Monday, January 26, 2015

Virginia Needs Laws Protecting Cats

This one is not political...it's a warning that all people who care about animals need to take action to prevent an emergency.

Cat haters want the right to kidnap, mutilate, and dump your pets!

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?151+ful+HB1586

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?151+ful+SB693

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?151+ful+SB699

It sounds "humane"--they just want to spare those poor feral cats from the misery of having kittens--but since it requires no proof that the outdoor cats these people want to trap are in fact feral, what each of these bills really means is "If we can catch your pet and dump it out at the other end of the state, we will." 


To cat haters, this well-fed, well-groomed, contented pet is "feral" just because she's outdoors and doesn't have a collar. 

Here's the e-mail I sent to my State Senator and Delegate:


"Please count this voter in vehement opposition to HB 1586, SB 693, and SB 699. Although these bills sound humane, and I suppose it's possible that they were meant to allow people to vaccinate genuinely feral cats against diseases without trying to make pets of them, that's not what they say. By failing to establish proof that an animal is not a lost, strayed, or stolen pet and is genuinely feral, these bills would basically authorize cat haters to steal neighbors' pets and dump them hundreds of miles away.

I'm disgusted that three sponsors have been found for such unethical bills.

Anyone who's spent time in the "rat sanctuaries" that communities lacking outdoor cats quickly become, as I have, would actually support legislation making it a felony to interfere with an outdoor cat in any way. I suspect that my own cats are deliberately supplied with nuisance animals by town dwellers who trap and release rats, squirrels, raccoons, and other nuisance animals in rural neighborhoods, but I know for sure that it's not unusual for the two cats who (noticeably) hunt to bring home four or five rodents in one evening. We need to focus on the rat overpopulation problem."

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