FLORIDA: STATE OF SHAME - VERY LONG

This link will explain my agitation:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/loc...sfla-news-sfla

A few months ago, I posted about the Alley Cat Allies having a tape
recording of state wildlife officials in our state capital laughing and
discussing "shooting wild cats" when this "go-get-'em" ordinance took
effect, during a phone conversation.
Alley Cat Allies evidently took this to the highest court possible, where it
was deemed irrelevant and dismissed by an authority who is obviously not
feral-cat friendly.
Now the worst has happened....it has begun, starting from the bottom of our
state and will obviously not stop in the Keys, but continue upward. The hunt
for feral cats....
I never knew the wealthy residents of Ocean Reef Club 'way down on Card
Sound Road - at the top, or beginning, of the Fla. Keys - put out $$$ to
spay and neuter and support feral cats in their locality: 500 of them! God
bless these rich folks! And friends, you gotta BE rich to live in that
guarded, secluded community.
I never saw or heard of either of these "extinction threatened" rodents in
our state, but now I hate them because our state wildlife authorities THINK
feral cats are responsible for their threatened state at present. The word
is THINK - feral cats have been made scapegoats here, in my opinion, and I'm
not alone, with no one to defend them.
AFAIC, feral cat life is not an ideal existence: hard up for food and water,
no loving hoomins to care for them or their offspring, no vet care for their
injuries/illnesses....but it IS LIFE, not the alternative, death, for feral
cats.
Now I've had my say among friends at rpca and my last say is I'm ashamed to
live in the state in which I was born and raised, because of this legal
atrocity by the Wildlife authorities, back up by our federal government
wildlife authorities, all to preserve endangered indigenous rodents. Their
rationale for this is that "cats are not native to North America".

Now I've had my say among friends at rpca and my last say is I'm ashamed to
live in the state in which I was born and raised, because of this legal
atrocity by the Wildlife authorities, back up by our federal government
wildlife authorities, all to preserve endangered indigenous rodents. Their
rationale for this is that "cats are not native to North America".

Do you have any recommendations as to who at the state and federal
levels we should be contacting to share our concerns? I think if enough
people wrote to tell Florida officials that Florida was off-limits for
vacations and business trips as long as Florida is treating feral cats
inhumanely, they *might* pay attention and do something about it.

Dan

The only thing I can suggest is this: if you go to this website:
http://www.alleycat.org/florida.html
which is a link of Alley Cat Allies, a Wash., D.C.-based org. for protection
of feral cats all over the country, there is an address for some biggie at
the U.S.Wildlife, who is backing the Fla. state wildlife dept. in this
undertaking. They urge letters, etc. to him protesting this and urging
further studies into the cause of the endangered rodents' status. Thank you,
Dan.

"Dan Mahoney" wrote in message
...
: Now I've had my say among friends at rpca and my last say is I'm ashamed
to
: live in the state in which I was born and raised, because of this legal
: atrocity by the Wildlife authorities, back up by our federal government
: wildlife authorities, all to preserve endangered indigenous rodents.
Their
: rationale for this is that "cats are not native to North America".
:
: Do you have any recommendations as to who at the state and federal
: levels we should be contacting to share our concerns? I think if enough
: people wrote to tell Florida officials that Florida was off-limits for
: vacations and business trips as long as Florida is treating feral cats
: inhumanely, they *might* pay attention and do something about it.
:
: Dan
: