Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: RE: cats: the real extreme position

[Kevin Wolf (kjwolf]

At 06:25 PM 8/30/2001 -0700, Norman Gauss wrote:
> Yes, having domestic plants and animals in our environment is justified.

Well I am finally motivated to weigh in on this subject.  N Street has a 
lot of cats - probably seven outdoor ones for our 3 acres.  The 
environmental damage they do is incalculable because we only see a small 
percentage of the death they cause. We used to have snakes, lizards and 
toads in the gardens. They are all gone from death by well-fed cats doing 
what they like to do.  The only birds that seem to survive are the jays and 
crows.  Some of the rarest birds we have seen have been found dead by the 
cats thus we know the bird species do visit.  Studies all over the world 
confirm that one of the biggest causes for the decline of song bird 
populations is from house cats.  Bells don't help much either and most of 
the people in our community who start out saying that their cat will be an 
indoor cat give in and let it become an outdoor one, and add another 
well-fed predator to the environment.

Our community is a retrofit one so as we added neighboring houses many came 
with cats.  Thus cats were never outlawed like dogs were.  Now we have dogs 
in the community and us wildlife lovers would much prefer dogs over cats 
because dogs don't kill as many (or any) wild animals.  We gave up having 
our community be a haven for endangered wildlife. Some of us feel bad that 
our gardens attract birds that then become prey to the cats.

Sorry Norman but I don't believe cats in garden environments are 
justified.  Keep them in indoor environments and keep dogs out of wildlife 
areas where they chase down deer and wreck havoc.

And we won't talk about the amount of animal protein most cats eat and 
where it comes from and the harm it does to the environment in the process 
because most cat owners don't want to think about this.

By the way, you can probably guess that I am not an animal "lover" in part 
because I believe what M. Scott Peck said - we can only love those who can 
grow spiritually from our love.  We can't really love chocolate or 
pets.  And if we think we can help them grow to their full spiritual 
potential, wouldn't it be better to use that love and attention on a human?

Awaiting the outcry from the pet lovers,

Kevin
****************
Kevin Wolf
N Street Cohousing Community member
724 N St, Davis, CA  95616
530-758-4211
kjwolf [at] dcn.davis.ca.us

To download my facilitation manual or other material on
consensus decision making, visit www.dcn.davis.ca.us/go/kjwolf

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