Open Season on Cats
Judge Milian of the People's Court issued a bonehead decision. She wins Bonehead of the Month, which puts her in the running for Bonehead of the Year. She can relax, though. I'm sure Trump will win Bonehead of the Year hands down.
The case she ruled on revolved around a cat that "accidentally got out of the house," as the sweet little old lady claimed, and jumped into the neighbor's fenced in yard. The neighbor's dog attacked the intruding cat, killing it.
The sweet little old lady, who wasn't so sweet once she began talking, claimed her neighbor owed her a new cat. The dog owner countersued for the almost four hundred bucks he owed in vet bills after the attack.
Judge Milian ruled against the plaintiff saying the neighbor's dog was in its fenced in yard and wasn't roaming free. She then ruled against the neighbor's countersuit saying there are no cat leash laws so the cat was simply another animal in the yard. The plaintiff can't be held any more responsible for her cat jumping in his yard than if a squirrel or raccoon jumped from her yard into his.
Come to think of it, maybe I should take back the Bonehead of the Month award. Judge Milian set a precedence that could be used to justify an open season on cats. Since there are no cat leash laws and Judge Milian ruled that a loose cat is the same as any other wild animal, we have justification to subject cats to a hunting season.
We're all familiar with the hunting season. Various wildlife are legal to hunt at different times and with different weapons. Coyote and nutria are legal to hunt year round in Maryland as is fox in Charles and Dorchester counties. Year round hunting is colloquially known as "open season."
The interesting theme of the hunting season is that, with the exception of the fox, open season targets non-native invasive species that wreak havoc on our environment. (Coyote and nutria are not native species to Maryland.)
Sika elk, however, break the non-native rule. A small species of elk imported from Japan, they are protected on an equal basis to our native white tail deer. Despite the damage sika elk wreak on our tidal marshlands, the elk support a strong hunting economy. Money talks...and saves...when you're an invasive species.
That leaves us the paradox of the fox, a native species. Why would the state allow an open season on the hunting and trapping of fox? The fox is native, belongs here in the web of the ecosystem, and should be protected and regulated as any of our native animals...or so one would think.
No one will probably ever get a straight answer from the Department of Natural Resources on that question. It's doubtful the head of Maryland's Department of Natural Resources, Mark Belton, could tell you which species of animals are native and which ones aren't. A graduate of the US Naval Academy, it's unlikely he ever studied biology or ecology to understand what the bird visiting his backyard feeder is called, if it's native, and how important or detrimental it is to the local ecology.
In all fairness to Mr. Belton, he holds an impressive résumé. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, he majored in political science, served active duty for seven years and reserve duty for another seven. His tour of duty included Kosovo and Baghdad. He also owns a near book length list of agencies and commissions he's served on since leaving the military.
But nothing in his list of experience includes one wildlife management class. One would think that some sort of experience or schooling would be a requirement to be the head honcho of a bureaucracy charged with wildlife management, but politicians and bureaucrats don't need experience. They only need to network with the right people to get those inside jobs that you'll never see advertised on the Maryland Workforce Exchange Board.
We have a regulated hunting season to ensure a continual, healthy population of our favorite native animals. We have open season (year round hunting) on non-native invasive species (coyote and nutria) unless that non-native species looks like Bambi (sika elk). (For my astute readers and any DNR people who may take issue with my claiming Sika are an invasive species, I'll spare you my anecdotal evidence and let you read what the Chesapeake Bay Program suggests and Wide Open Spaces warns.)
In at least two counties, one of our native animals is subject to an open season (fox), which throws a wrench in my explanation of how our DNR works, doesn't it? Not really. Since the DNR show is run by people with little or no experience in wildlife and ecology, three things work against the fox. First, DNR relies on what they are told and since they aren't experts in wildlife management, they enact laws based on what others (experts and non-experts) tell them. Second, fox ranks in the top five as carriers of rabies so that's a good enough reason to regulate their numbers. Third, five major chicken producers (Perdue, Tysons, Mountaire, Allen Family Foods) would love to see a fox-free Delmarva. When the chicken producers talk, politicians bow in subservience.
Judge Milian set the precedence that a cat on the loose is like any other wild animal, singling out the raccoon and squirrel as an example. Our DNR has set a couple of examples of how it regulates wildlife. If the animal is an invasive non-native species, open season is in order unless it generates money for the state. Non-native or not, if the animal is a rabies carrier and/or threatens our chickens (which threatens state revenue), open season is in order.
The cat is a non-native invasive impacting our local wildlife, a top five carrier of rabies (right behind the fox), and will take a chicken faster than a hungry football team at a chicken BBQ fundraiser.
Three strikes. The cat is out.
Still opposed to an open season on cats? This ecological impact statement could change your mind. Americans eat 8.56 billion land animals each year. Cats kill three times that number, up to an estimated 26 billion small animals and birds, yet are only a third of the population of people. But cats don't raise the animals they eat on farms. They take them from the wild.
DNR should act quickly to institute an open season on cats. Left unchecked, the football team might not have enough chicken at the next BBQ fundraising event.
Posted by Five Drunk Rednecks
The case she ruled on revolved around a cat that "accidentally got out of the house," as the sweet little old lady claimed, and jumped into the neighbor's fenced in yard. The neighbor's dog attacked the intruding cat, killing it.
The sweet little old lady, who wasn't so sweet once she began talking, claimed her neighbor owed her a new cat. The dog owner countersued for the almost four hundred bucks he owed in vet bills after the attack.
Judge Milian ruled against the plaintiff saying the neighbor's dog was in its fenced in yard and wasn't roaming free. She then ruled against the neighbor's countersuit saying there are no cat leash laws so the cat was simply another animal in the yard. The plaintiff can't be held any more responsible for her cat jumping in his yard than if a squirrel or raccoon jumped from her yard into his.
Come to think of it, maybe I should take back the Bonehead of the Month award. Judge Milian set a precedence that could be used to justify an open season on cats. Since there are no cat leash laws and Judge Milian ruled that a loose cat is the same as any other wild animal, we have justification to subject cats to a hunting season.
We're all familiar with the hunting season. Various wildlife are legal to hunt at different times and with different weapons. Coyote and nutria are legal to hunt year round in Maryland as is fox in Charles and Dorchester counties. Year round hunting is colloquially known as "open season."
The interesting theme of the hunting season is that, with the exception of the fox, open season targets non-native invasive species that wreak havoc on our environment. (Coyote and nutria are not native species to Maryland.)
Sika elk, however, break the non-native rule. A small species of elk imported from Japan, they are protected on an equal basis to our native white tail deer. Despite the damage sika elk wreak on our tidal marshlands, the elk support a strong hunting economy. Money talks...and saves...when you're an invasive species.
That leaves us the paradox of the fox, a native species. Why would the state allow an open season on the hunting and trapping of fox? The fox is native, belongs here in the web of the ecosystem, and should be protected and regulated as any of our native animals...or so one would think.
No one will probably ever get a straight answer from the Department of Natural Resources on that question. It's doubtful the head of Maryland's Department of Natural Resources, Mark Belton, could tell you which species of animals are native and which ones aren't. A graduate of the US Naval Academy, it's unlikely he ever studied biology or ecology to understand what the bird visiting his backyard feeder is called, if it's native, and how important or detrimental it is to the local ecology.
In all fairness to Mr. Belton, he holds an impressive résumé. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, he majored in political science, served active duty for seven years and reserve duty for another seven. His tour of duty included Kosovo and Baghdad. He also owns a near book length list of agencies and commissions he's served on since leaving the military.
But nothing in his list of experience includes one wildlife management class. One would think that some sort of experience or schooling would be a requirement to be the head honcho of a bureaucracy charged with wildlife management, but politicians and bureaucrats don't need experience. They only need to network with the right people to get those inside jobs that you'll never see advertised on the Maryland Workforce Exchange Board.
We have a regulated hunting season to ensure a continual, healthy population of our favorite native animals. We have open season (year round hunting) on non-native invasive species (coyote and nutria) unless that non-native species looks like Bambi (sika elk). (For my astute readers and any DNR people who may take issue with my claiming Sika are an invasive species, I'll spare you my anecdotal evidence and let you read what the Chesapeake Bay Program suggests and Wide Open Spaces warns.)
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| It doesn't look like a chicken, but I bet it tastes like chicken! |
Judge Milian set the precedence that a cat on the loose is like any other wild animal, singling out the raccoon and squirrel as an example. Our DNR has set a couple of examples of how it regulates wildlife. If the animal is an invasive non-native species, open season is in order unless it generates money for the state. Non-native or not, if the animal is a rabies carrier and/or threatens our chickens (which threatens state revenue), open season is in order.
The cat is a non-native invasive impacting our local wildlife, a top five carrier of rabies (right behind the fox), and will take a chicken faster than a hungry football team at a chicken BBQ fundraiser.
Three strikes. The cat is out.
Still opposed to an open season on cats? This ecological impact statement could change your mind. Americans eat 8.56 billion land animals each year. Cats kill three times that number, up to an estimated 26 billion small animals and birds, yet are only a third of the population of people. But cats don't raise the animals they eat on farms. They take them from the wild.
DNR should act quickly to institute an open season on cats. Left unchecked, the football team might not have enough chicken at the next BBQ fundraising event.
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Posted by Five Drunk Rednecks
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