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lver and his co authors resort to the kind of misrepresentation misdirection and outright gaslighting we ve come to expect read more never let the evidence get in the way of what you know 4 oct 2022 there is a kind of certainty that comes from having thoroughly investigated a problem prodding and poking at it from every angle taking into careful consideration all possible explanations and there s the kind that comes from not knowing what the hell you re talking about this story falls into the latter category read more unnatural selection 25 mar 2022 in a study recently published in biological conservation daniel herrera and his co authors report that predation by cats is greatest where supplemental food is most abundant and that native species are at greatest risk in areas closer to forest edges as a result they recommend the implementation of cat exclusionary buffer zones around urban forests a careful look at the authors analysis though raises serious doubts about their sweeping conclusions read more counting cats 18 jan 2021 years ago it was common for media accounts about community cats to remark typically with a tone of some astonishment that a caregiver had a name for every cat in their care for caregivers of course and anybody familiar with tnr this was no surprise at all indeed it would be surprising not to have names for the cats you see on a regular basis for whatever reason i don t see this element included in news stories anymore it s not because caregivers have stopped naming cats though i m sure of that much such frequent close interactions also allow caregivers to track the regulars identify newcomers and note disappearances as a caregiver myself i find this ability to provide a reasonably accurate count of the cats we see regularly often on a daily basis rather unremarkable for some tnr opponents though there is simply no way that such counts can be trusted after all they argue most of us lack the training to provide accurate and reliable population estimates this is apparently what it s come to faced with empirical evidence that poses a direct threat to their dogmatic belief that tnr doesn t work these people have begun to dispute our ability to count cats read more lethal removal of cats backfires again 10 jan 2021 i suppose it is tempting if the only tool you have is a hammer to treat everything as if it were a nail abraham maslow just three months after an intensive culling effort conservationists observed no difference in the area s population of cats nevertheless they describe their campaign as effective arguing that lethal methods could be improved only if they were more intense and continuous non lethal methods it seems never occurred to them read more measures of fitness rejected by tnr opponents 3 jan 2021 analysis of recent bird mortality event seems to confirm earlier research showing that birds killed by cats are generally in poor health read more island conservation wins creative writing award 14 dec 2020 in september 2019 the u s department of interior s office of insular affairs awarded island conservation 244 756 to implement a showcase eco system rehabilitation and restoration project in the unesco designated rock island southern lagoon of palau an archipelago of nearly 450 small islands in the western pacific the focus of the project was to be removing invasive rats from the ngemelis island complex and promote the recovery of seabird populations seven months later the non profit appealed to oia for nearly a quarter million dollars more this time to remove cats from palau s ulong island one would expect such a request to be a detailed account explaining among other things why before even getting underway their original project had so expanded in its scope as to justify a budget twice the size of the original apparently though such rigor is unnecessary perhaps even unwelcome at oia instead a little creativity seems to be the key to winning over the agency s decision makers less than one month after receiving the request the agency awarded island conservation 239 922 to eradicate feral cats in the ulong island area of the rock islands southern lagoon read more cape fear mongering 12 sep 2020 in late 2009 sharon george was struggling to recruit participants for her master s thesis a student in the university of cape town s conservation biology program at the time george was studying the hunting habits of suburban cape town s pet cats although she d distributed 600 questionnaires only 32 had been completed a response rate george describes as very poor in her thesis 1 the project in general was very challenging because of the way many cat owners perceived it the majority of cat owners were unwilling to participate in the study because they felt it was against cats and would lead to extreme measures being taken to control cat numbers 1 it turns out the majority of cat owners were not wrong about that george s results were published online in july as part of a larger study accompanied by a media release pdf warning that the research highlights the need to address the impact of cat predation on cape town s wildlife particularly near protected areas such as the table mountain national park this led not surprisingly to sensational headlines proclaiming 200 000 plus wild animals slaughtered in table mountain national park by cape town cats each year and apocalypse miaow ii keep cats inside property sanparks urges capetonians read more ecological impact and other baseless proclamations 19 apr 2020 it s difficult to imagine now but when i started this blog 10 years ago monday i worried that i d soon run out of material to write about not only is there no shortage of material but these days when facts are up for grabs and media accounts are prone to false equivalencies cultivated in the name of balance vox felina s mission seems more urgent than ever something else that hasn t changed over the past 10 years the protectionist practices of editors green lighting the publication of badly flawed research perhaps it s oddly appropriate then that the impetus for this post is the same one that prompted the blog s inaugural post and indeed the blog itself once again my response to an article was quickly rejected by a journal authors of the article which was published recently in animal conservation boldly claim that pet cats around the world have an ecological impact greater than native predators but concentrated within 100 m of their homes read more ignoring its own data noaa fisheries ramps up campaign against cats 24 feb 2020 photo noaa fisheries earlier this week the national oceanic and atmospheric administration s fisheries office posted a story on its website warning of localized lethal outbreaks of toxoplasmosis among endangered hawaiian monk seals this comes after one seal died as a result of infection with the parasite and another is being treated by noaa fisheries staff in 2018 three others were reported to have died from toxoplasmosis the first documented monk seal death due to toxoplasmosis occurred in 2001 the disease has now killed at least 12 monk seals making it a leading threat to the main hawaiian islands population it s difficult to see how 12 mortalities over nearly 20 years constitutes a leading threat indeed according to noaa fisheries own reports the monk seal population in the main hawaiian islands might actually be at an all time high read more schrödinger s birds 30 sep 2019 it s difficult to imagine now after a banner week of revelations accusation and obfuscations but headlines earlier this month were dominated by dire warnings of a different kind a looming ecological collapse as demonstrated by dramatic declines in north america s birds coverage included stories in the new york times washington post the atlantic national geographic vox scientific american and many other publications according to the reports north american bird populations have declined by about 29 percent since 1970 a loss of roughly 3 billion birds which leaves only about 7 billion birds but just six years ago researchers some of which were also involved in this most recent study published a paper estimating that outdoor cats kill 1 3 4 0 billion birds annually in the contiguous u s alone are we really expected to believe that this one source of mortality estimated only for the lower 48 states remember is responsible for killing more than half of the continent s bird population year in and year out although numerous news accounts have referred to cats as contributors to the declines in bird abundance i ve yet to see one questioning this basic arithmetic see footnote 1 read more bad medicine 22 jan 2019 between 1979 and 2015 more than 13 000 u s veterinarians died at least 398 of them took their own lives which according to recently published research is 2 1 for males to 3 5 for females times higher than the suicide rate nationally those working with companion animals as opposed to say food animals were among veterinarians most likely to die by suicide 1 unfortunately the study provides no breakdown for shelter medicine vets who generally see more killing than any of their colleagues other than perhaps those working with the aforementioned food animals it s not difficult to imagine higher rates of suicides among these veterinarians certainly but let s set that aside for the moment and assume it s no different from the overall rate for companion animal vets what would happen if tnr opponents had their way and the killing of healthy cats increased by a factor of 10 20 or more read more interior desecration 19 dec 2018 referring to a recent report by the union of concerned scientists the los angeles times describes the considerable damage much of it likely to be irreversible done by interior secretary ryan zinke and his minions as evidence of the profound ignorance and brazen corruption that have come to dominate public policy over the past two years among the up is down night is day practices of the trump administration one of the most dangerous and disturbing is its habit of turning america s leading science agencies into hives of anti science policymaking reading the ucs report one can only imagine the number of times the authors must have wanted desperately to use the term train wreck or shit show alas cooler heads prevailed still the message comes through loud and clear beginning with the report s title science under siege at the department of the interior america s health parks and wildlife at risk although government leaders should carefully consider the best available science in their policy making duties argue the ucs authors zinke s doi has instead stifled politically inconvenient research put industry interests ahead of public health and undermined science based rules and regulations the department has established a clear pattern of suppressing science and scientific evidence particularly when they run counter to the interests and priorities of the coal gas and oil industries 1 none of which is news to anybody paying attention for a painful refresher check out the timeline provided in the ucs report which documents no fewer than 40 milestones in the first 21 months of the trump administration still in some corners of doi this monumental disaster would seem to be more a difference of degree than kind u s fish and wildlife service i m looking at you read more magical thinking the gift that keeps on giving 7 dec 2018 when a representative of the oregon department of fish and wildlife proposes apparently in all seriousness that permanent closed catteries are a feasible solution to managing the country s population of unowned free roaming cats a number of questions come to mind what evidence led to such a conclusion how much funding is odfw willing to allocate what is the agency s drug testing policy etc let s start with that first question read more usda s treatment of laboratory cats breed infect kill repeat 13 may 2018 photos from inside usda agricultural research service laboratory courtesy of white coat waste project picture in your mind a venn diagram one circle labeled animal cruelty the other wasted tax dollars the intersection where the two circles overlap is labeled usda toxoplasmosis in cats project that s the visual takeaway from an exposé published earlier this week by the white coat waste project a non profit whose mission is to cut federal spending that hurts animals and americans read more putting the con in the conversation 8 apr 2018 full disclosure i ve listened to hawaii public radio s the conversation exactly once so i m not going to make any broad generalizations here still as an unapologetic public radio junkie i found tuesday s show to be a bit of a train wreck according to the show s website the topic to be discussed was toxoplasmosis the risks posed by outdoor cats and how to manage the situation in fact relatively little attention was paid to the risks either to humans or wildlife and discussion of legitimate management options was avoided almost entirely instead listeners the broadcast is available here were in for a campaign of misinformation and scaremongering fueled by useless factoids including for example a reference to the estimated 14 tons of cat poop deposited annually in hawaii s state parks read more the ends justify the means 26 feb 2018 in a 2011 paper published in the journal of wildlife management jeff horn and his co authors estimate the home range of owned and unowned cats arguing that greater activity levels and ranging behavior suggest unowned cats have a greater potential impact on wildlife than do owned cats our results indicate that feeding and owner care modifies the space use and activity of free roaming cats information that is important for making decisions on controlling cat populations and the potential spread of disease 1 although the authors don t specify which method s of control they consider preferable it s safe to assume tnr is probably off the table consider for example horn s description of cats as invasive and his recommendation that management steps need to be taken in regards to this species despite the social and political controversies that surround it 2 for horn and his co authors and many of their colleagues in the conservation community the management category seems to include almost exclusively lethal methods of course anybody proposing the killing of this country s most common companion animal on an unprecedented scale ought to provide some solid evidence and while we re at it at least one feasible funding mechanism to advance the necessary public policies but a review of horn s data reveals a number of problems raising serious questions about the validity of his conclusions and justification for his recommendations read more next page recent posts birds aren t real the latest evidence the greatest conservation success story you ve never heard of unreliable narrator think piece or magical thinking never let the evidence get in t...