Cheers for Rescue Group
Lynn Cuny and Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation, featured in your April issue, are so admirable for their dedicated work with wild cats who have been mistreated and need to be released into the wild. However, I disagree with the legistlation they're trying to push through to stop people from keeping wild cats as pets. Without the right to private wild cat ownership, we wouldn't have such beautiful breeds as you have featured in CAT FANCY as the Savannah, Bengal and Chausie.
Private wild-cat ownership also provides seriously endangered species with some of their best chances of perservation. There aren't enough in zoos to provide the genetic diversity needed to sustain them. Certainly, they don't belong in apartments, but in appropriate situations, private ownership of wild cats isn't always a detriment.
If a total ban on the ownership of wild cats were passed, there would be no need for Wildlife Rescue and Rehabiliation, just as if all the feral cats in my state were rounded up and euthanized, there would be no need for my work. I'd rather there were a need for my work, instead! Nobody wants these precious cats in the wrong hands, but a blanket legislation making it illegal for anybody to privately own a wild cat would ba a step in the wrong direction.
Jessica Sylvester
Via e-mail
Foreclosure Cats
Thank you for your article of the Foreclosure Cats in the April issue. The group's most recent project is the Factory Cats — about 40 cats and kittens were rescued last year from an abandoned factory outside Cincinnati. My husband surprised me for Christmas with two Factory Cats, Lefty and Harry (formerly Pancho), two mischevious yellow tabbies. Lefty had a broken paw and was the first cat the group rescued. Harry is his friendly brother who helps shy Lefty become more social and helps him get into trouble. We love having them as part of our family and we salute the great work the group is doing for cats in the Cincinnati area.
Rebecca Monarchi
Via e-mail
Kitten Issue
With kitten season bearing down, it was good to see the April issue of CAT FANCY featuring advice and help with the guardianship of a new kitten.
Many people, myself included, dedicate their time and energy to the rescue, healing and homing of feral or otherwise homeless kittens (as well as adult animals). I believe I speak for most of us in the rescue community in pointing out one additional element of kitten adoption that was omitted in most of the otherwise helpful articles.
Young kittens should not be adopted as "only pets." These babies need the play skills, comfort and social skill-building that can only come from living with another cat or kitten. We work with adopters to educate them in this regard and do not place one small kitten alone in a home. If there is an existing family cat, that serves the need, although people often return fora second youngster after discovering that the little one is driving a more sedate older cat nuts. Babies need much more play time for good health than the average person understands, and suffer from the lack therof when adopted alone. People are not equipped to supply the many hours of rough and tumble exercise/fun that a second kitten can nor should they assume that role, Exercise aside, the comfort of another animal to a kitten just removed from its littermates is simply humane.
Linda Washburn, Volunteer
The Peter Zippi Memorial Fund
Hermosa Beach, Calif.