| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 2506.1 | Another walk on the wild side-NYC | MARKER::REED | A laugh a day keeps the blues away | Wed May 24 1989 17:23 | 23 |
|
A couple of year's ago I read (Time magazine, I think) that New
York City, Grand Central station to be exact was experiencing a
problem with iwld cats, too. It seems that they needed a solution
for their over abundant rodent population living in the tunnels,
& subway system. Workers were being attacked by the rodents when
going below to fix the railway/subway.
Solution - take cats out of the shelters and send them below to
fend for themselves (plenty of food, right?). Now the cats have
controlled the rodent population quite nicely however there's a
problem no one counted on...over abundency of cats! According to
the article there has been some inbreeding and some of these cats
are no longer recognizeable as such. And they have been wild for
so long, humans can get near them and they will attack, sometimes
unprovoked.
HEAVY SIGH!!!
Actually it was a good idea, giving these animals a chance to live,
in their own environment. Unfortunately, it was not completely
thought out.
|
| 2506.2 | | JULIET::APODACA_KI | Love rescue me. | Wed May 24 1989 21:00 | 6 |
| If they don't look like cats, what do they look like? (re: inbreeding
and no longer recognizable as such). It was my understanding that
inbreeding doesn't cause the terrible things it is rumored to do
under most cases (except for emphasizing faults).
kim
|
| 2506.3 | | CRUISE::NDC | Slave to the Furry Foursome and Tymothee-too | Thu May 25 1989 08:53 | 9 |
| The human race is a bunch of fools! (with some exceptions)
i can't believe any one would be stupid enough to just let
un-neutered cats run in an area like a subway system and then
be surprized when they had an overpopulation problem. And
what's wrong with the people who run the shelter that they
let them do this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
N
|
| 2506.4 | | SMURF::S_FRASER | Vertically challenged. | Thu May 25 1989 10:47 | 11 |
|
Re the inbreeding - I'm not quite sure what happens with cats,
actually, but I remember seeing a documentary about wild dogs that run
in packs in some of the major cities of the world. Apparently, they
all come to look alike eventually - there's no way to distiguish what
breeds went in to make up the result.
I also understand that wild cats are a problem in other areas of the
world, where their breeding is completely uncontrolled.
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| 2506.5 | | MARKER::REED | A laugh a day keeps the blues away | Thu May 25 1989 14:21 | 19 |
|
RE: odd looks. From what I remember it was the faults that got
exaggerated. Misshapen heads, heads way too small for facial
features, jaws out of sync with face, lopsided foreheads, etc.,
baldness was another issue. Don't know if that was from lack of
proper diet, sunlight or what.
I think the reason they kept the cats whole was it would make for
a better chance for survival. i.e. kept their instincts for
hunting/killing. They were probably afraid that neutering would
make them too mellow. But those of us who have hunting, neutered
furfaces KNOW better, eh?!
Will Science EVER think of the loooonng term results/impact of the
_new and improved_ technologies?
8^{ -HEAVIER SIGH-
Roslyn
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| 2506.6 | | JULIET::APODACA_KI | Love rescue me. | Thu May 25 1989 17:23 | 3 |
| re. 5 Oh, i see....thanks. :)
kim
|