[FRIAM] Kill it!

Thu Aug 26 13:01:17 EDT 2021

Culling is easy, and they are delicious! Kung Pao Meow!

On Thu, Aug 26, 2021 at 10:23 AM Marcus Daniels <marcus at snoutfarm.com>
wrote:

> I have seen what happens when ferals proliferate.   Out in the country it
> is common to have a few non-domesticated cats around, but they can
> proliferate amongst households.  Look out the window, there is some hunt
> that is on.   Culling is easy though.
>
> > On Aug 26, 2021, at 7:08 AM, uǝlƃ ☤>$ <gepropella at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > So, a wildlife ecologist friend of mine (who meatspace introduced me to
> Looney (WSDA employee who discovered murder hornets here (who also hangs at
> the local pub) [‡])) argues that domestic cats, as an invasive species, are
> more horrifying than murder hornets, or english ivy, or the new zealand
> mudsnail, etc. He focuses on how they're merely killing machines, with
> which I agree. And goes with the usual "keep them inside" rhetoric.
> >
> > But I think I landed on an argument that he couldn't respond to. The
> typical evolutionary argument against domestic cats is that we neuter/spay
> the ones with the qualities we like, leaving the ferals to reproduce and
> evolve. And there's plenty of evidence that a clowder of ferals wreaks more
> havoc on a local ecosystem than a disorganized collection of house cats
> ever does. (Distributions of house cats territory drop off at more than
> ~100 m from their home. So unless the cat lives on the border of a wild
> area, it's impact on wild life is quite small. In contrast, feral clowders
> end up in wilder areas.)
> >
> > To boot, I have an anecdote. When we moved into this house, which is
> buttressed by a fairly wild ravine with owls and wild rabbits and such,
> there was a feral clowder living in a dilapidated house at the crook of the
> ravine (which leads down toward capitol lake). Our alpha, Scooter, kept
> fighting with at least one of these ferals. He lost quite badly one time,
> but due to our policy of universal healthcare, Scooter lives to fight
> again. Now the feral clowder is gone, thereby saving the lives of who knows
> how many little critters in the ravine. Scooter sporadically brings home a
> mouse, mole, or "little brown bird". But it's pretty rare now that he's
> pushing 12 or 13. So, we could say he's an ecologically ethical hunter,
> even if it's unintentional.
> >
> > In the end, though, my wildlife eco friend just loves dogs and hates
> cats. 8^D My guess is his cognitive structure is more dog-like and mine is
> more cat-like, after decades of being programmed by our pets.
> >
> >
> > [‡]
> https://www.sciencenews.org/article/asian-giant-murder-hornets-new-map-habitat-united-states
> >
> >> On 8/24/21 4:39 PM, Steve Smith wrote:
> >> My first reaction to the subject line is one of my favorite parody
> >> attributions to redneck culture:  "it's Diffr'nt, kill it!" but then I
> >> read the content and realized it was more apropos than I expected.
> >>
> >> I believe that something like "xenophobia" is an adaptive response in
> >> many contexts...  we have some pretty deep instincts it seems that let
> >> us know to be "askeered" of "spiders and snakes" even if we'd never seen
> >> another ape respond that way.  My dog has always been very (properly)
> >> fearful of snakes...  otherwise her natural curious aggression would
> >> have had her dead-by-snakebite long ago...   she went crazy everytime
> >> she saw a rattlesnake but always barked crazily from a good 6-10 feet
> >> away.   She never alerted to a non-rattler that I knew of.    And in the
> >> arms race of survival, it is natural that some "skeery" things will
> >> camoflauge as benign or friendly or cute.
> >>
> >> I am always a little nervous when large movements (especially gubbm'nt
> >> supported ) try to tap those instincts.  It seems like a bad precedent
> >> to encourage formalized xenophobia even against helpless insects.   The
> >> Charlottesville (and too many other) white-nationalists chanting "jews
> >> will not replace us" and all of Trump's fear-mongering are obvious (and
> >> ugly), but aspects of the B(lack) L(ives) M(atter) movement that perhaps
> >> overstated police culpability (in general not in specific cases), and
> >> Hillary's unfortunate election-forfieting statement calling Trump
> >> supporters "deplorables" (plenty of them were, but the brush was too
> >> broad and there was probably at least some backlash turnout over that
> >> one).  Her "superpredator" comments, etc. in the 90's are another
> >> example.
> >>
> >> As for me, I have a nicely expanding set of stands of what is know
> >> locally as "Guaco" (critical to the black on black pottery process) in
> >> the pueblo nearby but more commonly known as "beeweed" among anglos...
> >> it turns out to be a particularly attractive nectar source for the
> >> Tarantula Hawk (or Tarantula Wasp), a big ole blue-black  beast that
> >> looks like it could stun you with a sting and drag you to it's
> >> underground lair where it would insert it's fertilized eggs into your
> >> abdomen to hatch and thrive until the larva are ready to emerge and
> >> pupate ultimately into more giant scary wasps.   The thing is, this is
> >> exactly what they do, but only with Tarantulae (and perhaps other large
> >> spiders?) but can hardly be induced to sting anything else (I think
> >> there is a YouTube Steve-Irwin wannabe who succeeded in getting one to
> >> sting him on camera, but while painful it was not acutely life or limb
> >> threatening).  There are as many as a dozen or more of these wasps (and
> >> occasionally a few other pollinating insects) hanging around them.   I
> >> approach them relatively casually but even when I drive up within a few
> >> feet on my way into the driveway or run my weedwhip into the ragweed
> >> surrounding the stand, they take no interest in  me.   I suppose if I
> >> were to violently attack them, they *might* respond in some offensive
> >> way, but most indications are, they reserve their sting for immobilizing
> >> their Tarantula baby-incubators.   My immediate neighbors have lots of
> >> loud yard-grooming equipment and a whole shed full of pesticides and
> >> herbicides they run around  spraying on everything in their yard, and
> >> while "beeweed" would never survive a week in their yard, I think they
> >> would be out machine-gunning these elegant (though menacing looking)
> >> wasps if they saw one.   FWIW I have not seen a Tarantula at this
> >> location in the 2 decades I've lived her, I guess the wasps feed in my
> >> yard and reproduce elsewhere.
> >>
> >> My bottom line is that xenophobia is first-order adaptive, but humans
> >> need not be first-order (only) creatures.  We *can* think past our
> >> initial reactions or herd-hysteria if we choose to.  Or not.
> >
> >
> > --
> > ☤>$ uǝlƃ
> >
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