Despite howls from cat lovers, a state wildlife commission says cats should be removed permanently, even killed.
By RICHARD RAEKE
Published May 31, 2003
[AP photos]
Demonstrators in favor of a trap, neuter, return policy regarding feral cats stand outside the Osceola County Administration building in Kissimmee.
John Cielukowski of Cocoa Beach pets Bob, a feral cat, that he fed in the Port Canaveral area.
KISSIMMEE - The packed crowd, mostly cat lovers, was on edge. With nearly 90 people in line to speak, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission limited them to one minute each.
The commission chairman insisted on decorum, chastising the crowd for applauding criticism of a plan for dealing with feral cats.
"This is the kind of arrogant bureaucracy that has created so much contempt for government," snapped Robert Petree of Orlando.
Over the protest of cat lovers from across Florida, the seven-member commission later voted to ban the practice of trapping, neutering and then returning stray cats to the wild, a tactic supported by animal activists. Wildlife officials told commissioners the method is not working. They said feral cats are endangering birds and other wildlife and should be removed permanently.
The commission's vote only further provoked the crowd.
"You murderers," some yelled. Others shouted, "Shame on you."
One activist, Jim Gisondi of St. Petersburg, drew the attention of two Fish and Wildlife officers, who stood in front of him until Gisondi left the room.
"You're going to shoot them and let them bleed in the weeds," Gisondi yelled before leaving the Osceola County Administration Building.
The policy will result in an open season on cats, he added.
From the perspective of wildlife officials, it is the cats who have held open season for too long, preying on Florida's endangered species such as the Lower Keys marsh rabbit, the Key Largo cotton mouse, sea turtles and six subspecies of beach mice.
The feral cat problem is worst in the Keys and the Panhandle, said Frank Montalbano, director of the Division of Wildlife.
The new policy calls for the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to remove feral cats from conservation land. They could either be adopted, given to a contained feline colony or, failing all else, killed, wildlife officials say.
"The policy we propose today is not anticat," Montalbano told the commission. "It's pronative wildlife."
The trap, neuter, return program, often called TNR, simply doesn't control stray cat populations, Montalbano said.
Although it may help break the cycle of spiraling cat colonies, it doesn't address the current threat that cats pose to wildlife - not only through predation, but through squeezing resources and spreading disease to native wildlife.
"It's not the T and the N I have a problem with. It's the R," Commissioner H.A. "Herky" Huffman said.
But cat activists, many of whom came from as far away as Miami and Naples to protest the policy, say the trapping, neutering and releasing is the only humane way to control cat populations.
The federal government doesn't see it that way.
The returning of nonnative species into the wild is a violation of the Endangered Species Act and the Migratory Bird Species Act, said Jay Slack, a field supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in south Florida. Those who do practice trap, neuter, return may be subject to federal prosecution.
Legalities aside, nearly 90 speakers, many wearing orange ribbons to signify their support of strays, pleaded with the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Petree said the new policy would amount to "feline genocide," with "trigger-happy" punks hunting cats with shotguns.
Kerry Fay of Alley Cat Allies, a Washington, D.C., group that promotes trapping, neutering and releasing strays, said the state had singled out cats for dwindling endangered species populations.
"One bulldozer can do more damage in one day than a cat can do in its entire lifetime," she said. Alley Cat Allies had asked the state to hold off on implementing the new policy until studies can show the impact, or lack thereof, of feral cats on native species.
Admittedly, Montalbano said, the number of birds and mammals taken by stray cats is not known. Based on extrapolations of national figures, he said there may be 3.8-million cats that spend time outdoors invariably hunting and killing native Floridian animals.
