Domestic cats hunting small game.


sluggunner

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Hey, do any of you ever encounter domestic cats while you are out small game hunting. I am not talking about bobcats, but people's pets and barn cats and the like that wander the woods hunting for birds squirrels and chipmunks etc... Do you ever think of popping them. I think about it but never have because I fiugure it would give me bad JUJU. Besides it would make someone sad if "Fluffy" didn't return home. It just makes me mad whan I see these cats roaming free and killing the small game on the land I hunt when they are not doing it for food, they just like to kill. Now I know some anti hunters would say the same thing about me as I have plenty of food without going out hunting. I just feel like I have more right to the game than these stupid cats, and besides I don't waste the game I kill like they do and I don't toy with my game and make it suffer like they do. Any thoughts?

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"A friend of mine" "A guy I know" was contracted by a little ole lady once to "Clean out her barn" of critters of the feline variety...I heard that over the course of a few weeks in the winter he may have gotten as many as 25 barn/wild/untame cats with a .22 WMR. It may be an urban legend....make that a rural legend...as the setting was in the country....:bat:

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I wont shoot. My two girls have cats they love. I wouldnt want to shoot someones pets.

Besides, thats what they are. Thats what they do. Its no different than shooting any other predator just because its out there. In this part of Okieland we dont have any sort of shortage of small game other than Quail. Until I saw animals becoming a burdon on the wildlife population I wouldnt try to step in...

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  OUTSIDER said:
"A friend of mine" "A guy I know" was contracted by a little ole lady once to "Clean out her barn" of critters of the feline variety...I heard that over the course of a few weeks in the winter he may have gotten as many as 25 barn/wild/untame cats with a .22 WMR. It may be an urban legend....make that a rural legend...as the setting was in the country....:bat:

Pretty sure that's a myth....a hoax...;)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Had a very large orange cat run in front of my car and in to the corn field where it flushed a rooster and hen pheasant. I've never seen a cat jump up in the air so high in my life!! Didn't have any luck though.

I won't shoot cats, there are far worse predators out there that need to be taken care of....yotes, coons, possums, skunks, etc. Can't bring myself to shoot what was once someone's pet.

Do you guys shoot dogs when you come across them?! I remember when I was a little kid, a pack of 3 nasty, feral dogs came out of the woods @ the cabin...grandpa came out and shot all 3.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I had to shoot a really big tom once. Someone had dropped him off and he was attacking everything in sight even the 80 lbs Chow-Chow we had. I had 2 German Shepherds one was just a pup show up yesterday. She looked like she hadn't eaten for days. They ended up with the tree rats I shot. Its a good thing I took pictures to prove to Rem308.

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I'm not a big fan of people letting cats rome here and there. On the farm we deer hunt the farmer is trying to help the phesant population and he has seen and we have found the remains of phesant nests where the neighbors cats have come in and basically distroyed all of the baby birds in it.....So he (the farmer) has instituted a shoot on sight order for the cats running around and he told the neighbors and the dnr, the DNR said thank you. the neighbors were like what? The first year we and he saw 18 cats now we see 1 a year and the phesant population has never been higher.

His instant shoot list

1. cats

2. coons (cause they get in his combine)

3. possom (for the same reason as the coons)

4. Yots (hard on birds and neighbors pigs)

His rule is shoot first or dont come back hunting

Edited by MichiganHunter
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When I encounter "Fluffy" in the wild, I don't even think about it. I immediately put it out of its misery as soon as I can get a shot off. If people don't care enough about their "pets" or have any more respect for wildlife than to turn a killer loose amongst the lil critters, then a little "sadness" might make em think. If not there are always more where that one came from. and if they failed to learn the 1st time, he'll get the same treatment as his predecessor.

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Cats are non-native predators on this continent. To see the research showing the destruction they are causing our small game and songbirds. Check out the 'Cats Indoors' grass-roots program by the American Bird Conservancy. www.abcbirds.org

Florida FWC, National Wildlife Federation, Audubon, among many other respected conservation organizations support the Cats Indoors program.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

I dont see many cats while Im out hunting...I see them while driving to the property, hunkered down in the ditch mousing. There are two of them that live in the farmers barn but they aint much for hunters...they are skinny...only reason they are still kickin is because they get fed by the farmer.

....now if I ever get a poke at the big fat orange fella that craps in my driveway.....he is gonna get it!!

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I would expect to find this thread under "Realtree Chuckwagon". How do you boys prefer your cat?

My neighbors had about a dozen ducks, 15 cats, a couple of horses, and 8 dogs. Since they wouldn't keep their critters from destroying the neighborhood, they now have 2 dogs, 1 very lucky cat, and no ducks. The rest went to live on a farm upstate. ;)

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I am not a fan of people who let their pets, cat or dog, run loose. Many areas of the country have depleted small game and game bird populations due to predation from cats/dogs. This does not include song birds and other non-game species. Dogs also have no problem killing fawns in the spring and some can easily take down a full grown deer. While it is true that they are just doing what comes naturally, it is not natural for a predator in the wild to go home to a warm home and a bowl of food. Shooting someone's pet may not be the best answer, but, pet owner education will have little affect, so do what your conscience feels is right.

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