cat

Remember when the US Government would declare war on our enemies, instead of cats?

Good times….

Via Daily Signal.

An overzealous federal agency is targeting Florida cats in a pest removal operation and it’s becoming a huge problem for pet owners….

In 2014, the Fish and Wildlife Service implemented a pest management plandesigned to trap cats that the agency perceived as a threat to the Key Largo woodrat. The furry targets of this sting operation were accused of trespassing on federal land, which is a woodrat habitat, and doing what cats do best: hunt and kill rats.

Instead of focusing only on the large swaths of feral cats that pose the primary threat to the rats’ survival on the island, the Fish and Wildlife Service went overboard. Resident cat owners complained that agents set baited traps adjacent to the private property of the owners who live next to the federal park.

Then, Fish and Wildlife Service agents trapped Rocky, a pet cat to Spencer Slate, a Key Largo businessman who runs a scuba diving center. According to Slate, the traps “were all about 50 feet from [his] property” when Rocky was lured in one night. As a result, Slate said that “Rocky’s face was so bloodied by the trap’s spring-shut door that he did not recognize his pet.”

Slate discovered this after a Fish and Wildlife Service agent showed up at his business to serve him with a written citation threatening jail time for allegedly allowing Rocky to enter federal land. When delivering the citation, the agent neglected to return the captive kitten, instead depositing Rocky at an animal shelter nearly 15 miles away.

In the face of agency abuse, Slate refused to roll over, taking his case to a federal judge who dismissed the citation after the scuba captain demonstrated that the Fish and Wildlife Service had set the trap that captured Rocky outside of federal land….

One would hope that after Slate exposed this injustice in court, the government would start leaving pets and their owners alone, but this is not the only example of federal regulation of domestic animals.

For instance, it is a crime to “allow” a pet to make a noise “that frightens wildlife” on land administered by the National Park Service. It is also a crime to walk your dog in a national park on a 7-foot leash, 36 CFR § 2.15(a)(2) and 36 CFR § 1.3. Keep Lassie close or she could put her owner in the slammer….

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4 Comments | Leave a comment
  1. David_in_Dallas says:

    OMG! My dog barked at the bison in the Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Oklahoma. Does that mean he committed a federal crime?

  2. mdannyg says:

    In a sane world, we would be setting the traps for the Key Largo Woodrats.

  3. Maynard says:

    In other words, Obama grabbed Florida by the pussy.

  4. Alain41 says:

    The Cat in the Trap, by Dr. Seuxx.

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