shiawasseecounty.net

Flint Journal 1 January 2007. Letter to the Editor by Maynard Sumner, representing the Michigan Bluebird Society.
"One cat will kill .7 to 1.4 birds a week. Across the U.S. this may account for hundreds of millions of birds per year. Keep cats in the house. House cats live up to 17 years while outdoor cats average about five years of life. Sixty five percent of cat owners allow their cats to roam outside where they can get worms, disease (toxoplasma) they can bring in ticks carrying Lyme disease, hit by cars or killed by predators and of course harass and kill wildlife. Be kind to your cat and keep it inside, do not feed stray cats (they just produce more stray cats). "
My kind hearted neighbors used to feed the kitties until they were overrun by cats which ultimately had to be trapped and taken to the pound. Guess what happened to them there?

Is that your personal kindhearted neighbors?

Wasn't sure where the story ended and where your comments began.

Thought you were shooting them?

Stupid article doesn't say anything about the number of rodents the cats kill..........or even snakes.

Rodents carry in plenty of diseases and ticks.

In areas where there are poisonous snakes, a good feral cat population is quite helpful since cats can usually kill such snakes without being harmed themselves. They seem to enjoy it, too.

I would not want all the cats done away with. That would be too much like the fools that nearly wiped out the coyotes in Idaho years ago. Only to be overrun with rabbits. Then they had to have rabbit roundups to deal with them.

That was where they dug a trench, "rounded" up or chased the rabbits into the trench and clubbed them to death with baseball bats.

Animal rights people didn't like that much, either.

If the cats get excessive, there is usually an outbreak of respiratory disease that kills off most of them. Pets are usually vaccinated for such diseases, so they don't get killed off. I see no need to panic. Even the article said feral cats usually live about 5 years as compared to a pet that lives 17 years. I think 5 years is a wild estimate. They lucky if they live 2 years.

Or.....we could all go to licensing cats and any cat without a license is free game, like they all are now, but killing people's pets is still frowned upon.


Just tryin' to annoy me, are ya Fritz?

"In areas where there are poisonous snakes, a good feral cat population is quite helpful since cats can usually kill such snakes without being harmed themselves. They seem to enjoy it, too." (kaylor)

I never heard of that. Feral cats do not kill rattle snakes without putting themselves in great danger. (exceptions tolerated) Rodent control is usually a matter of sanitation. In Arizona, if you have Rattlesnakes around it means you have rodents around and you must have a dirty sloppy ranch/farm. Typical rat habitat is wood pile near a dog pen. Rats hide in woodpile and eat the dog's food.
In Michigan we have the Massasauga Rattle snake which prefers the lowlands like the muck farms around Laingsburg. I have hunted, camped and fished for 55 years in Michigan and have never seen a Massasauga in the wild. That is not due to cats killing them off.
No I wouldn't shoot a cat. My reason being the cat can be ignored, starved, given no shelter, allowed to roam the countryside and otherwise be abused by the owners but if you shoot the invader all of a sudden $$$$$ pop up on owner's eyes and they want to sue you for killing "Fluffy" the children's pet pussy cat that was loved so much it would take $50,000 to ease the pain and suffering of the poor kiddies!
If you do shoot a cat, use a pellet rifle (quiet) make sure you kill it (wounded cats crawling home are worth a lot more money in the pain and suffering lawsuit), bury it quick and keep your mouth shut!!

Am I annoying you yet Kaylor?

Uh oh..this could be bad...



I'm outta here!

No kidding......He's poking KAYLOR with a stick?????

...Well....It's been nice knowin' you , Fritz!

Yes you are.

I didn't know there were two kinds of rattlesnakes with very similar names. The Massasauga Rattle snake which apparently has an eastern and a western version and the Mississauga Rattlesnake. I could have dug deeper, but the photos appear to be different critters and the Miss..variety may be only in Ontario. For your pleasure this is what I found on them and at least one of them is still in Michigan, whether you have seen it or not and it doesn't appear to prefer hanging around woodpiles in junkie backyards.

rolo - you coward

one of Ohio’s rarer species of reptiles: the eastern massauga rattlesnake.

and
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http://loosetea.blogspot.com/2005_10_01_archive.html
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 06, 2005
A snake in the grass
Funny how a sudden fear can send a shot of adrenaline straight to your heart.
The dogs were at the fence, nosing their muzzle into the grass and jumping back and repeating.
I went over but it was dark. I grabbed a flashlight and shone it right on what looked like a little garter snake. As I debated whether to bring them inside away from the little bugger for a moment, the snake decided to make a run for it, straight at me.
Normally, I'd be less afraid but yesterday I read in the paper about a little Massauga rattlesnake that bit a frisbee golfer at Hudson Mills Metropark. I didn't even know (remember?) that rattlers lived in Michigan.
I decided to bring the dogs inside.
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http://www.orange.k12.oh.us/teachers/mh ... sauga.html

with a photo of an eastern massasauga
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http://www.studiobraun.com/travel/bruce ... ttler.html

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http://www.pasty.com/discus/messages/71 ... 20050704pm
tom t c mich:
"Hardly any annoying lizards or poisonous snakes."

Oh that's a good one. Yet in spite of living in the Arizona desert for 37 years, and spending a good deal of time hiking in the boonies, the one and only rattlesnake I've ever seen (not in a Zoo) in my lifetime was a big and very pregnant momma Mississauga rattlesnake at a family reunion in a regional park near Wixom MI in the 1950's!
http://www.co.jackson.mi.us/comm/minute ... -15-06.asp

Jackson County Parks and Recreation Commission
Meetings Minutes
March 15, 2006
The other grant that remains for my immediate attention is a boat launch upgrade for Lime Lake County Park. The Michigan DNR has been in contact with us over the past several months sending us revisions that they would like to see done before the prints and specifications are approved. The wild card with this project is the construction season; the Michigan DEQ has limited us to a construction season to occur in the winter months due to the presence of some animal species at Lime Lake (the spotted turtle and the Mississauga Rattlesnake). We are continuing to work with DNR to try to get the approval of the project so we can receive the DNR grant money for this project.

He just pokin' back with a diversionary tactic.

Fritz said:

Kaylor said:

Run Fritz! Run for your life!

The Massasauga rattlesnake
is poisonous (so beware!!!). It is also endangered ( oh dear!). The Massauga rattlesnake has 2-19 live young babies. They are born alive. Even though the Massasauga rattlesnake can bite humans, humans are its predator

Kaylor, Don't let your snake killing cats loose again!!
Massasauga Rattlesnake Eastern and Western. Of course the Eastern is what we have here. Two feet long and only human death that I know of was a guy with a bad heart in the first place. My cousin's Beagle (small dog) was bitten and did not die. Missisauga Rattlesnake is same thing only misspelled or mis- translated form Indian language.

Yup....I'm still annoyed with this one, but I heard an interesting story today that applies....................

These people found their cat playing with a dead snake in their driveway.

Now, I have never known a cat to play with a dead anything that the cat did not kill itself.

The cat usually keeps poking it, trying to make it move so they can kill it again.

So, What kind of snake was it? It was a Massasauga Rattlesnake.

So, Where was it? The West side of Waugh Rd, Bennington TWP, Shiawassee County, Michigan.

I happen to know the area..good swampland west of those homes, nice homes.

So, When was it? The summer of 2006

heeeeeeeeeeeeerreeeeeeeeee kitty, kitty, kitty

OH GEEEEZ...... Hey Fritz.....I got a great photo for ya

Just gotta figure out where to put it so I can link to it for ya.....

Are you having trouble posting photos?
I use this web site.

http://www.smugmug.com/

There is an annual fee but all the free sites require my friends to give them their email address before they can see the photos.

OOPS!

9 feet, 1 inch - 9.7 lbs.
stay away from ALL snakes!

p.s. kaylor sent it to me....

Well....if there are any MORE of 'em around....they oughta be SNAKESICLES by now....