Have an issue reguarding wild birds, urgent!

The other day I found a bird that got trapped in a tree, so I called a guy who works in wildlife rehabilitation to get it down and he came in my yard to get the bird. He said the birds leg was broken, and that he would take it for a few days to fix the leg. Then he saw my strays and gave me a lecture about how cats kill so many birds each year. Coming from someone who rehabilitates birds I can see where he is coming from, so I told him they were indoor cats and that they were out as they had ringworm and were being treated outside temporarily, I lied to him but I felt being a bird lover he wont understand about strays.

The guy calls back 2 days later saying the bird is fine and he is going to release it sometimes soon, so I asked him to please call me so I can see the bird released in my yard where it was found, he said he doesnt have time and I stressed how important it was for me to see the bird released. I havent heard from him since.

So searching his name and # I found this article on him. Please read it. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...55C0A9609C8B63

Now, after reading that article, do you get the feeling he lied about the bird being injured just so he can take it away from here being I have cats? He IS a legit wildlife rehabilitator, but what he did to those poor cats is horrible! I believe the bird should be back here it has a mate and babies nearby and if he stole it from here thats not right, but I cant prove it. What should I do? I dont want to cause trouble but im upset about the bird too and what I found out.

I would bring your cats inside after reading that article and thank your lucky stars he only took the bird and not your cats!

Originally Posted by hissy

I would bring your cats inside after reading that article and thank your lucky stars he only took the bird and not your cats!

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Unfortunately, there are people like him out there, and I hear about them all too often. Wildlife rehabbers tend to be anti-cat. There was a woman down in Athens, GA doing the same thing. She'd take their collars off and starve them in the traps for 4/5 days before taking them in to be killed. A guy in TX was all over the papers last year for shooting cats. Not all wildlife rehabbers are like this - but it's a pretty safe generalization to make. The position of The Wildlife Society is: "Cats or Birds: Pick One." If you rehabilitate wildlife and are a member of The Wildlife Society, you get kicked out if you're pro-TNR.

Any way to fence in your yard for the strays? Otherwise, I'd trap them to get them microchipped. No way to claim they're feral if there's a microchip.

All I can say, is thank GOD my ferals are mostly all TNRd with microchips. My Yogi is gone, for over a nine days now. And after reading that article, it brought me to tears wondering if someone like this person trapped Yogi and did something horrible to him. . But if someone took him to be put down then they would have to scan him, I pray. I will probably never know.

I, too, have a neighbor who is a fanatic bird lover. It worries me that maybe he did something to Yogi. I would hope he would not go to that extreme though. I am glad you are sharing this article link about ferals being trapped and euthanized by cat hating bird lovers. It is a huge concern for me now after reading that article.

I am sorry you can't get that bird back and return it to it's mate and babies. That is very sad.

Originally Posted by Feralvr

I, too, have a neighbor who is a fanatic bird lover. It worries me that maybe he did something to Yogi.

I would hope he would not go to that extreme though. I am glad you are sharing this article link about ferals being trapped and euthanized by cat hating bird lovers. It is a huge concern for me now after reading that article.

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Was Yogi microchipped? At our shelter, we scan every incoming animal that isn't obviously viciously feral. Then we make every effort to contact the registered owner. We run into problems where people have changed the contact info to a fictitious name, so we can't find them, and we have problems with people who have not kept their contact information current.

But, if you go back through my messages, you will see that I have repeatedly told people that one of the important reasons to keep your cats indoors is that they have no niche in the ecology and play havoc with songbirds and small mammals. Another main reason is because there are cruel people who know the first reason and see no reason to tolerate them running loose. This is something that we should all consider and act on.

Originally Posted by mrblanche

Was Yogi microchipped? At our shelter, we scan every incoming animal that isn't obviously viciously feral. Then we make every effort to contact the registered owner. We run into problems where people have changed the contact info to a fictitious name, so we can't find them, and we have problems with people who have not kept their contact information current.

But, if you go back through my messages, you will see that I have repeatedly told people that one of the important reasons to keep your cats indoors is that they have no niche in the ecology and play havoc with songbirds and small mammals. Another main reason is because there are cruel people who know the first reason and see no reason to tolerate them running loose. This is something that we should all consider and act on.

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Yogi is a fiercely feral cat whom I trapped and TNRd back in December. And he would be viciously wild if brought into a shelter situation. There was a family of cats living at my neighbor's abandoned home. Yogi was released back outside along with three other cat's that I had TNRd. All of the kittens I found homes for. I feed and care for these feral's. All of the feral cats that get TNRd get a microchip from the organization/rescue in my county. The microchip is registered by this Animal Outreach program. If one of these feral's were to find themselved in the unfortunate situation of the OP's post here, he would not be euthanized, he would be returned to the Outreach program and released into another colony of ferals or a barn.

These are not my own cats, maybe you misunderstand this. I name all of the feral's that I TNR. I strongly enforce indoor only cats as well.

I have seen some cats the shelter is unable to scan, but most are scanned immediately. Some are allowed to calm down.

No, I understood Yogi was a feral who was TNR'd.

Originally Posted by mrblanche

I have seen some cats the shelter is unable to scan, but most are scanned immediately. Some are allowed to calm down.

No, I understood Yogi was a feral who was TNR'd.

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Oh, just wanted to make sure you knew that because I wasn't sure if your remark about your messages to people about keeping cats indoors was directed at me. I strongly believe in keeping my cats indoors away from the many prevalent dangers outside and most people on this board know that about me . Thanks for clarifying.

If Yogi were to get trapped they would have to tranq. him to scan him. He is still missing.

Sorry to the OP about getting off topic these last few posts!!!

Did you ever find out any more information from this guy about the bird? I am sure the bird will be just fine being released elsewhere, but I do not agree with that either.

we need to educate people who have the knee-jerk reaction about cats killing birds. of course it happens, and wherever possible we should keep our cats safe indoors. but i don't think it happens as much as the alarmists say it does.

this guy who came to Jessica's house is a prime example. his heart is in the right place but i guarantee you his facts are wrong. Jessica, how many birds have your cats caught in the past year? there is a tendency to blame cats for every bird death because it is an easy target.

if you aren't familiar with it, please check out the site voxfelina.com, it is one of the few resources out there that challenges the bad science usually behind claims that free-roaming cats are 'decimating' bird populations. invariably the factor that really causes mass killings of birds is human beings.

Originally Posted by jimmylegs

we need to educate people who have the knee-jerk reaction about cats killing birds. of course it happens, and wherever possible we should keep our cats safe indoors. but i don't think it happens as much as the alarmists say it does.

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It doesn't. But The Wildlife Society doesn't care about the fact. If you're reading Vox Felina (which is FABULOUS, BTW), you already know this.

Yes, we need to educate people. But there's no "educating" or debating with people like the guy who stole Jessica's bird from her back yard.

Unfortuently I cannot have the strays in the house. Afterall, if they were living in my house they would be pets, not strays. I do have outdoor houses for them when weather is bad.

None of them are microchipped, but a few have a small ear notch to prove they were part of a feral colony someone is caring for, and I have papers and pictures on them all as proof.

I would hope shelters would wait a certain time if someone tried this, but again some shelters dont always follow the rules, and if someone not in your area traps them, they can bring them anywhere, not necessarily a shelter in your area where you'd look. It's really sad this guy resorted to this, dogs kill wildlife too but you dont see people trapping them or stealing them.

I dont think I will be seeing this guy again, and my neighborhood is congested and there is no way he can trap cats without me seeing him on my property which is small, plus he lives 30 minutes away it would be too much of an inconvenience for him to even try if he is so busy rescuing birds. It was his neighbors cats he caught, so of course that made it easy for him and to have all those birds I bet his property must be huge and he could have waited till night, not small property like my house.

Cats are predators and whether people like it or not (in my area at least) pet and strays cats are everywhere and will never go away, no matter what anyone does i'm sure the birds are aware of the cats and see them as predators and have learned ways to avoid them, birds arent stupid.

My strays dont catch birds anymore. Either the birds in the area learned to avoid them over the years, or the cats got lazy. if birds can learn to avoid hawks and other predators, why not cats?