I own and love two cats. Oh, how I wish it wasn't so!

In his beautiful book, A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox writes,

Animals can truly let go and let be...they instruct us in realizing that intensity of living is more important than duration and in this sense they cure us of the platonic prejudice humans have that declares that eternity and length of duration must be the test of the goodness of things.

And there is no doubt that for dog and cat owners, the unvarnished complete acceptance of you as you are is a real gift. When everyone hates me, it seems, I can stroke my cat and receive a joyous purr in response.

But what of the hoard of escaped, gone-wild and born-wild cats in the world. Are they cut from the same cloth? Alas, no, and this is what Ted Williams, writing for Audubon magazine, tells us in his very unsettling article, Felines Fatales (http://audubonmagazine.org/incite/incite0909.html)

"With something like 150 million free-ranging house cats wreaking havoc on our wildlife, the last thing we need is Americans sustaining them in the wild...." - thus starts his careful analysis of what we as Americans - and many similar muddle-headed people around the world  - are doing in sustaining a growing wild population of murderous feral cats.

By fostering a "Trap, Neuter and Return" policy for colonies of wild cats in Hawaii, California, and elsewhere, the authorities are embracing a policy that appeases those to whom A Cat Can Do No Wrong while endangering wildlife to a truly horrible degree. The theory is that "TNR" will lead eventually to the colony dying out. It is failing spectacularly, and all the scientific evidence is that cats are turning into the ultimate lethal predator, the certain doom of yet more rare birds and other animals.

Williams continues, discussing just one island in the Hawaiian chain, Oahu - "On this island alone there are 1,200 people registered as feral cat colony caregivers. And from July 1, 2007, to June 30, 2008, the Hawaiian Humane Society sterilized 2,573 feral cats at no charge for 461 people. That sounds impressive unless you consider that 71 percent to 94 percent of a colony needs to be sterilized before there can even be a decline (provided there's no immigration) and that there are thought to be at least 100,000 feral cats on the island. Moreover, it's nearly as hard to trap cats as it is to herd them, and welfare programs for feral cats encourage the dumping of unwanted pets"

I know from personal experience that there are similar so-called humane cat management initiatives in Puerto Rico, where the shore line is teaming with pretty, if scrawny, cats. I love them too. But supporting the colonies means that we are going to smother the wildlife that was here first.

Unfortunately some "cat lovers" go into Town Hall rant mode when biologists or township officials attempt to introduce any other way of controlling cats. They care nothing for the hyper-endangered birds that cats are mauling and discarding. They shout down any option that means killing the cats. And seem incapable of putting the survival of a species ahead of the fate of an individual feline.

I love my cats. They are neutered and fairly restricted in terms of going outside. But I doubt I will replace them when they pass on to the happy hunting grounds in the sky. And I am ashamed of fellow cat fans who are blind to their faults. But unfortunately this is yet an area where everyone hates the environmentalist.