Conference misery::feline_v1

520.0. "PROPOSAL IN MAINE LEGISLATURE" by RHODES::WARD (Is there intelligent life down here?) Thu Mar 19 1987 03:55

    The following is an article from The Wall Street Journal of 3/16/87.
    
    
    MAYBE THEY SHOULDN'T BE SHOT; BUT IT THERE A LESS PAINFUL WAY? 
       By Kim Clark
    
    AUGUSTA, Maine - Curiosity may kill the cat, but usually not 
    before the cat does in a few birds.  
    
    That's why some bird raisers here are asking the legislature to
    allow them to use pistols to help enforce nature's law.  
    
    Although not a major problem, cat attacks have had some catastrophic
    effects on the few dozen raisers of geese and ducks in Maine.  Their
    proposal, however, to add cats to the list of creatures that can
    be killed for bothering domesticated animals has drawn howls of
    protest from feline fanciers.  
    
    KITTY vs JUNIOR
    
    "Everybody is getting upset," says Rep. Paul Jacques, who introduced
    the bill and who has now received a fair amount of hate mail for
    his efforts.  "People love their cats more than their kids."  
    
    Don and Carleen Cote, friends of Mr. Jacques who raise $75,000 worth
    of rare birds in a backyard pen, say they asked for the law after
    a neighbor's cat attacked a prize Alaskan white-fronted goose. 
    Mr. Cote grabbed a pistol and shot the cat.  The goose survived,
    but its five eggs - each worth $250 - were destroyed by the cat.
     
    The cat survived, too.  But its owner asked the Cotes to pay for
    the $100 operation needed to save the animal.  The Cotes refused
    and asked Mr. Jacques for help.  
    
    "We are not out there to blast cats off the face of the earth,"
    says Mrs. Cote.  "We just want to protect our birds."  
    
    But cat lovers are having none of it.  "This will declare open season
    on cats," warns Linn Pulis, of Gardiner, Maine.  Ms. Pulis, who
    owns five cats, says the proposal would condemn Maine cats to house
    arrest, since it is natural for cats to roam and attack birds. 
    "A cat doesn't have a conscience," she explains.  
    
    Ms. Pulis has asked the Humane Society of the U.S. for support in
    her battle against the proposal, which would make Maine the third
    state (after Maryland and New Jersey) to decree the death penalty
    for overly curious tabbies.  
    
    WHERE WILL IT LEAD?  
    
    The society hopes Maine legislators will follow the reasoning of
    the late Adlai Stevenson, who vetoed a similar bill when he was
    governor of Illinois in 1949.  
    
    Deciding that cats were meant to roam free, Mr. Stevenson warned
    that putting the weight of the law on one side of the age-old 
    cat-vs-bird debate was a dangerious precedent.  Wrote Mr. Stevenson
    in his veto message:  "We may be called upon to take sides as well
    in the age-old problem of dog vs. cat, bird vs. bird or even bird
    vs. worm."                                     

    	I'm not sure what those of us outside of Maine can do about
    this, but if you live in Maine, I urge you to write to your repre-
    sentative and express your views.  
    
    Where will it end?  If this kind of law is passed, does that mean
    dogs are next?   
    
    		Bernice
    

    I fully sympathize with the bird breeders.  If my cat were to attack
    someone's pets on their land, I would expect to be told to keep my
    cat on my own land.  The second time it happened, I expect to be
    asked to pick up the body of a deceased Maine Coon.  
    To turn the tables, I'd like to apply this to my neighbor's dog
    which chases Copy up trees in my own yard.  I've asked the police
    about it and I can't legally shoot the dog (even with a pellet gun)
    unless he's bothering 'livestock'. Cats are not livestock. 
    Pets should not bother neighbors. Period.  - Chris

You can bring civil or criminal harrassment charges against the pet's owner,
though.  In the case of the bird breeders, it seems to me that they have
suffered substantial actual damages (the $500 or so of lost eggs) as well
as the anguish of having their beloved pets killed.  If this had happened to
me, I would have demanded that the cat owner pay for the $500 in lost eggs.
If he didn't pay voluntarily, I'd sue for it.

--PSW

    If my cat were to kill someone's property, I would pay for the damage.
    I would at that point restrain my cat.
    
    If someone's property killed my cat, I would expect that the property
    be restrained in the future so it would not kill another cat.
    
    If my cat killed those expensive birds or destroyed their eggs,
    and the owner killed my cat, I would be furious, but if the owner
    used a tranquilizer gun, I would approve.
    
                 Carol