[Ag-eq] Chicken Killer!

[Susan Roe]

Hi Nella,

Our county does have a farrel cat program where they catch, fix and release, 
but I don't want all of them back!  The numbers have been as high as 30 back 
when my uncle was feeding I believe every cat in the county, and he was 
spending probably about $250.00 a month on dry and canned foods.  A small 
number of the cats you can put your hands on and the rest, they will only 
come near when you bring food to the barn.  There are even a few that will 
climb my cabin walls outside to my porch roof and look in the bedroom 
windows.

Susan
dogwoodfarm at verizon.net
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <nfoster at extremezone.com>
To: "Agricultural and Equestrean Division List" <ag-eq at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, April 19, 2013 1:15 PM
Subject: Re: [Ag-eq] Chicken Killer!


>
> Hi  Susan:
>
> Sorry to hear about your chickens.  I hope no more cats are able to get 
> in.
>
> Does your county have programs to help spay and nueter the wild cats?
>
> The city of Phoenix doesn't do much about them.  There are some programs 
> to help
> spay and neuter and release again, but that's about all.  The ccounty 
> won't pick
> them up unless they are injured or a threat to people.  You can trap them
> yourself and then take them to animal control, where they will be put 
> down.  I
> think you have to pay to turn them in.  We have enough coyotes in my
> neighborhood that there are no more wild cats.
>
> I wish people would spay and neuter their animals so our country wouldn't 
> have
> these problems.  The last neighborhood I lived in had several wild cats. 
> so a
> couple of neighbors and I trapped them, had them altered and released 
> them.  It
> took us forever to catch one of the females.  We caught some of the cats 2 
> and 3
> times before we finally got her!
>
> Good luck with the cat problem.
>
> Nella
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Quoting Susan Roe <dogwoodfarm at verizon.net>:
>
>> Hi Guys,
>>
>> Thursday morning about 4:00, I was awake and heard my chickens really
>> throwing up a fuss.  Sometimes that is not too unusual because coop 3 has 
>> a
>> rooster who gets fussy when his hens aren't doing what he thinks they 
>> should
>> be doing and when.  So I lay there and listened until one hen was 
>> litterly
>> screeching above the rest and continued until she just faded off.  Matt 
>> was
>> working nights and I couldn't call him because from 4:00 to 4:30 he is 
>> doing
>> phone confrence calls.  I couldn't go back to sleep so I got dressed,
>> checked e-mails until 6:00 and my inside dog and I went downstairs and I
>> called Matt.  He said he was finished for the night and would be home in 
>> 10
>> minutes.
>>
>> By that time my sister was up and asked what were the chickens going on
>> about all night.  Apparently, they also were upset about 1:30 as well. 
>> The
>> outside hounds never barked.
>>
>> Let me also explain something with one of Matt's rules that I don't argue
>> with.  There are no lights around my three coops, so you have to have a
>> flash light to investigate the hen yards and in the coops.  He does not 
>> want
>> us to investigate the chickens at night when he is not home because there 
>> is
>> too grate a chance that the problem is not only a wild animal, but a 
>> rabid
>> one as well.  You have to go inside the coops to check what is going on
>> inside and they are long and narrow, 4 feet by 12 feet by 6 or 7 feet 
>> tall.
>> It is not worth us getting attacked by a wild or rabid animal as they 
>> would
>> feel trapped and we would be between them and the exit.  I love my 
>> chickens,
>> but I would not fair well if I were to be injured from teeth or claws 
>> with
>> me on blood thinners.
>>
>> So, Matt went in through the back of coop 3 first and when he started
>> cussing up a blue streek, I knew something wasn't going to be good.  He 
>> then
>> checked out coop 2 and then to coop 1 which only has 1 little hen.  At 
>> first
>> glance, he couldn't find her in the coop or her outside pen.  He looked
>> closer inside and he said he just had to smile.  She was sitting way up 
>> on
>> top of all the nest boxes as high as she could get.  She looked down at 
>> him
>> as though to say, "What ever it is, it ain't gonna get me!"  Matt then 
>> went
>> and checked out coop 2's pen and then to coop 3.  He started cussing 
>> again
>> and then went off, bringing back a piece of ply board and a hammer.  He
>> nailed the board up against the front of the coop right along the ground.
>> When he finally came back to the porch to get a heavy plastic bag, he 
>> told
>> us there were 2 dead hens.
>>
>> We can't burry the chickens on the property any more because dogs have 
>> dug
>> them up in the past, even when we go deep and put something over them.
>>
>> We believe, but can't prove, it was a farel cat.  Both hens were 
>> parcially
>> eaten, 1 still in the coop and 1 in the yard, front end halfway pulled
>> through a hole that was dug under the coop.  Evidently, they dug up under
>> the back of the coop, and then once they were under the coop, could 
>> easily
>> slip under the front of the coop where the hens like to scratch in the 
>> soft
>> dirt after it rains.  The animal couldn't pull the large hen back the way 
>> it
>> came.  Needless to say, my husband was not a happy camper.
>>
>> This farel cat population is going to have to be thinned again and the 
>> ones
>> we want to keep are going to be fixed.  Any others that come around are 
>> just
>> going to have to go away.  I can't and won't let anyone shoot them, nore
>> will I allow the county to trap them, fix them, and then bring all of 
>> them
>> back.  They classify farrel cats as a part of the natural eco system in
>> which they reside and it would not be a good thing to remove a predator 
>> from
>> the envirement.  I say bolonie, because I'm the one feeding the gang 10
>> scoops of food a day and they are hunting at least rabits as well.  Our 
>> base
>> number of cats, about 8, are the only ones I want to fix and keep.  The 
>> gang
>> has already started having kittens and it is still early!
>>
>> Susan
>> dogwoodfarm at verizon.net
>>
>>
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