoon--they said use tuna catfood for bait in the Havahart, and
she caught every cat in the neigborhood.

Miscommunication between neighbors (and between people in general, for that
matter) can lead to large amounts of avoidable problems.  It's a pain in the
neck.  Unfortunately, humans are prone to it.

I doubt very much the report that led to the Humane Society visit was
motivated by malice (unless you have specially malicious neighbors).  More
likely, they were just wrong about where the seemingly neglected cats
lived.  Cats roam, and one sighted in your yard may have a home blocks
away.  (Of course, if a cat was being abused, why would it go back?)

Our cats are strictly indoor animals.

I think it's better that some people are mistakenly questioned about
abusing their animals then to have no one asking and to have
animals killed every year because no one cares.

That comment about your cats being your property really burns
me.  Animals are not property, they aren't like your clothes, 
or your lawn mower, they are living feeling creatures.

But they are, um, not like your child, or your spouse. They depend on you,
and you have the choice of everything that concerns them -- I mean, they
don't get to choose what food you buy at the store, or how often you
change the litterbox or give them walkies, or whether or not they get
"fixed". So they're in some grey area in between property and sentient
being -- at least insofar as the law is concerned. 

I dend to think of my pets as mine. They belong to me. OF course,
the lizard doesn't care if it does or doesn't -- as long as it gets
those crickets once a week and fresh water and the heat is on, it's 
not concerned with what us big things do. The cat -- well, I do feel
possessive of her, and she knows that she "belongs" to me. I think.

Your cate doesn't get to decide what food you buy at the store?  How'd 
you do that???  <grin>

Our cats are indoor creature as well, though they try to get out as much as
possible (and have gotten quite crafty... they're quite intelligent about it).
They are kept quite healthy and well fed, and the excess space they have to
run around in keeps them in good shape.  We did have a stray hang around our
house for a few weeks, once.  Knowing what would happen if we fed him, we
carefully avoided giving him food, but he kept hanging around.  So we
contacted our neighbors, and the cat is now living well with their
grandmother.  Worked fine then.

Well yeah, I do consider my cat "mine" as in he is mine to take care of.
I volunteered to take on that responsibility. He is not something to do with as
I please...I think that's where the line is. I even catch myself calling him
"son". If anything happened to him it would totally break my heart. I can't
bear the thought of what I will do when he gets old and I may have to make the
big decision on putting him to sleep. I guess that sounds freaky but since it's
just me and the cat here at my apartment, he has been wonderful company. He
gets plenty of food, fresh water, kitty treats, hugs, ear rubs, brushings, and
I of course talk to him.

He also serves as my alarm clock :)

Some of y'all are *deeply* disturbed...

If pets are not property, how can anyone be held libel for their care?

Twila- you're right pets aren't quite like a spouse or chilkdren,
I never said they were sentient- I'm not sure just how well they
can think about complex issues.  But they are alive.  I think
property is the wrong word.

What is disturbed about haivng a cat you love and that you look
upon as being part of the family?  When I talk to my mom I ask her
to tell my dad I said hi, and to tell Alex and Dutch (cat and dog
respectively) that Isaid hi.  They probably don't care, but they
are one of the family.  

People attrivute things to their pets that make them so much more
then just animals.  I feel sorry for someone who has never known
the kind of love a person can feel for the cat or dog they've opened
their home to.  It's purely unconditional.

As for how can anyone be libel for their care- well, you didn't
have to take the pet in.  Once you agree to let the pet live
in your home you're agreeing to take care of it.

liable. please.  libel is a different concept entirely, and inapplicable.

Re #32: are, then, children property? 

Actually, there is physical (non-living) property, there are pets, and
there are children, among many other things, and society makes laws about
the treatment and disposition of each. It does no good to start lumping
things together. You "own" your pets to the extent law says you do. Any
emotions you want to attach to the relationship are outside the law. The
same goes for children.

It is well known that your cats are *not* your property. *You* are *their*
property.

"The trouble with a kitten is THAT,
 Eventually it becomes a CAT!"
                 - Ogden Nash

This fact has been proven repeatedly.  I myself am owned by three cats.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss