ST (4-11-09)

This still doesn't explain why, if shooting is used as a last resort, that there are regular shooting sessions.

Animal Grief

A great article on animal grief. If animals can feel emotion, then they also have a level of intelligence, despite what some people argue. Some of these videos are really sad - the one with Koko and her kitten, especially.

Crows

Watch this video - and then tell me crows are dumb. I love that Joshua Klein tried to think of a way to make a 'pest' animal do something useful so that people would stop trying to get rid of them.

If anyone is going to try and make a crowbox, let me know. We're thinking of trying one!

Birds shot at Changi Airport

Thanks to Chinky for sending me these two letters - Don't Gun them down and Heavy-handed about the sea eagles that are being shot by the gun club at Changi Airport. An earlier article about Changi Airport mentions that birds that arrive are scared off, or shot down.

I missed the original article and was horrified to read that the sea eagles (and presumably some other birds) are shot as a measure of 'last resort'. One wonders what qualifies as last resort. As Mr Owyong mentioned in his letter, if this is a 'last resort', then why is the gun club called in regularly?

Other airports have used computer modelling, mats that prevent worms from nesting on their grass so that the birds aren't attracted there (which I mentioned in an earlier blog post), working with biologists, and just about a dozen other different methods. Making the area inhospitable is probably the best first step to keeping the birds out.

I also fail to see how random shooting of the birds actually helps to improve safety. Shouldn't there be a better method in place than to get people in to shoot them once in a while? Also, it seems that there are better, more technologically advanced methods of keeping the birds out - why not employ these rather than low-tech point and shoot, which does nothing except kill birds? The gun club has mentioned that they cannot shoot some of the birds because they fly too high and fast for them - and tempted as I am to say good for the birds (which I will), it also clearly shows the limitations of the method being employed.

If Changi really wants to be a number one airport, then I certainly hope they come up with a better method of preventing bird strikes.

Banning circus animals

Banning the use of live animals in circuses is good news - but the fact that these animals in Bolivia have nowhere to go after, isn't. You know the old adage - be careful what you ask for, you might get it. It's a tough question - where do these animals go? On the other hand, it does mean no more animals will be put into circuses again. Is it better to have short term suffering and spare many more animals the harm of being put in a circus later on?

Killed Rabbits used to generate electricity

Any way you cut it, using killed bunny rabbits to generate electricity doesn't make the act of killing the rabbits any better. One wonders why a more humane solution isn't pursued.

Giving up colony caregiving

I was speaking with a caregiver a few days ago and she was telling me that people are telling her that they can't look after the cats anymore because of the economic downturn.

I can understand that there are people cash strapped in this crisis, and I do sympathise with them, but in this case, she doesn't believe that it's necessarily the case in her situation. She believes they are just 'offloading' the cats into her care. She has already been paying for the sterilisation of their cats and for other medical treatments as they had said they couldn't afford it. They are now telling her however that they want to give up feeding too. From what I understand, at least one of them told her that it was the fault of the cats that they lost their job though she's not sure how this came about.

If it comes between feeding your family, and feeding your cats, no one can blame you if you choose to feed your family. However, sometimes the situation is one where people for various reasons decide they don't want to do it anymore - and sometimes it's because there's someone else in the area whom they think they can palm it off to.

In this particular case, the caregiver started sterilising the cats as she saw the feeders there weren't doing so. She has often had to retrieve cats caught and sent to the AVA (only to be told that the feeders don't want the cats back), and that if there's a problem with the town council, she should deal with it. The fact that this caregiver is not a resident there and cannot for example see the MP, is something the feeders choose to overlook. When she explained it to them, one of them told her that she should do what she could because he wasn't going to do anything.

It's irresponsible to start caring for a colony and then palming the work off to someone else for no good reason. There may be very valid reasons for it obviously - relocation, ill health, etc - which anyone can sympathise with. Just because there's someone else there who IS responsible and is a good caregiver however, does not mean that he or she wants more cats to care for and therefore wants to take over your colony too. If it's a chore for you to go down and take care of your own cats, then why should someone else take over? Don't start feeding - or even more importantly, caregiving, which involves TNRM - unless you can see yourself seeing it through for the next several years.