LET CATS BE CATS

LET CATS BE CATS

Peter Abbott, News Editor April 20, 2005

EDITOR'S CORNER
Peter Abbott
News Editor, Sussex Sun

I usually don't use these pages to take sides on issues that divide people.

I'm going to make an exception in this case, however, because the "feral cat" debate reminded me vividly of the eloquent humanity and elegant logic of a governor who had to decide the fate of his own state's feline population more than 45 years ago.

The governor was Adlai Ste­ven­son, the state was Illinois, and the year was 1959. The bill the Legislature sent him did not go as far as ours - it would not have allowed people to hunt and shoot free-roaming cats - but it would have permitted people to capture them, or "call upon the police to pick up and imprison" them. And "it would permit the use of traps."

Though such methods are con­sidered a more humane alter­na­tive in today's debate, Stevenson rejected them as well. Nor would he support a leash law for cats.

"It is in the nature of cats to do a certain amount of unes­corted roaming," he wrote in his veto message. "To escort a cat abroad on a leash is against the nature of the cat."

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"Moreover," he added, "cats perform useful service, par­tic­u­larly in rural areas, in com­bat­ing rodents - work they nec­es­sar­ily perform alone and with­out regard for property lines."

The Conservation Congress makes the point that "cats are not a native species eco­sys­tem," but were originally imported from Europe and Africa.

So? So were most of us - unless we're American Indians, or immigrants from someplace else.

The same could be said of a large portion of our animal and plant population, much of which came aboard from our immigrant ancestors' ships. In fact, by the time Lewis and Clark explored our interior, European plants had already altered the landscape radically.

Back in 1959, Stevenson also had to answer the argument that cats on the loose were a threat to birds.

What? Cats eating birds? When did this start happening?

"The problem of cat vs. bird is as old as time," Ste­ven­son wrote. "If we attempt to resolve it by legislation, who knows but what we may be called upon to take sides as well in the age-old problems of dog vs. cat, bird vs. bird, or even bird vs. worm."

One could as easily, and absurdly, argue that cats save worms, and earthworms aerate the soil, so cats are good for the farmer, not to mention the fisherman.

Finally, Stevenson concluded, "The State of Illinois and its local governing bodies already have enough to do without trying to control feline delinquency."

So here we are, 46 years later, facing the same issue in our own state, and all I can say, with a nod to Stevenson, is, amen.


http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14374788&BRD=1401&PAG=461&dept_id=173345&rfi=6

Thanks Adlai :)

was a wise man, in so many different ways. I wonder why he never made president. :sarcasm:

(Just goes to show that Americans then were as dimwitted as they are now, perhaps with that little extra shift to the radical right)