Feral Cat Hunting

[Alcon]

The problem is that there isn't any easy way to know whether these are feral cats, escaped house cats, or just cats that have become lost. I know how scared I'd be if it was legal to shoot my cat if it got out. I'd move.

[MasterJedi]

Yes there's 1.2 million statewide and I see dozens of them in my backyard all the time!

[PBrunsel]

No, just killing cat's is terrible and horribly inhumane. Reminds me of the mass rabbit killings durring the Dust Bowl years.

[David S]

Speaking of feral cats:
There are other feral animals that are causing  big problems as well; in particular feral hogs:



Wild hogs mangling fields in Texas

BETSY BLANEY
Associated Press
LUBBOCK, Texas - Wild hogs are mangling fields and pastures with their razor-sharp tusks. They're wrecking ecosystems by wallowing in streambeds. They're even killing and eating smaller animals.
Farmers and ranchers - who sustain an estimated $52 million annually in damage at the snouts of the rapidly growing wild hog population - are asking the Legislature and hunters for help controlling the estimated 2 million animals.
The nocturnal, omnivorous hogs can grow to 400 pounds and have four fierce-looking tusks that can extend five inches from their top and bottom jaws. They're more bristly and muscular than domestic pigs, and they can be ill-tempered when cornered.
Feral hogs are found in 230 of the state's 254 counties, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department estimates. Nationwide, hogs number 4 million in 42 states, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates.
They're spreading into states where they haven't been seen before, such as Illinois and Kansas, said Eric Hellgren, a professor of wildlife ecology at Oklahoma State University.
They uproot sweet potatoes, peanuts, corn, rice and other crops. So keen are their snouts that hogs can pull up plants one by one. But they're typically not so tidy and just tear up pastures. Sweet potato farmers have reported dozens of acres destroyed in one night.
Beef producers say the hogs knock down fences and tear holes in pasture to get to grass roots and grub worms. They also kill goats, sheep and other small livestock.
The hogs are descendants of domestic pigs brought to America in the 1600s by French and Spanish explorers, and of Eurasian boars brought for hunting in the early 1900s.

Full article at http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/business/11499373.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp