Tourists and Consumers Alike Should Boycott Ireland and Its Exports in Response to Its Extermination of the Homeless Cats on Tory Island

"For the protection of people and other animals that frequent the island, the feral cats were caught and euthanized humanely...As things now stand, the domestic cat population has been neutered and hopefully there won't be too many kittens next year."
-- Sandy Alcorn, Birdwatch Ireland

The egregious crimes committed against cats by bird advocates continue unabated. The latest such outrage was perpetrated by Birdwatch Ireland of Wicklow which in November proudly announced that it had systematically rounded up and exterminated all of the homeless cats on Tory Island. (See photo above of the island.)

Although the killers were quite obviously as pleased as punch with their bloodletting, they were nonetheless cautious so as not to disclose the exact number of cats that they had murdered in cold blood. Even though the island, which is located nine miles off the coast of County Donegal in northwest Ireland, only has a population of around one-hundred-seventy, it is likely that dozens of cats fell victim to the machinations of these latter-day, low-life Nazi degenerates.

The eradication was undertaken ostensibly in order to protect the seasonal Corn Crake (Crex crex) which breeds in meadows and on farms. The birds spend the winter in southeast Africa. (See photo below of two adults and a chick.)

Contrary to reports in the Irish media, the Corn Crake is not an endangered species; rather, it is listed as "Near Threatened" by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources and that is only one level removed from being of "Least Concern." Moreover, it is precisely the spread of modern agriculture in order to feed an ever growing population of meat consumers that is responsible for the birds' decline, not cats. After all, it is estimated that three to four pounds of corn and other grains are required in order to produce one pound of meat.

That line of reasoning is buttressed by the testimony of Josef Reichholf, a biologist with the Munchen Staat Zoo, who told Der Spiegel on November 23, 2007 that "industrial-scale farming is the number one killer of species." (See "Biologists Debate Relocating Imperiled Species.")

Of course, bird advocates and wildlife biologists are such twenty-four karat phonies that they care absolutely nothing about either the species that they are supposedly protecting or Mother Earth. Their only raison d'etre is to defame and kill cats and for Birdwatch Ireland the defenseless and shamelessly abandoned felines on isolated Tory Island were easy pickings.

Moreover, they assumed that nobody would either notice or care about the slaughter. As far as they were concerned the extermination was, in effect, the perfect crime.

As is usually the case with bird advocates, the minds of the exterminators at Birdwatch Ireland are so corroded with hatred and prejudice that they are totally incapable of stringing together two logically consistent statements in a row. For example, after blaming the cats for preying upon Corn Crakes the organization's Sandy Alcorn goes on to accuse them of being a threat to humans and other unspecified species.

"For the protection of people and other animals that frequent the island, the feral cats were caught and euthanized humanely," she proudly bellowed to the Belfast Telegraph on November 27th. (See "Cat Cull on Donegal Island.")

First of all, euthanasia and en masse exterminations are two entirely different matters and disbelievers need only to consult any available English dictionary in order to learn the difference. Secondly, although it is a prejudice as old as the hills, homeless cats are not a threat to people under any circumstances. (See Cat Defender post of October 23, 2009 entitled "Essex Welfare Bum Who Sicced His Dog on Cats and Beat Them with His Cane Is Now Pretending to Be the Victim of an Assault.")

Thirdly, since Corn Crakes are found in abundance not only on Inishbofin Island off the coast of County Galway, the Outer Hebrides in Scotland, and throughout Europe and western Asia as well, it is doubtful that many tourists travel to Tory in order to see them. It therefore seems likely that in addition to a rabid hatred of cats this extermination was undertaken for more mundane economic reasons.

Alcorn and the residents of the island live off of the euros that tourists spend there and for reasons of appearance they do not want outsiders to see how shamelessly they abandon and mistreat cats. Moreover, they know as well as everybody else that it would not take very long for any halfway observant visitor to see through their phony-baloney facade and realize that Tory is not the idyllic community of artists that it is advertised to be.

For example, back in November an Irish court awarded filmmaker Neville Presho sixty-thousand euros after the Ostan Thoraigh Comhlacht Teoranta hotel demolished his six-bedroom home and turned it into a car park while he was away working in New Zealand.

Worst of all, when the police were called in to investigate the theft and land grab they ran headlong into a wall of silence as the island's residents steadfastly refused to cooperate.

Needless to say, any insular community that condones such aberrant behavior is little more than another Pitcairn. (See the Daily Telegraph, November 11, 2009, "Hotel Turned Film Director's Home into a Car Park.")

Not content with merely rounding up and killing Tory's homeless cats, Birdwatch Ireland also has sterilized all domestic cats on the island. "We took photographs of all the pet cats and provided them with collars before we started to catch the feral cats in humane traps and euthanize them," Alcorn explained to the Belfast Telegraph in the article cited supra. "As things now stand, the domestic cat population has been neutered and hopefully there won't be too many kittens next year."

Clearly, Birdwatch Ireland is intent upon eradicating all cats from Tory Island. Next up on its perverse agenda is undoubtedly the interdiction of the importation of cats to the island.

It also is important to bear in mind that in electing to systematically exterminate Tory's homeless cat population, Birdwatch Ireland categorically refused to even consider the numerous humane alternatives available to it. For example, the nests of the Corn Crakes could have been identified and fenced off.

Since they most certainly do not have anything better to do with their time than to defame and kill defenseless cats, the membership of Birdwatch Ireland could have taken turns guarding the birds' nests twenty-four hours a day. A little bit of honest toil just might have sweated out some of the evil that adheres in their clogged pores.

Aromatic defenses, such as those used to keep cats out of flower beds, also could have been employed. Ultrasonic guns, such as the English-made CatWatch, would have been another option.

That nonlethal method of protecting birds from cats is currently being employed in the Hamburg suburb of New Wulmstorf. (See Hamburger Abendblatt, November 21, 2009, "Voegelschutz: Mit Kanonen gegen Katzen.")

The money and time spent defaming and killing the cats also could have been more humanely and productively spent securing homes for them. Finally, as a last resort, a sanctuary could have been established for them on the five-kilometer-long island.

That would have allowed them to live out their lives in their homeland. Nothing short of the shedding of additional feline blood will ever suffice for bird advocates, however.

That none of these humane alternatives were even considered is not surprising in light of the Irish's overall disgraceful treatment of the species. Par exemple, on October 29, 2008, unidentified assailants outside The Old Ship bar at 44 Main Street in Arklow rammed a firecracker down the left ear of a cat named Sparkles and lit the fuse.

The blast blew off the cat's ear and part of her brain. After enduring several weeks of excruciating pain, seizures, and multiple surgeries, the veterinarians treating her elected to end her short, tragic life. (See photo below.)

Not only were the perpetrators of this despicable crime never apprehended but it is doubtful that the authorities even bothered to look for them. (See Cat Defender posts of November 20, 2008 and January 12, 2009 entitled, respectively, "Trusting Domestic Cat Has Her Left Ear Blown Off with a Firecracker by Cretins Outside an Irish Bar" and "Disoriented and Racked with Excruciating Pain, Seizures, and Infections, Sparkles Loses Her Long Struggle to Live.")

Earlier on September 7, 2008, a black and white kitten named Fifi from Limerick was beaten, stabbed, and then hurled to her death against the side of a house by a drunk. (See Cat Defender post of September 18, 2008 entitled "Drunken Brute Beats, Stabs, and Then Hurls Fifi to Her Death Against the Side of a House in Limerick.")

In Dublin, homeless cats living on the grounds of St. James Hospital, the Custom House, shopping centers, and industrial parks are systematically rounded up and slaughtered. Even on some dairy and cattle farms they are treated in the same cavalier fashion.

Since killing cats is now the rage all over the Emerald Isle, clearly the old Irish proverb that cautions individuals to be wary of those who dislike cats is no long en vogue.

Birdwatch Ireland steadfastly refuses to acknowledge it, but the cats it has so ruthlessly murdered on Tory were brought to the island against their will, exploited as mousers and companions, and then cruelly abandoned in order to fend for themselves on a forbidding landscape. Their descendants were born there and therefore had an unequivocal right to live there in perpetuity. In fact, their rights far exceeded those of the seasonal Corn Crakes.

Instead of being killed, they should have been provided with meat, milk, shelter, and veterinary care. If their numbers had become too unmanageable, a trap, neuter, and release program should have been inaugurated.

As far as their predation of birds is concerned, it must be remembered that Corn Crakes also prey upon frogs and insects just as Red Knots feast upon horseshoe crabs at the Jersey Shore. (See Cat Defender post of May 6, 2008 entitled "National Audubon Society Wins the Right for Invasive Species of Shorebirds to Prey Upon Unborn Horseshoe Crabs.")

Based upon the jaundiced reasoning of Birdwatch Ireland, advocates for frogs and insects would be totally justified in eradicating Corn Crakes from Tory in order to protect those species.

Through the commission of their heinous crimes, the inhabitants of Tory thus have joined the ranks of their fellow cat-hating fiends on San Nicolas, Robben, Marion, Macquarie, and a hundred other islands around the world who have killed off millions of defenseless cats. (See Cat Defender posts of June 27, 2008, March 23, 2007, and September 21, 2006 entitled, respectively, "United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the Navy Hatch a Diabolical Plan to Gun Down Two-Hundred Cats on San Nicolas Island," "Bird Lovers in South Africa Break Out the Champagne to Celebrate the Merciless Gunning Down of the Last of Robben Island's Cats," and "Aussies' Mass Extermination of Cats Opens the Door for Mice and Rabbits to Wreak Havoc on Macquarie.")

Somehow and some way, Birdwatch Ireland and all those responsible for these en masse eradications must not only be stopped but held accountable in a court of law. Nothing short of an international tribunal established along the lines of the one in Nuernberg which tried the Nazis at the close of World War II will suffice.

Until such a day arrives, it is imperative that all individuals who care about cats not only boycott Tory but all of Ireland and its exports as well. Cat-killers must not be subsidized under any circumstances.

It would be better still if the United Nations would take up this matter and impose economic and political sanctions against Ireland and all countries that continue to abuse and kill cats. Unless swift and decisive action is taken, these exterminations are destined to continue.

Photos: Daily Telegraph (Tory Island), Johann Andreas Naumann, Naturgeschichte der Voegel Mitteleuropas via Wikipedia (Corn Crakes), and Belfast Telegraph (Sparkles).