Israel howling over proposal to deport street cats

[gvstn]

On a quiet Friday evening, as the city settles down for Sabbath, the soundtrack of Jerusalem combines Jewish song and clattering dinner plates with Muslim calls to prayer -- often accompanied by the unholy racket of the city’s enormous population of wild cats going for it.

Peek into the dumpsters? Chances are there’s a cat enjoying some fine dining. Muslim, Christian or Jew? The cats don’t care. They’re in every neighborhood.

So there’s a problem with street cats. (Though this correspondent will attest, it is rare to see a rat).

Israel’s agricultural minister Uri Ariel proposed a solution.

The cats could be deported, he suggested.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/11/02/israel-howling-over-proposal-to-deport-street-cats/

[Wilms]

1. That was quite a story. n/t

[Warpy]

2. Quite a difference from Boston

where the temple one street over sported lots of cans of food left out for the feral cats behind the closed gates.

I guess they appreciated what the cats did about the terrible rat problem. I saw few rats in that part of Beacon Hill. I saw millions of them in the Back Bay.

The main thing that works with feral colonies is trap, neuter, release. Feral cats are working cats and TNR makes sure that there will be fewer kittens to suffer and die on the streets. Cats are very territorial and a neutered cat will defend the territory as well as an entire cat.

[gvstn]

3. I think this is what they are currently doing.

This guy is either trying to save money or he doesn't like cats. The article really didn't say which one. But did say that the cats are keeping rats at bay.

[Warpy]

6. I remember reading a history of the Black Death many years ago

and how the pope started a war against cats as "witch's familiar" animals. That led to a huge rat population explosion and areas where the cat population had been decreased were hit hardest by the plague. I don't remember the attribution but it makes a great deal of sense, the church has always regarded companion animals with suspicion.

Chances are great that he just hates cats.

[gvstn]

9. I just reread the article.

He is unsure of whether sterilization violates Jewish law. So he wants to send one gender of cats to another country to control the population problem.

That is an interesting tidbit on the plague. I guess we just all have to love feral cats.

[TexasBushwhacker]

4. Yes, TNR is the way to go

They will never round up all the cats. They'd be lucky if they caught 50%. They one's that are left will quickly repopulate.

[kelliekat44]

5. Sounds like an undesirable place to live to me. nt

[leftynyc]

14. Then you could say the

same for Greece which has twice the amount of cats I saw in Israel when I was just there. Both countries are beautiful and I would live in either one in a heartbeat.

[WhoIsNumberNone]

7. So. Round them up, dump them on someone else...

Sounds like they've put as much thought into this as what to do with the Palestinians. And when nobody wants them, do you blame the the other countries for not taking them? Do you suppose anyone's suggested sending them to Madagascar?

[Liberal_in_LA]

8. "Ariel was concerned that removing the private parts of cats and dogs may violate Jewish law"

Ariel was concerned that removing the private parts of cats and dogs may violate Jewish law, specifically God’s instruction “to be fruitful and multiply.”

[Arugula Latte]

10. Ya know, several times a day I say to myself:

"Religion is just fucking stupid."

[Warren DeMontague]

12. God gave that instruction to cats?

[Warren DeMontague]

11. it can't be as bad as Greece.

Good fucking God, does Greece have a feral cat problem.

[IcyPeas]

13. Muslim, Christian or Jew?

Peek into the dumpsters? Chances are there’s a cat enjoying some fine dining. Muslim, Christian or Jew? The cats don’t care.

love it!

[MrScorpio]

15. In Turkey, feral cats are revered…

As I would imagine they are in much of the Levant