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Comment by anonfornoreason | Hacker News Reader

Or, a feral cat who has been shitting in your planter boxes and eating your birds is fair game. Easy to treat it like a raccoon that decides to live under your porch, there’s no difference.

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To be clear, this particular cat was not feral. But if you’re going to kill an animal, then take responsibility and kill it, don’t just use it for target practice.

While I did electrocute a problem rat one time when I couldn’t think of any way to deter it, it seems very cavalier to shoot a cat or raccoon for the crime of living under a porch. It’s just trying to survive and do it’s thing.

Neighbor had 16k in damage from the raccoon living under porch. Found a screen into crawl space, destroyed water pipes, flooded crawl space and caused extensive water damage to flooring. Gut and remodel bathroom and adjoining wall.

Feral cats are absolutely wrecking bird populations. They are legitimate pests.

Pests are typically defined by species under the law.

Association found between cruelty to animals and violent and psychopath behavior

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/domestic-viole...

Shooting an animal is only "cruelty" in the legal definition. People shoot and trap animals all the time without being psychopaths.

Wisconsin generally allows any land owner to shoot/trap coyote, beaver, fox, raccoon, woodchuck, rabbit, and squirrel.

Any land owner who's attended a hunter's safety course and has purchased a small game license and during the appropriate season. There are exceptions for some pests and farmers as well, but, no, in Wisconsin you can't just shoot animals.

Shooting an animal with ammunition too small to kill it quickly is cruelty. Wounding an animal and failing to track it down and finish it off is cruelty. Shooting when you're not confident you will make the kill is cruelty. These are pretty basic things.

I do agree pellets are mostly cruel for a creature that size since they don’t ensure a clean and quick kill.

You will find that people who grew up on farms or just in the country have a very different definition of "cruelty to animals". Shooting a pest animal is just a Tuesday. Not worth mentioning or remembering. Doing it with the pellet gun instead of the .22 or shotgun is because you were feeling magnanimous that day, or you sold out and moved to the 'burbs but still don't want pests wrecking your stuff, and don't want to risk discharging a real firearm. A cat that you don't have around on purpose very well may qualify as a pest animal. Know how people complain about outdoor cats killing enormous numbers of birds? You got a bird feeder or birdhouse, and a cat is hanging around it, that's a pest animal. Got chickens, or other fowl, same ("how will a cat kill a chicken?" Well, 1. you'd be surprised, and 2. most people keep chicks inside but juvenile chickens exist and tend to live outdoors). Just prefer not to have wild predators spreading disease to your own pets or livestock, same. That it only got a pellet means this is its lucky day. Blame the people who keep breeding more damn cats than the world needs, or assholes who abandon their pets if they decide they don't want them. Listen to Bob Barker, folks.

... that out of the way, there are way too many people who do shoot stuff, and even animals, that they have no reason to and probably shouldn't, for fun. Some may be psychopaths, but I'd bet most are just actual card-carrying morons with poor impulse control. All are best avoided.

I just dug a grave for neighbors dog with my backhoe. He then shot the dog, who was going senile and started to get violent.

I personally would have called out the vet but he’s done it this way, his parents did it this way, his wife’s family has always done it this way.

There are many different ways to live, I am glad people are able to find ones compatible with their worldview, and miraculously we mostly manage to get along.

Or a human who thinks planter boxes are worth more than a living thing. Easy to treat it like subhuman that lives under a bridge, there's no difference.

Isn't the purpose of planter boxes to grow living things?

Plants are living things.

Or a human who is tired of his small children picking up literal cat feces from the feral cat who is pooping in their planters. I would recommend looking up Toxoplasma Gondii.

You can also enjoy this classic comic to help re-align you on how many birds cats kill: https://theoatmeal.com/comics/cats_actually_kill

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