Is Your Pet a Harmful Invasive Species?

[webmaster]

Friendly note: You can participate in the above poll and remain anonymous.

[url=https://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/01/13/international/i061837S07.DTL]Invasive Species Eradication backfired[/url], as reported in the San Francisco Chronicle.

It seemed like a good idea at the time: Remove all the feral cats from a famous Australian island to save the native seabirds.

But the decision... allowed the rabbit population to explode and, in turn, destroy much of its fragile vegetation that birds depend on for cover...

...The unintended consequences of the cat-removal project show the dangers of meddling with an ecosystem — even with the best of intentions

Shows how important it is to judge the impact on your local environment of even something like household cats. I had a lively discussion over the holidays with someone who is an ardent environmentalist who nonetheless feels it's in his cat's best interest to be free roaming, even though he acknowledged his cat may be causing damage to the local bird and rodent population, which in turn might affect other species of animals and plants.

[applestar]

My daughter stumbled on the Warriors book series by Erin Hunter. It's a youth-targeted fantasy adventure series of feral/wild cats -- they have a system of ethical and religious beliefs, and are divided into 4 "clans" + the StarClan -- their warrior ancestors who bestow prophesies and guidance to their leaders, medicine-cats, and some other chosen cats to protect and sustain the balance of lives in the forest, despite the threats by the "Two-legs".... Household cats are disdainfully called "kittypets." (It reminds me in a way of Happy Feet -- as in the dancing penguins.) Don't want to spoil anything in case anyone decides to read the series for themselves, and please don'e ANYONE spoil it for ME either!! -- right now, *I*m 2 books ahead of my daughter!

Mostly, I think we humans need to show a bit more humility and respect before pretending to understand and jump in to "fix" what might be part of a greater, interconnected system. Honestly, don't you think WE are the harmful invasive species, and anything to do with us as well, by default?

My two cats are strictly inside cats and only get supervised play outside in the fenced back yard. They have occasionally jumped at moles, chased squirrels, and dabbled their paws in the chipmunk hole, but don't really know what they're doing. That's why I don't think they are actual threat unless they get away. I do feed them natural food diet with fairly high percentage of raw food. It's a tough call -- do I think this is an unnatural life for them? Maybe, especially since they were born barn cats. But we adopted them when they were about 2 months old, and I guess they ARE "kittypets" now.

[applestar]

Sorry Webmaster - I hope I haven't discouraged other members from participating with my overzealous response.

This thread's been read over 40 times now -- listen folks, a poll response can be anonymous. You don't HAVE to post any comments, unless you're an OPINIONATED BUSYBODY like me!

So cast your vote! Just click on POST REPLY, then click a desired choice in the ballot that appears at the top, then click SUBMIT. That's IT!

[Jbest]

All living things, being plant or animal, are invasive at there origin. Mother Nature placed most of them but we have misplaced some. To go back and correct our mistakes is impossible. I think that at this point we should let MN do her job. She does a good job at correcting things.

John

[webmaster]

Good point applestar.

Participation in the poll is completely anonymous.

[jal_ut]

All things that enter an ecosystem will bring change to that ecosystem. No pet can alter an ecosystem to the point that we humans do when we move into an area and build our shelter, and thoroughly re-do the landscape.

I am not saying this is necessarily bad, because we may then have an ecosystem more compatible to our needs.

The resulting ecosystem will certainly be "different".