Why you should leave cats alone

Some folks down in Cape May, NJ (home of the Winter Getaway) thought it would be a good idea to relocate a colony of feral cats. Now, they are beset by skunks. From the AC Press:

McGlade has run the oceanfront eatery next to Cape May Convention Hall for 28 years, and never before had a major skunk problem. There have been a few over the years, she said, and every once in a while a whiff or two of their presence is noticed, but recently they have become more numerous and very brazen.

“One was heading into the restaurant when a waitress gently guided it out the door. We believe they live under Convention Hall. There’s definitely more than one family there,” McGlade said.

One theory is that the relocation of a feral cat colony under Convention Hall created a vacany for the skunks. The state and federal governments pushed the city to move the cats off the beachfront because of concerns they could kill endangered beach-nesting birds, including the piping plover.

Animal Control Officer John Queenan said he has gotten very few calls about skunks on the beachfront in his 23 years of working in the city but that suddenly he is being inundated with such calls. Queenan said he relocated the feral cats to the Cape May Harbor area in February, and he began receiving skunk complaints this summer.

“Nature takes its own course. One species in eradicated and another comes in,” Queenan said.

Feral cats gone, Cape May now as a problem of a different stripe

I only found two typos in the excerpt, so the Press’s editorial department is definitely holding the line.

I like that quote from Queenan about one species being eradicated. What is he, Davros or something?

And those piping plovers need to learn to fend for themselves.