Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Clearing 500k feral cats from New York’s streets

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 244 posts

Re: Clearing 500k feral cats from New York’s streets

#131

Post by teh_klev »

slily wrote: post #99
technothrasher wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because there's a real danger of losing some of these bird species, and absolutely zero danger of losing domestic cats as a species?

Let's do this. And when we're done killing all the cats and the rat problem becomes worse and somehow the birds don't seem to return to the filthy and noisy concrete jungle with no trees we can just pretend it never happened.

> and the rat problem becomes worse

Cats usually won't tackle rats, this is even mentioned in the article.

Re: Clearing 500k feral cats from New York’s streets

#132

Post by davchana »

fsckboy wrote: post #72
enobrev wrote: post #51

This definitely isn't new. I had an apartment in Bushwick through the 2000s, and due to construction in the surrounding area, the rats on our block and occasionally in our building were huge and relentless. Then my neighbor moved in. She was a pet photographer by trade, but also cared for all the neighborhood cats as well as all the area bodega cats - making sure they all had their shots and were spayed / neutered. S…

> the rats on our block and occasionally in our building were huge and relentless and...? I was hoping to see the rats show up on your comment but you never mentioned them again

Rats didn't show up in comment again because cats came.

Re: Clearing 500k feral cats from New York’s streets

#133

Post by arp242 »

romwell wrote: post #53
morley wrote: post #20

The article is making it seem like trap-neuter-release is a completely new strategy, but groups in NYC and elsewhere have been employing it for a long time. What's new is that Flatbush Cats is building a new vet clinic to provide more spaying / neutering capacity.

NYT seems to be running an anti-cat agenda. This article calls trap-neuter-release (TNR) a "controversial" practice, whereas it's well established and proven to be effective (something even this article says). A few years back, they ran a full-blown frontal assault[1] on Google's volunteer-ran TNR program, gCat, blaming the TNR program (and only the TNR program) for the decline of the local burrowing owl population.…

> NYT made Google kill all cats on Google campus.

NYT didn't "make" Google do anything. They published an article which may or not be correct and then the Google people made their own choices.

Re: Clearing 500k feral cats from New York’s streets

#134

Post by teh_klev »

enobrev wrote: post #51

This definitely isn't new. I had an apartment in Bushwick through the 2000s, and due to construction in the surrounding area, the rats on our block and occasionally in our building were huge and relentless. Then my neighbor moved in. She was a pet photographer by trade, but also cared for all the neighborhood cats as well as all the area bodega cats - making sure they all had their shots and were spayed / neutered. S…

> This definitely isn't new.

This is mentioned in the article.

Re: Clearing 500k feral cats from New York’s streets

#135

Post by arp242 »

stefan_ wrote: post #81
rcpt wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry but you're dreaming of you think that feral cats aren't destroying local bird populations.

Why do I care about the bird population over the cat population? Who's playing god?

Choosing not to do anything is just as much of a choice as choosing to do something, and is "playing God" in equal amount.

Re: Clearing 500k feral cats from New York’s streets

#136

Post by 8note »

elicash wrote: post #106
morley wrote: post #20

The article is making it seem like trap-neuter-release is a completely new strategy, but groups in NYC and elsewhere have been employing it for a long time. What's new is that Flatbush Cats is building a new vet clinic to provide more spaying / neutering capacity.

No it isn't. The article brings up the term about halfway into the article and immediately say it was "first developed in England in the 1950s." This is right before they even define what TNR is! Then they immediately go into what other cities have done on this front.

The 50s is a pretty long time ago by 2020. It's not so recent as it was in the 80s or the 00s

Re: Clearing 500k feral cats from New York’s streets

#137

Post by rossdavidh »

"Popular notions aside, cats rarely attack rats..."

I stopped reading at that point. I have, on numerous occasions, witnessed cats kill rats (sometimes taking a while doing it, mind you, but always finishing the job). I am not usually outside, and I'm sure there's a lot more going on than I see.

I live in a neighborhood that has had feral dogs, then when they went away (because more houses were built, I'm guessing, and there wasn't as much space for them to roam), feral cats moved in. The drop in rat problems was precipitous. When (due to coyotes or cars or whatever) the cat population drops, we get rat problems, and then when we get new feral cats in the neighborhood, they go away.

Now, perhaps Texas rats are smaller than New York City rats, or else Texas cats are bigger than NYC cats, or something, but the idea that "cats rarely attack rats" is laughably incorrect.

Re: Clearing 500k feral cats from New York’s streets

#140

Post by CryptoBanker »

fsckboy wrote: post #72
enobrev wrote: post #51

This definitely isn't new. I had an apartment in Bushwick through the 2000s, and due to construction in the surrounding area, the rats on our block and occasionally in our building were huge and relentless. Then my neighbor moved in. She was a pet photographer by trade, but also cared for all the neighborhood cats as well as all the area bodega cats - making sure they all had their shots and were spayed / neutered. S…

> the rats on our block and occasionally in our building were huge and relentless and...? I was hoping to see the rats show up on your comment but you never mentioned them again

Then his neighbor moved in...
Post reply on HN