Treating Cats Like Dogs

There’s no getting around stray cats’ new status as environmental varmints, to the point that a proposal to allow shooting of Wisconsin’s stray cats is heading to voters. There are about 78 million pet cats in this country, at least 50% more than 15 years ago. An equal number of homeless cats -- both domestic strays and truly feral ones -- roam freely. Except for the indoor-only cats, most of these animals are eating birds.

It’s becoming a measurable environmental problem, and not just in rural Wisconsin. A study in the Bay Area found that a grasslands park with no feral cats had twice as many birds as another park with 20 feral cats. A San Diego County study found that higher cat populations correlated with lower populations of the endangered California gnatcatcher and other birds.

Aside from the folks in Wisconsin who would like to hunt many of those birds themselves, conservationists and wildlife managers are concerned. California is among the states whose birds are thought most threatened by cats, along with Florida and Hawaii.

If municipalities and cat owners don’t take humane steps to control this, no one will be happy with the results. People scoff at the idea of licensing cats as we do dogs, saying felines are intrinsically free and independent (and tidier about their droppings). A growing number of cities are getting past that outmoded thinking. Dallas, New Orleans and Lincoln, Neb., require cat owners to register and vaccinate their pets each year and to keep them from roaming freely. Strays are impounded.

Jim Weverka, manager of Lincoln’s animal control division, says cats can as easily infect humans with rabies as dogs, and cats spend more time around raccoons and other wildlife known to carry the disease. Stray cats are far more likely than stray dogs to get sick or to be hit by cars. Lincoln even plans to consider a leash law for cats.

The nation might not be ready for cats that heel on command. But establishing basic control over stray cats is better than declaring open season on them for hunters.