What is your official position on question 62 – to reclassify feral cats as an unprotected species?
Dumb, unnecessary, and a social crime. Cats are not classified as wildlife. They are classified as domestic animals based on their genetic make-up (felis catus) and are protected under state law no matter where they are, what they are doing, and whether someone can see their microchip or not. They are also classified this way to make sure that we as the responsible humans that brought them here do not abdicate our responsibility to care for them and treat them with mutual respect and dignity. They came here to help us keep our farms from getting infested with disease-ridden rodents that also came from lands far away (Norwegian rats and English field mice, for example). 3. What would your agency recommend as an acceptable solution to the issue at hand? First we need to calm everyone down and remind them that they are reacting to Mark Smith’s proposal, not an actual scientifically measured emergency. This was a misinformation campaign loosely based on a report that’s over ten years old,
