Sunday, January 29, 2012

I am heartsick

Our neighbour, the golf club, is having a big tournament this weekend.

I suppose peacocks and feral cats are untidy.

A week or so ago, we had 16 feral cats, well-fed and loved.  So far, LG has survived.  My friend R, who gave her succour during her post-op recovery, is going to try to catch her and keep her at home in protective custody.

Last night there were 4 cats.

Two more bodies were found this morning.

There are almost no peacocks.

It seems poison has been laid to 'tidy up' the wildlife problem.

All of LG's kittens, including the ones in the photo from a week or so ago, have disappeared, presumed poisoned.

Macc and Ming do not go out of the garden so they should be safe and I will be keeping Wolfe indoors for the rest of the week, because she does go for strolls and loves to eat.

I am heartsick.

x

15 comments:

Al said...

It sounds like other people were even MORE heartsick over all the native animals that your invasive-species cats cruelly ripped apart for play-toys. By disemboweling all those animals, or ripping the skins off of them while alive, so YOUR cats could have fun with them as slowly dying and twitching play-toys for themselves.

Here's a thought ... why don't you just go to a pet-store and buy canaries and hamsters and then throw them at your next cats so you can enjoy what your cats do that way. Then at least you won't be using your INVASIVE-SPECIES CATS to do the very same thing to all the NATIVE wildlife.

Catching on yet to what a cruel, heartless, and pathetically stupid bitch that you truly are? Everyone else has.

Jenny Woolf said...

How sad. There is nothing to say - I hope you can keep the remaining cats safe somehow.

Isabel Doyle said...

Thanks for your comment Al. In many cases what you say is completely true, especially the part about my being a heartless bitch, but actually, the native species were hunted out of existence here by the two-legged predators, about four generations ago. And we all looked after these cats so they didn't hunt the birds. But thanks for your concern.

Anonymous said...

Really sorry to read this news Isabel.

Whilst I appreciate that cats natural instinct is to hunt I rather think Al has missed the point why the feral cats and peacocks in your neighbourhood have been desimated.

JeannetteLS said...

You handled that beautifully. I felt the pain in your post, and was shocked at the first comment. I have not seen this here. As I said, you handled it with grace.

I actually AM a heartless bitch, but I hope you don't mind if I follow your blog. I loved the entry about your rug as well.

Jenny Woolf said...

My Internet went off for a couple of hours and when it came back I saw the Al character had posted before my comment had arrived. But i am delighted to join the heartless bitches club too -

jabblog said...

I'm so sorry to hear of this, Isabel. Poisoning is a horrible death. Golf tournaments mean big bucks so why not kill the wildlife and use up precious resources to keep the greens green? It makes no sense to me - but then, neither does golf.

Cuby said...

I do not like golf courses this is manicured land which reminds me of Telly Tubby Land neither useful for crops, grazing and users of a great deal of water. As for the cats and the peacocks being poisoned was it really necessary? I don't think so.

Penelope said...

Horrible, horrible. So sorry to hear it, Isabel.

Penelope said...

And I've just read AL's comment and your reply. What grace and aplomb. xox

Anonymous said...

Look up the term TNR advocates just LOVE to use on how they reduce their feral-cat numbers, their candy-coating feel-good term of "Death by Attrition". This means that their cats will die from disease, cat-attacks, animal-attacks, exposure, road-kill, starvation, and any other means that drastically shortens cats' lives. They don't die from old-age, you know! ALL their cats suffering for how many months it takes to die that way. Just because they don't see how that cat lies there, gasping for air, dying for days, after it's been hit by a car or survived an animal attack means that it didn't die inhumanely? Is that how it works with TNR advocates? They didn't see it suffer to death so it didn't suffer? Are they THIS self-deluded? A cat dying from poisoning is even more humane than a cat dying from TNR's "attrition" (of which poisoning by any means; plant, snake, insect, or chemical; is one of the many methods that falls under the definition of "attrition"). In most parts of this country and the world TNR practices clearly falls under the guidelines for cruelty to animals, animal-abuse, animal-neglect, animal-endangerment, and animal-abandonment laws. Including being in direct violation of every invasive-species law in existence.

Let's not forget how TNR advocates don't hesitate to carve up cats with scalpels as well as cutting off parts of their ears, from which they have to heal-up for weeks before they try to survive again. As if letting them die of "attrition" wasn't bad enough, TNR-advocates start them off by terrorizing them with traps, cages, and sticking knives into them first. (Which is also precisely why they can't trap them a 2nd time to keep them vaccinated.)

Not only are they cruelly torturing cats, but also all wildlife they inflict their cats upon. Their cats literally ripping the skin off of and clawing the guts out of any wildlife to use it as an agonizingly and slowly dying twitching play-toy for their cats. And as soon as all the "fun" has drained out of their play-toy, they go on and find another one to torture. This is no different than if cat-owners went to a pet-store and bought canaries and hamsters then threw them at their cats to watch their cats tear them apart for their amusement. What about all the native predators that depend on all those animals for their ONLY food? Their cats cause all those animals to STARVE TO DEATH. TNR-advocates' cruelty knows no bounds.

If you want to raise revenue for your towns and cities in order to deal with this invasive-species ecological-disaster properly and effectively, start charging all these TNR advocates with severe fines and imprisonment for CRUELTY TO ANIMALS AND VIOLATION OF INVASIVE-SPECIES LAWS.

They're not doing this out of any goodness of their hearts. THEY DON'T HAVE HEARTS, nor minds. Proved, 100%.

Elisabeth said...

Isabel, I have a sister-in-law who positively hates cats for the damage they do to wildlife. She cannot understand that we have cats, more than one at a time and that we nurture them and love them. To her they are brutal native wild life killers, of birds and small marsupials.

My sister in law lives in the country and has done so most of her life. She does not recognise the efforts we go to to keep our cats indoors at night in an effort to protect our beloved native creatures.

I suppose it's all to do with survival of the fittest, but when introduced species take over they can be a menace. That said I can also understand your passion/compassion for these feral creatures and the ways in which circumstances where you live may well be different from other places where feral cats kill and maim other 'innocent' creatures.


The other day my daughter came in screaming. She had just rescued a tiny baby possum from a cat. It had perhaps fallen from its branch. I don't know what happened but my daughter managed to get the baby, unharmed but trembling back to its mother, while I kept the cats locked inside and out of the way.

It seems the possum's mother managed to get her baby back in the end, such a cute little baby, heart rending in its beauty. But possums have become such a problem in suburban Melbourne. We are plagued by them and it struck me that if this baby had been much bigger and a brush tail rather than a ring tail possum we might have felt less compassionate.

Once possums were such treasured creatures, now here in Australia, or in the parts of Australia near where I live they're a menace.

I say all of this to offer an attempt at a more balanced view on the business of how we deal with all our animals, hopefully regardless of species, with humanity and compassion.

I don't think rudeness or abuse is warranted on this discussion. We all have our perspectives and just as we treat the animals with respect, irrespective of where they come from, we must treat one another with respect, especially in our writing. It is so easy to misunderstand, to be offended or to give offense online, but to me some offense is gratuitous and does not deserve to be included.

Thanks, Isabel.

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chiccoreal said...

Dear Isabel: How horrible! That is animal abuse! Hoping that someone would be able to find the culprits. Maybe sniffer/police dogs could help find the poison around a certain perimeter where the cats live as well as a few well-placed webcams and warning signs. An article in the paper would help people to monitor the situation as well.

Stafford Ray said...

Hello again Isabel, Jane alerted me to the tone of comment here so I came for a look. As I expressed a few days ago, I don't have a cat now becase I know what they do here to wildlife in Oz. But I also know people who do love their cats and their wildlife, so keep them inside.
But in the bigger picture, I now regard all creatures as 'innocent' including cats. Even a rat is 'innocent' in that it simply does what it has evolved to do. Then from there, with its 'guilt' stripped away, we see the rat as an individual that feels much the same basic emotions as we do, including the full range of pain and fear. Of course we must control rats but now in this age when we no longer see amimals as our playthings to be hunted for sport, used in contests for betting like dog and cockerel fighting, etc Genesis notwithstanding, we are bound to find the most painless way to deal with them, as we are doing with our animal husbandry, eg, free range poultry.
Yesterday while fishing, I saw tailor chasing whitebait, gobbling up these terrified little fish in their hundreds of thousands and my mind went back over the food chain and realised for the first time really, the scale of the carnage with each predator species eating the one below on the chain until it comes to us, who are occasionally eaten by a croc or bull shark!
I don't feel all that good about sticking a sharp hook through a fish's face and dragging it flapping from its environment by the mouth either, so I use a landing net add despatch the unfortunate delicious creature with all possible speed with a blow to the noggin.
I agree with Al's objection to feral cats but am offended by the personal abuse as I would if someone called me an arseshole becasue I fish.