"Cats critical to island’s lifestyle..." 'Ali’ilani Kanui' (AKA Kit Ellison)

 Please welcome back friend and  guest-blogger Ali’ilani Kanui AKA Kit Ellison.
Kit and her family love animals, especially feral cats and  have canvassed for a
Ferry system on the Hawaiian Islands for many years.
Kit  is part Hawaiian and  a long time
 resident of Wailua on the Garden Isle of Kaua'i.

Cats critical to island’s lifestyle

For quite a few years dolphins were slaughtered by the dozens by fishermen catching tuna.  Proof of this fact can be seen on any tuna can you can pick up in the store.  If you look at the label you will see a picture of a dolphin in a circle and the words, "Dolphin Free" to denote no dolphin was injured in that catch.  Should we also ban fishing to continuously protect dolphins?  

In 1665 Europe was engulfed in a deep mess due to the fact they slaughtered many cats believed to be "familiar" of witches.  The death toll from the Black (Bubonic) Plague was estimated to be between 25% to 50% because rats and mice carried the fleas that carried the plague.   We live on an Island, illnesses come here from all over the world due to our destination as a tourist heaven, do we really want to chance it or will we learn from history? 

I heard from someone who read an article in the Garden Island of someone wanting to introduce mongooses to our Island to eradicate rats.  Interesting concept except mongoose hunt during the day and rats hunt at night.  What will these mongooses eat?  Birds nest on the ground, have nests with eggs, easy dinner?

About rats and mice: an average rodent is of breeding age at 6 months.  Each female can have 1 to 32 to a litter.  If half are female and breed at 6 months of age in a years time you can have - you do the math.  As you can see cats are an important part of our ecosystem and even if you are an ailurophobe, you can see it is time to leave our feral's alone  Spay, neuter, care for the colonies is the best thing for our Island.

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Aloha, James "Kimo" Rosen---Blogger-n-chief, dakinetalk blog---

Hana Hou, (Encore)