Thread: Feral Cats

[gareth margon has entered the chat]

+1 for the Steve Allen cat trap

Some good comments in this thread – in my area, cats are at the top of the predator list that require control. I have seen them devastate Pheasant and Quail populations at nesting time – they just take them off the nest. Most cats I get are large and full of fat so live very well as feral.
I agree with @kukuwai – the cage is the most effective trap – and it will also catch a mustilid – but if you can’t check it daily – the SA2 and Possum Master work well – usually! – one of our members has other very effective walk-through tunnels.
I checked a trap line yesterday and was hoping to have a nice picture to show you – but alas – it escaped from the possum master that I have mounted on a log ramp – so all I had to show was the Possum master on the ground and a small handful of hair in the noose – I guess it reached in with a front foot and got caught – but managed to pull its way free. Pity it didn’t try out the SA2 trap about 50m down the track. So, it will be a bastard to catch in the future.
I placed the fur on a branch for the picture. Plenty of other pictures in the Bird Predator Control thread.

Good to see everyone nailing bloody cats.
Have to be a bit careful up this way as cats like horses seem to make some people loose all grasp of reality.
There was a feral cat issue up this way and concerns about the impact on wildlife and disease as they were in big numbers. The SPCA got involved and their answer, they trapped them, de-sexed them and them let them go again. Its about as stupid as it gets.
Always had a lot of rabbits round work, commented to one of the guys about the lack of rabbits, told me wait till it quiet or the weekend and you will see why, place was over run with cats, got the rabbits back now, suppressed 410 around the buildings and the .22 for the rest. Bloody good fun to boot.

Originally Posted by gmm

Good to see everyone nailing bloody cats.
Have to be a bit careful up this way as cats like horses seem to make some people loose all grasp of reality.
There was a feral cat issue up this way and concerns about the impact on wildlife and disease as they were in big numbers. The SPCA got involved and their answer, they trapped them, de-sexed them and them let them go again. Its about as stupid as it gets.
Always had a lot of rabbits round work, commented to one of the guys about the lack of rabbits, told me wait till it quiet or the weekend and you will see why, place was over run with cats, got the rabbits back now, suppressed 410 around the buildings and the .22 for the rest. Bloody good fun to boot.

yeah de-sexing stops them breeding but doesn't stop them eating. How bloody shortsighted can you get?

As a young'n living in a block of flats with my GF (hmmm, must be 42 years ago now!) there was a series of pensioners flats next door. All had lovely little flower gardens that the old girls (all girls, guys ddn't seem to last that long). At the end of the two sets of flats, was an old half acre section accessed from Main street (Talking Palmy nth, 1970's here). The old dears were beside themselves, as their lovely gardens were being rooted up and shat in every day by the weird old cat lady that lived in the Main street house. Without a word of a lie, she must have housed at least a hundred cats. Only the nice ones were allowed in the house, so about 70 ferals hung out in the local area, waiting for evening feeding time. They lived in and under all the tonnes of shite stacked up in her back yard.
I was a fitter and turner apprentice back then, and had turned up a good (read big) suppressor for my 10/22. Firing subs with my thumb behind the bolt handle to stop the cycling noise it was very very quiet.

At the end of our block of flats was a monster old Oak tree. I set up a bowl of cat food at its base (using the tree as a backstop) and retreated into the storage room we all had at the end of the block of flats. Luckily I had bought spare ammo, as they just did not stop coming. The odd one I winged was immediately set upon by the others, ripping into it. Till I leveled the playing field. That one afternoon, with the AF MArtin foundary down the road keeping a good level of background noise up!, I filled three PNCC paper rubbish bags full of cats. About 35 odd cats, give or take.

A couple of days later I was picking up the paper from the communual letter boxes and one of the old dears sidled up to me and said " we all know what you did the other day, and we all want to thank you very much!"

Originally Posted by XR500

As a young'n living in a block of flats with my GF (hmmm, must be 42 years ago now!) there was a series of pensioners flats next door. All had lovely little flower gardens that the old girls (all girls, guys ddn't seem to last that long). At the end of the two sets of flats, was an old half acre section accessed from Main street (Talking Palmy nth, 1970's here). The old dears were beside themselves, as their lovely gardens were being rooted up and shat in every day by the weird old cat lady that lived in the Main street house. Without a word of a lie, she must have housed at least a hundred cats. Only the nice ones were allowed in the house, so about 70 ferals hung out in the local area, waiting for evening feeding time. They lived in and under all the tonnes of shite stacked up in her back yard.
I was a fitter and turner apprentice back then, and had turned up a good (read big) suppressor for my 10/22. Firing subs with my thumb behind the bolt handle to stop the cycling noise it was very very quiet.

At the end of our block of flats was a monster old Oak tree. I set up a bowl of cat food at its base (using the tree as a backstop) and retreated into the storage room we all had at the end of the block of flats. Luckily I had bought spare ammo, as they just did not stop coming. The odd one I winged was immediately set upon by the others, ripping into it. Till I leveled the playing field. That one afternoon, with the AF MArtin foundary down the road keeping a good level of background noise up!, I filled three PNCC paper rubbish bags full of cats. About 35 odd cats, give or take.

A couple of days later I was picking up the paper from the communual letter boxes and one of the old dears sidled up to me and said " we all know what you did the other day, and we all want to thank you very much!"

I have a similar story about a certain inner city park infested with ferals that dined out of the rubbish bins, bred under people's decks, entered houses to steal food in the wee hours and generally made a hell of a nuisance of themselves. they were in-bred, with deformed feet and ears, mangy and mal-nourished. Disease ridden ugly things. I rang the Council to ask them to clean the cats out to be told they had tried to catch them, failed, and had given up. They suggested I call the SPCA. Did that, they said they could rent me traps and they would come and get anything I caught. They also said two of my neighbours on the park had tried and not caught a one - the cats were too smart, or educated. In the end I did the same as you. No suppressor tho. Just a wee old Winchester single shot bolt and shorts. A 4 ft high retained bank with a bowl of milk in front. Me back in the garage with a side door open about 30 ft away. Through early and mid-summer fireworks are a thing in the inner city. No-one noticed the pop I made. over a period of a couple of months I cleaned them all out. Several adult dams, a couple of Toms and about 20 half grown mangey offspring. All headshots. I would put them in a black rubbish sack rolled up tight and go for a walk of an evening when the rubbish bins were lined up down the street and pick one at random. I thought it only fair the neighbours should contribute something. Many years later there still has not been a feral problem in the area.

Originally Posted by XR500

As a young'n living in a block of flats with my GF (hmmm, must be 42 years ago now!) there was a series of pensioners flats next door. All had lovely little flower gardens that the old girls (all girls, guys ddn't seem to last that long). At the end of the two sets of flats, was an old half acre section accessed from Main street (Talking Palmy nth, 1970's here). The old dears were beside themselves, as their lovely gardens were being rooted up and shat in every day by the weird old cat lady that lived in the Main street house. Without a word of a lie, she must have housed at least a hundred cats. Only the nice ones were allowed in the house, so about 70 ferals hung out in the local area, waiting for evening feeding time. They lived in and under all the tonnes of shite stacked up in her back yard.
I was a fitter and turner apprentice back then, and had turned up a good (read big) suppressor for my 10/22. Firing subs with my thumb behind the bolt handle to stop the cycling noise it was very very quiet.

At the end of our block of flats was a monster old Oak tree. I set up a bowl of cat food at its base (using the tree as a backstop) and retreated into the storage room we all had at the end of the block of flats. Luckily I had bought spare ammo, as they just did not stop coming. The odd one I winged was immediately set upon by the others, ripping into it. Till I leveled the playing field. That one afternoon, with the AF MArtin foundary down the road keeping a good level of background noise up!, I filled three PNCC paper rubbish bags full of cats. About 35 odd cats, give or take.

A couple of days later I was picking up the paper from the communual letter boxes and one of the old dears sidled up to me and said " we all know what you did the other day, and we all want to thank you very much!"

Classic. There was a local cat lady whos house burned down, she refused to let the fire brigade in and they smashed their way into the house and it was condemned so she moved to another house and took her cats there. The council tried to foreclose on the next house because she didn’t pay her rates ,before they could that house burned down too and she passed out due to smoke inhalation and a couple of schoolboys rescued her . She took her 70 cats to the next house , I have no idea where it is but I pity her neighbours . My mate bought the house she passed out in and the council said it was a hazardous site and made him strip it down completely and clean up the site . There was 20 skip bins full of gib , pissed stained (cats and her piss I guess) carpet , cat skeletons, cat shit , the kitchen , bathroom and other garbage . Just about drove him broke .
I surprised her neighbours never poisoned the cats , the place stank and she didn’t have the money to look after them so most of them looked pretty ill .

A dead cat is a good cat if it's not on it's home property. Never fails to amaze me how far away in the back country they turn up.Have shot quite a few over the years hanging around trap lines, opportunist feed for them. As for SPCA and others trapping and releasing cats after neutering, friggen brain-dead thinking.

@Jhon
How long ago was that?

Originally Posted by XR500

Yeah, I know the full sized Poodle is a great dog, but mate, ya gotta do something about that name!

" Wanna go hunting mate?"

"Yeah, great idea. I'll bring my poodle along"

"Err, second thoughts, lets go to the pub"

Very smart dogs, my mum had a miniature, we kept his coat, close clipped and took him into the bush, particularly effective with wallabies on Kawau Island. Not bad with Goats up north.

Call 'em Caniche...

Wiki - Caniche in French, is a breed of water dog.

Poodles have been used as working dogs in the military since at least the 17th century, most likely because of their highly intelligent, trainable nature and background as a gundog making them suitable to battlefields, as evidenced by their ability to be trained to ignore gunfire.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poodle

Prolly not much good on Pigs...

Originally Posted by Dusty Fog

five pages all thanks to forest and bird brainwashing the lot of ya, get out there and shoot some deers and whats called big game
skating about shooting some poor old ladies cat is not a manly act

Cute, must be a cat person!

@Dusty Fog, I started this thread about feral cats in the bush..where they should NOT be. And there’s nothing keeping or very little keeping them in check. Screw what forest and bird says, I’d quite like to wake up to songbird in the bush, and the cats are not helping to that effect.

But to some degree I see your point. Ferals still deserve respect and a quick disposal, which I think most of us here strive for anyways.

Originally Posted by Dusty Fog

the only pests here in nz are politicians and rabbits and wallabies, the rest are cute creatures put on earth by our mighty

i could add quite few pests as im sure others could too...... feral cats wild dogs stoats ferrets weasels hares possums magpies starlings mynahs sparrows koi carp hippies....and to farmers goats deer and pigs are pests as they can be detrimental to their business, even tho most of us here look at them as a resource

Originally Posted by paremata

I surprised her neighbours never poisoned the cats

Cats can be very difficult to poison, they are fast to regurgitate anything that doesn't taste right etc.
I found mixing in an antiemetic into the bait food sorted that out to a degree.