I Like Shootin' Groundhogs for target practice. And feral cats. Both are useless varmints and pests. The groundhogs eat wooden structures and the feral cats eat up the songbirds. Cats are the only animal besides man that hunts for sport. Oh, and I like guns.
Why would you bother? [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ4K-TZXt7E&feature=related"]Doritos Super Bowl Commercial Dead Cat Bribe - YouTube[/ame]
Thanks for asking. The feral ones are the ones I see over and over that are wild and come around attacking the birds. The last one I passed up a couple of times until I saw a baby owl in it's mouth. Pet cats have a collar. That's the rule out here in the country. If you have a pet cat, you'd better have a collar on it. A bell helps too, cut it sometimes warns the birds. Believe me, I know which ones are feral. They have a look to them and some heft. I never shoot anyone's pet. I'm sure I never have.
LOL, my Parson Russell would kill them in a split second, but I keep him in the house. He's hunting insane. Parson Russells are bred for hunting. They can't help it. Grrrr. Why bother? It's fun and a service to the community. These cats breed wildly and eat up the birdies. Quail, turkey babies, songbirds. I'm a friend of the birds. Yep.
I fed a feral cat for years he died just this winter , I could never get him to come inside but we did trap him for his vet appt every year , he did not have a collar and was a good hunter , I noticed the mice more after he died , now Trinity you know a good hunter eats the kill , How does cat and groundhog stew taste?
I really enjoyed popping off at groundhogs with my dads 38 snub nose police revolver when I was kid. Parents had me do farm work for a few summers with relatives when I was boy, and I guess the gopher/groundhog holes don't mix well with the cattle legs. Of course NOW I know that a 38 snub might be accurate for 25 yards or something...but they had me about at 50 yards, hitting everything but the gopher, and busting their asses laughing at me trying so hard.
Pet cats are notorious for killing and bring the body to mom for a gift. Studies have indicated pet cats kill more at night and can kill 10 to 20 birds in one evening. I don't cook them. Buzzards gotta eat too, honey. I eat a lot of deer though.
I never put a collar on my cat, and i live in the country. I would have gone on a homicidal rampage if someone killed my cat. My experience growing up in the country is that if you see a cat wandering around, its more than likely somebody's pet. Be careful doing that, that's all I'm saying. I'm sure there was more, but I only remember one feral cat in my neighborhood, and everyone who lived around there enjoyed his visits. I used to leave milk at cat food out for him.
Well, coyotes would be pretty useful in keeping down populations of the feral cats the op has such a problem with.
I shoot woodpeckers. They put holes in the side of my house and it makes me so mad. Got a lot of snakes, they keep the mice in check and the feral cats keep the snakes in check. Everything works pretty well, except for the (*)(*)(*)(*) woodpeckers. The deer eat my apple and cherry trees. Not the apples, not the cherries, the trees. I shoot them with my paintball gun. That really fun.......
There are a lot, although I don't know if id agree that theres to many. You shooting them isn't really what I was taking issue with.
Imagine the day someone decides your dog is feral and shoots it. Just takes their 10/22 with their Nikon rimfire scope and puts one right through the forehead from 100 feet, poor little dogs brains splattered right out of the back of it's skull, pissing and crapping itself as it lays their twitching and dying.
Groundhogs are pretty big for a cat, but they do kill lots of rats, mice, pack-rats, etc. And in my neighborhood, they kill frigging woodpeckers. Feral or not, I love 'em for that. If the plague decends upon you and your village, you won't have far to go to thank someone.
Folks who use a Nikon rimfire scope on their 10/22. Sorry, is this a Japanese thing that you are disagreeing with?
I take it you have never seen Groundhog Day? I love groundhogs, they are so cute, but not as cute as prairie dogs!