The Continuing Mass Extermination of Millions of Cats at Shelters Across the World Heads the List of the Top Ten Cat Stories of 2006

"Life is life whether in a cat, or a dog, or man. There is no difference between a cat or a man. The idea of difference is a human conception for man's own advantage."
-- Sri Aurobindo.

From mass exterminations at shelters, the horrors associated with the creation of clones and designer pets, the emergence of Vogelgrippe as a serious new health threat, the persistent slanders and crimes committed by bird advocates and wildlife proponents, unspeakable acts of cruelty and abuse, the development of invasive surveillance technology that threatens to take away their freedom, the toll exacted from them by both American and Israeli imperialism, and the Chinese's continued slaughter of them as a source of food and clothing, 2006 was another traumatic year for cats all around the world.

A brief recap of these developments and their impact upon cats is presented below.

1.) Mass Slaughters Continue at Shelters.
Tens of millions of cats are rounded up every year all across America and elsewhere in the world and taken to shelters where they are systematically killed upon arrival. Most of them are never offered for adoption and even those that are it is usually only for about three days. No one ever advocates for these cats, which are killed simply because they are either homeless or aged, and they are never given any due process of law. (See photo above of a kitten on death row last autumn at a shelter in Santa Rosa, California.)

Of all the shortcomings of cat advocacy groups, their failure to demand an immediate end to feline genocide is the most egregious. Any advocate or group that will not vociferously campaign for an immediate end to pet euthanasia in all its horrid forms is a complete fraud. The rounding up and killing of cats, dogs, rabbits, and other defenseless animals has mushroomed into a multibillion dollar business that desperately needs to be outlawed.

As a first step toward terminating these atrocities, every animal control officer should be fired and all shelters padlocked. All resources should instead be poured into adoption services and the construction of sanctuaries. (See Cat Defender posts of September 14, 2006 and May 11, 2006 entitled, respectively, "Cat Killing Season Is in Full Swing All Across America as Shelters Ramp Up Their Mass Extermination 'Pogroms' " and "Mass Murderers at SPCA Are Operating an Auschwitz for Cats and Dogs in Lakeland, Florida.")

Often overlooked is the fact that most shelter animals are housed under abominable conditions and that animal rights groups are sometimes complicit in selling them out to the money men. (See Cat Defender posts of August 31, 2006 and March 31, 2006 entitled, respectively, "Animal Control Officer Goes on Drunken Binge and Leaves Four Cats and a Dog to Die of Thirst, Hunger, and Heat at Massachusetts Shelter" and "Idaho Humane Society Lends Its Support to the Demolition of a Derelict Seed Store That Claims the Lives of Dozens of Cats.")

2.) Cat-Cloning Company Closes.

One of the year's few bright spots was Lou Hawthorne's decision in October to shutter his cat-cloning operation, Genetic Savings and Clone, in Sausalito. (See above of him and clones Tabouli and Baba Ganoush.) This decision was, unfortunately, based upon financial as opposed to moral considerations. (See Cat Defender post of October 16, 2006 entitled "Unable to Turn a Profit, California Cat-Cloning Company Goes Out of Business.")

Working in conjunction with the mad scientists at Texas A&M, Genetic Savings and Clone had successfully cloned six domestic cats over the past five years; because of their exorbitant price tags, however, the firm was able to sell only two of them.

CC, the world's first cloned cat, recently gave birth to three healthy kittens. (See forthcoming Cat Defender post of January 5, 2007 entitled "World First Cloned Cat, CC, Finally Gives Birth to Three Healthy Kittens at Age Five.")

3.) Hypoallergenic Cats Created.

Whatever measure of satisfaction that cat-lovers derived from the closing of Genetic Savings and Clone was tempered by San Diego-based Allerca's announcement that it has created several hypoallergenic cats including one named Joshua. (See photo on the left.) Allegedly created by selectively breeding a large number of American and English Shorthairs, the cats are expected to be available commercially this year. (See Cat Defender posts of July 10, 2006 and October 10, 2006 entitled, respectively, "More Devilry from Scientific Community as California Company Creates World's First Hypoallergenic Cat" and "Dodgy Allerca and Dishonest CBS Join Forces to Market an Allergy-Free Cat Named Joshua to a Gullible Public.")

Although it remains to be seen if the public will pony up Allerca's asking price of $5,000 per cat, inexpensive alternatives already exist in the form of Cornish Rexes, Devon Rexes, Siberians, and Maine Coons which come from nature almost allergy-free. Moreover, purchasing one of these breeds takes away the incentive for purveyors of designer pets to torture and kill cats for profit.

4.) Vogelgrippe Kills Several Cats.

Vogelgrippe emerged in the early months of 2006 as a new and serious threat to feline health when at least three cats succumbed to the virus on Deutschland's Ruegen Insel. It is believed that the cats contracted the deadly disease either by eating contaminated birds or by coming in contact with chicken manure that had been spread on fields by farmers.

Despite the fact that there is not a scintilla of evidence that the disease can be spread from cats to humans, the outbreak prompted many panicky owners in Deutschland, Austria, France, and elsewhere in Europe to dump their cats at shelters (See photo above of cats at Arche Noah in Graz, Austria) which in turn led to countless totally healthy cats being unjustly killed. (See Cat Defender posts of March 8, 2006 and March 17, 2006 entitled, respectively, "Vogelgrippe Claims the Life of a 'Kater' on Deutschland's Ruegen 'Islet.' Could Humans Be Next?" and "Two More Cats and a 'Steinmarder' Die of Vogelgrippe on 'Insel' Ruegen Prompting Panicky Owners to Abandon Felines at Shelters.")

Due to either the scientific community's ineptitude or lack of candor, it is impossible to gauge just how serious a threat Vogelgrippe is to both felines and humans.

5.) Bird Lovers Continue to Kill Cats.
Cats all over the world continue to be victimized by evil, unscrupulous bird lovers. In November, Galveston bird lover Jim Stevenson (See mug shot below) was finally apprehended after he had bragged for years on his website that he had shot and killed hundreds of cats. (See Cat Defender post of November 22, 2006 entitled "Evil Galveston Bird Lover Is Finally Arrested After Having Gunned Down Hundreds of Cats.")

In Islip on Long Island, Richard DeSantis was arrested in June after he was caught trapping his neighbors' cats and then turning them over to shelters to exterminate. (See Cat Defender post of June 15, 2006 entitled "Serial Cat Killer on Long Island Traps Neighbors' Cats and Then Gives Them to Shelter to Exterminate.")

Later in the year, Robert and Debbie McCallum of Edmonds, Washington were also caught doing the same thing to their neighbor's cat. (See Cat Defender post of October 30, 2006 entitled "Collar Saves Cat Named Turbo from Extermination After He Is Illegally Trapped by Bird-Loving Psychopaths.")

As badly as cats are treated by bird advocates in this country, they are treated far worse in certain foreign lands. In South Africa, for instance, Les Underhill (See photo below) has made it his mission in life to malign and exterminate as many cats as he can. (See Cat Defender posts of March 23, 2006 and April 27, 2006 entitled, respectively, "South Africans, Supported by Ailurophobic PETA, Are Slaughtering More Cats on Robben Island" and "Cat-Hating Monster Les Underhill and Moneygrubbing Robben Island Museum Resume Slaughtering Cats in South Africa.")

Not content with killing all feral cats (as well as horses, donkeys, goats, et cetera) on the mainland, the imperialists in Australia have expanded their extermination pogrom to Macquarie. This time around, however, they have outsmarted themselves because the demise of the cats has led to a huge increase in both the rodent and rabbit populations which are now wreaking havoc with shorebirds and the island's vegetation. This is another prime example of how moral and intellectual bankruptcy go hand and glove. (See Cat Defender post of September 21, 2006 entitled "Aussies' Mass Extermination of Cats Opens the Door for Mice and Rabbits to Wreak Havoc on Macquaire.")

What all of these cat-hating bird advocates have in common is a total lack of integrity and a profound propensity to resort to violence. Like mad dogs frothing at the mouth, they are totally incapable of distinguishing either right from wrong or truth from fantasy. As such, they content themselves by goose-stepping to the drumbeat of their own megalomania.

The capacity of these individuals and groups to do evil is not to be underestimated, however; their warped thinking in no way makes them any less formidable. The task for all cat advocates is to first identify these criminals, publicize their crimes, and to work for their incarceration and removal from society.

6.) Wildlife Proponents Also Attacking Cats.

Second only to bird lovers in the degree of their ailurophobia, wildlife proponents have emerged as a serious threat to the welfare of felines. Leading the charge is UC-Davis' Pat Conrad (See photo on the left) who back in February called for the roundup and extermination of all feral cats allegedly because a parasite found in their feces, toxoplasma gondii, is being washed into the Pacific and thus killing sea otters. (See Cat Defender post of March 3, 2006 entitled "Cat-Hating Professor at UC-Davis and the BBC Call for the Extermination of 78 Million Feral Felines.")

Considering all the industrial, farm, and residential pollution that is being routinely dumped into the seas as well as the toll that CO2 emissions and naval sonar are taking on marine life, it is remarkable not only that any creature is able to survive in such a contaminated environment but that Conrad would have the audacity to blame cats exclusively for the decline in sea otters. She and other wildlife proponents are also being hypocritical in that wildlife excrement is a major pulluter of inland streams such as the Potomac and Anacostia rivers. (See Washington Post, September 29, 2006, "Wildlife Waste Is Major Water Pulluter, Studies Show.")

Another phony-baloney academic with a grudge against cats is Paul Klawinski (See mug shot below), a herpetologist at William Jewel College, who argues that cats are no better than rats and as such should be exterminated. (See Cat Defender post of May 16, 2006 entitled "Kansas City Vets Break Ranks with AVMA to Defend Cats Against Bird Advocates, Wildlife Proponents, and Exterminators.")

Every time Klawinski, Conrad, and Underhill open their traps they demonstrate writ large not only their utter stupidity but also their total unsuitability to hold any position of influence. Of course, academic standards and ethics have always been extremely lax in the universities; making money, the buffeting of egos, seducing students, and doing evil have always trumped all loftier considerations.

In Washington State, wildlife officials have refused to lift a finger in order to protect cats and dogs who have been killed in their own backyards by invading raccoons and coyotes. (See Cat Defender posts of August 28, 2006 and October 2, 2006 entitled, respectively, "Marauding Pack of Vicious Raccoons Rip Ten House Cats to Shreds and Terrorize Residents but Wildlife Officials Refuse to Intervene" and "Coyotes, Cheered on by Wildlife Officials, Join Raccoons in Killing Cats and Dogs in Washington State.") While development should not be permitted in wildlife habitats, animals who invade existing residential areas in order to prey upon domestic pets should be humanely relocated elsewhere.

7.) Cruelty to Cats Increases.
In addition to those individuals and groups who actively propagate an anti-cat agenda, there are a considerable number of people who simply hate the sight of cats and as such are not the least bit hesitant about doing them harm. A good case in point is Peter Landrith (See photo below) who last year got away with stomping to death a fourteen-year-old declawed and arthritic cat named Luke. (See Cat Defender post of January 17, 2006 entitled "Loony Virginia Judge Lets Career Criminal Go Free After He Stomps to Death a Fourteen-Year-Old Arthritic Cat.")

In the Atlantic City suburb of Pleasantville, a group of teens beat up and burned to death a kitten while in Kingsville, Texas a kitten named Zoe had her ears cut off. (See Cat Defender posts of October 5, 2006 and October 27, 2006 entitled, respectively, "New Jersey Teens' Idea of Fun: Beat Up a Defenseless Kitten and Then Burn It to Death" and "Tiny Kitten Named Zoe Has Her Ears Cut Off by Fiends but Texas Police Do Not Seem to Care.")

Outside Charlottesville, Virginia, a used car dealer shot and killed a cat named Carmen all because he allegedly once spotted her on top of one of his old jalopies and in Boca Raton, Florida a tiny kitten was horribly killed when he was run through a wood chipper. (See Cat Defender posts of June 22, 2006 and July 13, 2006 entitled, respectively, "Used Car Dealer in Virginia Murders Sweet Three-Year-Old Cat Named Carmen with Rifle Shot to the Neck" and "Heroic Little Kitten, Fiendishly Run Through a Wood Chipper by Some Devil, Loses His Nineteen-Day Struggle to Live.")

For a country that prides itself on its culture and civility, an astonishingly high number of gruesome attacks upon cats are reported each year in Old Blighty. In fact, seldom a day passes without one or more stories appearing in the English press about cats either being horribly abused or killed. A good case in point was the recent murder of a twelve-year-old cat named Tigger from the London suburb of New Addington by fireworks during Guy Fawkes Day celebrations. Another cat named Sid from the Edinburgh suburb of Granton was also severely burned when fireworks were tapped to his tiny body. (See Cat Defender post of November 30, 2006 entitled "Yobs Celebrating Guy Fawkes Day Kill Twelve-Year-Old Cat Named Tigger with Fireworks; Cat Named Sid Is Severely Burned.")

8.) Surveillance Society Impacting on Cats.
The old saying that "as the animals go so goes man" is particularly true in the case of the encroachments being made daily by the surveillance society. The past year has seen numerous communities pass laws that, inter alia, require cats to be microchipped, sterilized, and licensed. Other municipalities have enacted anti-roaming and leash laws as well as restricted the number of cats that a person may own.

Although implanted microchips have helped to reunite numerous cats, such as Plato (See photo below), with their owners, RFID technology has its limitations. (See Cat Defender posts of May 25, 2006 and June 12, 2006 entitled, respectively, "Plato's Misadventures Expose the Pitfalls of RFID Technology as Applied to Cats" and "Given Up for Dead, Sneakers Is Reunited with His Owner After Having Gone AWOL Ten-Years Ago.")

More alarmingly is the unholy alliance that has developed between the scientific community and certain animal rights groups, particularly the World Wildlife Fund, to trap and tag all species of animals. Contrary to their often repeated lies, trapping and tagging has absolutely nothing to do with conservation.

In addition to securing a treasure trove of welfare money for their bogus research, these individuals and groups aim to make guinea pigs of all creation. Ultimately, this will allow them to decide which species survive and under what circumstances. Once these fascists polish off the animal kingdom they can be counted on to train their sights on man. (See Cat Defender post of May 4, 2006 entitled "Scientific Community's Use of High-Tech Surveillance Is Aimed at Subjugating, Not Saving, the Animals.")

9.) United States Military Declares War on Cats.
The Iraqis and Afghanis are not the only ones bearing the brunt of the jackboot of Yankee imperialism. Au contraire, Sergeant Robbie Crumpton (See photo below of him baiting a trap) heads a team of dedicated cat-killers charged with eradicating all cats from the more than one-thousand foreign bases that America maintains around the world as well as its six-thousand domestic installations. (See Cat Defender post of November 14, 2006 entitled "Military Killing Cats and Dogs by the Tens of Thousands as Imperialistic America Attempts to Conquer the World.")

The Yanks' partner in crime, Israel, slaughtered thousands of domestic animals, livestock, and marine life during its illegal invasion of Lebanon last summer. (See Cat Defender posts of August 10, 2006 and October 12, 2006 entitled, respectively, "Death Toll Mounts for Cats and Other Animals Slaughtered and Left Homeless in Lebanon by Israeli War Criminals" and "A Few Hundred Cats and Dogs Are Airlifted Out of Lebanon but Cluster Bombs and an Oil Slick Continue to Kill Animals and Marine Life.")

10.) Chinese Killing Cats for Food and Fur.
Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose. In Shanghai, cats are still being rounded up on the streets and killed with their flesh being sold as mutton and their fur turned into wearing apparel. In Guangzhou (See photo below), eating cat meat is considered to be a delicacy. (See Cat Defender post of February 8, 2006 entitled "Stray Cats Rounded Up in Shanghai, Butchered, and Sold as Mutton in Restaurants and on the Street.")

Later in the year, dogs were slaughtered up by the thousands in Beijing and other cities in reaction to a rabies' scare. (See Cat Defender post of November 14, 2006 entitled "Military Killing Cats and Dogs by the Tens of Thousands as Imperialistic America Attempts to Conquer the World.")

Certain breeds, such as Saint Bernards, are also routinely raised for human consumption. The fact that hunger and malnutrition have always been endemic to Chinese society does not make the eating of cats and dogs any less barbaric.

Photos: Jeff Kan Lee of the Press Democrat (kitten on death row at Santa Rosa shelter), Center for Genetics and Society (Low Hawthorne and clones), CBS-TV (Joshua), Associated Press (Arche Noah in Graz, Austria), Galveston Police Department (Jim Stevenson), University of Cape Town (Les Underhill), UC-Davis (Pat Conrad), Kansas City Star (Paul Klawinski), www.leesburg2day.com (Peter Landrith), Oregon Humane Society (Plato), Jason Tudor of the United States Air Force (Robbie Crumpton), and Asian Animal Protection Network ( Guangzhou market).