I believe we live in a society that does not value our birds or our right to enjoy those birds in peace. I wonder what boom boxes do to our birds? We know noise hurts birds in many ways. I planted bamboo around my yard to block noise, provide habitat for fledglings, and block entry to cats. Cats still come into our yard & killed 8 or 10 fledglings and nestlings this year. They often face a furious Airedale! Our city does not take free roaming cats serious and as far as I can tell neither does any city in Texas. Lake Jackson, home to the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory(members of ABC's Cat Indoors! policy board)and numerous refuges and sanctuaries has an exemption they refuse to change allowing cats to roam free legally. Only when a "cat becomes a nuisance" can you file. Then they refuse to do anything but bring a trap most cats will not enter. If Lake Jackson changes the law it will not fix the problem. Many cities who have strict leash laws do not enforce laws against cat owners. However, it will send a message to citizens they are breaking the law. It will also send a message to birders. Although some members of the Brazosport Birders, as private citizens with avian expertise, asked the city to change the law,the group as a whole voted to ignore the city policy allowing cats to roam free in Lake Jackson. Since many of them are cat owners who allow their cats to roam free there was a strong group against change. Thsi is a problme throughout the birder world. A good example is , curiously, the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory, who remained silent despite the fact they are on Cat indoors! policy board. So with situational ethics in play all over Texas, we remain stuck in a position of cats trespassing and killing at will with govt sanctions of two years in jail if you kill one. A Galveston birder many of us like and admire would now face two years in jail for his remedy. Someone should sue the city of Galveston for allowing city workers to feed ferals so near an obvious habitat for endangered species. The city did not see it that way. As far as I know the city still allow those cats to be fed. After 10 years of working this issue I am ready to start an effort to change the laws and the habits of Texans where cats are concerned. I hope to have your support when it comes time to face Alley Cat Allies who bragged in their newsletter this year of protecting feral cats in Texas by forcing Senators to adopt a letter of intention stating feral cats would not be put on the invasive species list where they belong. Thanks for your tireless work to protect our environment.

Lake Jackson Where You Share Your Property With Cats

     1st thing a Doctor tells a pregnant woman is to get rid of the cat and to avoid contact with felines. Doctors know the dangers of free roaming cats. In Lake Jackson Texas it is legal by exemption to the law for cats to roam at will. Property rights be damned. Doesn't matter to the city if the cost of free roaming cats is a dead fetus, a sick kid or damaged property. Allergies don't matter. Birds don't matter. Science does not Matter. Cat owners rights supercede all others. L.J. is home to the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory, multiple refuges, wildlife sanctuaries and is on a major flight path. Nature and wildlife comes right up to town. Birders have been trying to force the L.J. city council to make Lake Jackson a bird friendly town to no avail. They refuse to consider bird friendly laws and policies. For, instance, when a nuisance animal call comes in the officer who responds should have a list of registered owners. Lots of easy cheap things can make an animal control call more successful. After all, many animal control calls lead to felony arrests. People who mistreat animals and neighbors in the process are often criminal in nature. The city council had the chance and still has responsibility. Please write the local paper (thefacts.com) opinion section. I hope birders will ask for action from the Brazosport Chamber of Commerce, the Brazosport Birders, and the L.J. city council members. Perhaps some birders can persuade the city into taking action by threatening a boycott of the city birding activities. It is high time birders played hard ball on this issue. Alley Cat Allies has 180K paying members so we are playing catch up all over the nation.

How To Motivate a Birder

     Long ago a timeless classic was created called The Andy Griffith Show. In a memorable episode titled "Opie the Birdman" Barney gives Opie a slingshot. Andy soon comes upon a bird Opie has killed. Andy wonders aloud in sad amazement that the neighbor's cat has killed one of Aunt Bea's song birds. He tells himself he'll have to tell the neighbor to keep their cat indoors. Opie raises the nestlings & all is well in Mayberry. In wonderful Mayberry fledglings are hardy & no cats run loose. Even by the 60's, Sheldon Leonard and his writers knew cats were a likely supect in any bird death. We all know that cats running loose equal dead birds. These days the millions of free roaming feral and domestic cats kill hundreds of millions birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and other species in the U.S. each & every day.
         As a nation we must now take stock of the fact that cats are a growing menace to our environment. Habitat depletion is the #1 reason for all new extinctions with cats a close 2nd. Cats follow development and decimate the environment since they will kill anything. Cats eat for one reason and kill for another. Cats are the number one killer in the world bar none. It is estimated by the American Bird Conservancy (abcbirds.org) the U.S. may have as many as 200 million cats. If we do not have that many cats now, we soon will. ABC estimates 120 million cats are feral & the other 80 million are owned or semi-owned. The semi-owned cat is usually not vaccinated or neutered. They often go unfed & lack clean water. Cats are simple animals with about half the chromosomes of dogs and a small frontal cortex. About 60% of all companion pet owners have cats. About 60% have multiple cats. Only one out of three owners keep their cat indoors. One breeding pair and their offspring can make 450K cats in ten years. Indoor cats live far longer. Almost no cat owner register their cats. Many animal control ordinances do not mention cats. Many county and city animal control departments will not pick up a trapped cat. Free roaming cats in an isolated area such as an island or fragmented habitats often exterminate local species. This is the viscous circle of cat predation. They denude an area of whatever species is likely and more of whatever they kill moves in to be killed. A circle of death. So having said all this, what does it take to motivate birders & naturalists at the grassroots level to contact their elected offcials and demand cats to be restricted by law, policy and practice? 
       Sheriff Andy Taylor would be weep to see the state of our bird decline in America. Birders of America should band together to protect the 800 plus song bird species in decline. Birders need to write their elected officials and demand  great sweeping changes for avian protection. We must demand bird friendly laws be enacted and enforced. Policy should support the laws that require restrictions for free roaming cats. Our other companion animals will benefit and many species will be protected when we break the paradigm that allows free roaming cats as the rule rather than the exception in our society. So remember the words of our favorite sherrif while keeping your cat indoors and pushing the appropriate people to protect our birds. I bet that's what Andy would do.