Suburbia is anything but immune to the invasion process. Actually, most TNR colonies are in cities because they rely on the good nature of unsuspecting humans to provide food for their cats. I haven't run into a TNR operation yet that allocated funds for food let alone ongoing veterinary care for any of the cats they release- won't be holding my breath either. Never have understood why they simply don't buy land some where and create an actual enclosed shelter as opposed to releasing on public and private land where their cats can go and gobble up wildlife at an unprecedented rate. My area just happens to be totally surrounded by large cities and we are this pocket of ruralness that everybody and their brother equates with country so we get bombarded with dump-off cats. Why drive up to actual farm country when you can drive 10 minutes and be smack dab in the middle of horse farms.
Fire ants, feral pigs, zebra mussels, emerald Ash Borer, European Starlings, those cute little English house sparrows, horses, red-eared slider turtles, Asian carp, giant snakeheads, dogs, cats, Brown tree snakes, rusty crayfish, gypsy moth, cane toads, Cuban treefrogs, green iguanas, Nutria, mute swans, and a real sleeper... earthworms.
And this is but a drop in the bucket that I can rattle off. The above are major drivers of extinction and ecosystem change. And yes, people are doing what they can to eradicate them. Plop any one of the above into a search engine + the word invasive and see what you come up with. Education is paramount.
http://www.issg.org/database/welcome/
http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/
http://www.ucsusa.org/invasive_species/
I have friends who have cats that they walk on leashes. None of mine would but I've seen it and their cats seem to enjoy their walks. I have friends who have fenced back yards who let their cats outside for a bit here and there while they are fiddling around but the cats are in totally enclosed areas and they aren't able to leave the property. Me personally, I resent the cat owners who intentionally toss their cats outside so they don't have to buy cat litter or clean cat litter boxes or because they've never seen their cat catch anything. I also resent the cat owners who have house pissers who rather than take the cat in to determine if there is a biological root to the problem... dump them. Yup, vets cost a lot of money. And I am now a proponent of de-clawing. Didn't used to be but so many cats get dumped because they trashed curtains & couches that I guess I weighed the pros and cons and declawing was the lesser of the evils. Cat gets kept or cat gets dumped.
Heather, something is being done. It's not talked about because people don't want to get jumped but something is being done. Little steps and never underestimate the impact a few can make. Volunteers for my county are taught how to break the neck of a Mute Swan when they come across them. It's a quick dispatch method. The people who maintain Blue Bird trails are dispatching the English House Sparrow left and right and
www.sialis.org will assign anyone who is interested a mentor to help with eradication. The University of Florida I believe was teaching residents how to dispatch the Cane Toad and the Cuban Treefrog. Audubon and the Sierra Club are also teaching people how to deal with invasive species and the cat seems to top their lists. Earthworms, toughie because we've been sold a bill of goods that they are good for all of us. Earthworms I've been dealing with and quite creatively I might add. Here's a decent blurb on earthworms if you are interested, scroll down to the photos-
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialanimals/earthworms/index.html
These issues become polarized which is most unfortunate as emotion v. logic enters the equation. What it boils down to is which fur, feather, and fin do you want to save? Our resources are not unlimited although there are those who would have us believe differently.
Perhaps it is time for me to hide right about now.
