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Post by nick50471 on Mar 14, 2018 11:36:59 GMT -5
If you shoot or kill a cat in the State of Illinois, your next home will be a jail cell. They are protected by State Law signed by Former Governor Adlai Stevenson II who states that cats are natural born predators and avoid people. I have 3 Feral cats that I caught and they work out fine. Medley and Bogart and their mother who bit me 3 times while catching her. Thanks for joining our board. Please start a thread so we can all welcome you. Let us know where you’re from, what muzzleloaders you have, what kind of shooting you do. Your first sentence is a bit of an exaggeration. They might fine you but you most certainly will not go to jail.
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Post by nick50471 on Mar 14, 2018 11:38:06 GMT -5
Luckily in Iowa we are free to exterminate as many feral cats as we want.
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Post by rambler on Mar 14, 2018 11:56:08 GMT -5
When I lived in Iowa and was out pheasant hunting my personal policy was open season on feral cats. Almost worse than coyotes.
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Post by mrbuck on Mar 14, 2018 16:06:23 GMT -5
In New Jersey if you were convicted of shooting a cat , feral or not , you could very well spend time in jail . Knowing how similar Illinois and New Jersey's gun laws are , I believe the Animal Cruelty Laws may also be be similar in both states . In New Jersey a violation of the Animal Cruelty Laws is considered a crime . If you commit a crime with a firearm a whole new can of worms is opened ! In June of 2015 I retired after being a New Jersey Certified Animal Control Officer and Certified Animal Cruelty Investigator for 25 years . Chris
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Post by gunny on Mar 14, 2018 17:33:50 GMT -5
People caught dumping cats are the ones who ought to be jailed , in my opinion.Over the years had a few times to deal with someone dumping cats to kittens. Things have changed since i was a kid . If my dad saw a dog chasing a deer that was the end of the dog! If there were to many cats on the farm they were dispatched . Feral cats can and will decimate songbird populations. A guy i worked with a number of years back found out what happens when you shoot a dog . He got caught and lost in court,was sentenced to county lock up. I think he got 6 months. He then lost a very good paying job, because he was not at work. Then he had a fine to pay ,lost firearm privileges ,even though he shot the dog with an arrow. Then he was required to talk at hunter safety classes for a couple years on the right way to handle the situation . Needless to say right or wrong what i experienced growing up in the country ,won,t pass muster in this day and age.
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Post by rambler on Mar 14, 2018 18:09:58 GMT -5
I like cats and dogs. I like pretty much all animals. But wild/feral domestic animals are a whole different animal, so to speak. It's cruel for domestic animals to be thrown into the wild and in turn hard on the indigenous animals. They upset the apple cart.
If a feral cat or dog dies in the woods and no one knows about it, I guess it didn't happen. By feral I mean flea bitten mangy rag tag no collar havin' nasty diseased animal. Society benefits from they're removal.
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Post by edge on Mar 15, 2018 17:58:53 GMT -5
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Post by wilmsmeyer on Apr 1, 2018 7:46:19 GMT -5
Identifying a feral cat is probably the biggest challenge. 4 miles from the closest home snaggled with burdocks with a baby robin in its mouth? Probably feral. A cat that strayed from home a few hundred yds? Had a collar concealed by fluffy fur. Probably not. Localities need to define parameters of being feral. Maybe a cat on your property that is not yours would be enough. Or a cat seen on state land. I live in one of those transition zones where there's enough room to let your cat out but neighbors close enough to have issues. We keep them inside. Out here cats are also mainstays in dairy barns where they keep rodents in the barns at bay. Tools if you will. Some of them end up in the woods going wild. Only way is keeping the ones you don't want killed is keeping them under control.
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