Cat-Huntin'

The AOL news screen has a story about Wisconsin debating cat-hunting.  (I'm posting this entry quick, so no time for a link.)

The theory, I guess, is that all those feral wild cats on the streets are killing off songbirds (and are otherwise a danger).

So they'd like to pass a law that a cat on the street ... even a domestic cat if it lacks a collar ... can be considered unprotected small game and ripe for the huntin'.

Now, of course, as a cat owner, you can prolly guess where my sympathies lay on this one.  I would hate to think that someone's nice, sweet, feline companion would get killed by accident.

But, as a more practical matter, I don't think the fine folks in Wisconsin who are working on this law understand the details of the relationship between a cat and a cat-collar.

To wit:  cat collars are MADE to be escapable.  A dog can't get out of his collar.  A cat can.  And that's the way it ought to be.  Cats can get caught in things, and they need to be able to wriggle out of their collars if necessary.  I'd feel really bad for the poor kitty in Wisconsin that freed itself from being caught on a fence only to get shot because it lost its collar in the process.

Moreover, lots of cats don't LIKE collars.  Conveniently, technology has provided an exception -- that cat chip.  My cat has one.  An itty bitty chip was planted (with an awfully big syringe) in between my kitty's shoulder blades.  If she ever runs away (gasp! no!) and the shelter picks her up, the first thing they'll do is scan her (kinda like Maggie Simpson in the opening credits) and they'll know she belongs to me.  She's an indoor cat and, hopefully, won't ever get outside.  But I've taken this extra measure of protection so that she'll be sufficiently labelled, without having to deal with the discomfort of a collar on a daily basis.

Since technology has advanced to the point where collars are not necessarily an identifying feature of a domestic housecat, it's silly to assume non-collared cats don't belong to anyone.  And it's downright dangerous to say you can go out and kill 'em.