Originally posted by Roller
Personally I don't see what is wrong with killing them, or spraying/neutering them. In some places the consequences of not neutering cats goes beyond more cats that nobody wants, and cats can become a real feral pest. Many wildlife parks in Aus spend thousands of dollars a year on trapping feral cats because large populations of them can do huge damage to many ecosystems and wipe out populations of native animals. In this case it's pretty naive to let cats roam around unsterilised, as it doesn't take much to do a lot of ecological damage. I don't think the act of neutering has any effect on the animal other than hormonal, we neuter close to 4,000 sheep a year and they are still perfectly able to live their lives.

Like I said, I also don't think there is anything wrong with killing kittens, but this doesn't mean I run around with an evil grin on my face abducting people's cats, torturing them and then clubbing them to death. IF it is quick and painless, then I don't have a problem with it, and see no difference between that and killing cattle or sheep to get meat on the dinner-table. I think that you might be a vegetarian, Courtney so obviously you'd have a different opion on that. At home when I was a kid we once found a heap of feral kittens in one of our sheds and we had to break their necks rather than let them go feral, which was a bit sad but quick and painless.
Okay, I'm not gonna "fire and brimstone" you, Roller, because quite frankly, I see where you're coming from.

However, already in one country (China), HUMAN babies are killed at birth, due to the overpopulation problems there. Now, you may say that there's a massive difference between killing animals at birth, and killing humans at birth, but me? I don't think the gap is actually that large. If people are willing to kill animals at birth to solve overpopulation and ecological issues, then I don't think that it's that much of a leap to do the same to humans... and, like I said, this is already happening.

Now, while I agree with you that animals such as cats cannot be allowed to roam wild unsterilised, I just think that killing them is NOT the right answer. If sterilisation is available, that is a far more viable alternative: sure, the sterilised cats may kill other animals during their lifetime, but the actual harm they could cause would be exponentially less, due to their inability to breed.

You say that wildlife parks in Oz spend shitloads each year catching and killing feral cats. I believe you. However, why do you think they kill them and not sterilise them? Simple.

It's all about money. They just don't want to shell out to have the operation necessary to sterilise the (I am assuming) huge volume of cats they catch. Most likely, cheap as these operations may be, it's cheaper to just kill them instead.

Killing animals for food I am okay with. I like my steak as much as (actually, a HELL of a lot more than) most people.

But when you're killing animals simply to save money? That, mein freund, is where I draw my line in the sand.