Wisconsin 'cat'- tastrophe

In "Shrek 2," whenever Puss-in-Boots was in trouble, he made that ultra cute and adorable face that no one could resist; everyone just stared in awe. Well, in Wisconsin, they would've shot his brains out. \nOutdoor cats in the northern state are going to have to learn to bark if they want to save themselves. In Wisconsin, 72 counties voted and approved a proposal to allow the hunting of free-roaming domestic cats, according to www.MSNBC.com. If the proposal goes on to become law, hunters could be blowing Puss and his friends right out of their boots, sooner than you think. \nBut Wisconsinites think they have a good reason to want to kill cats: songbirds. They would rather have their forests filled with chirps instead of meows. State officials estimate that two million free-roaming cats kill 47 to 139 million songbirds a year in Wisconsin, according to the same MSNBC article. \nBut what happens once these kitties are assassinated? Many hunters eat the animals they kill. So maybe cats will become a new staple on the Wisconsin menu. I'm sure the meat tastes just like chicken. They can even have a cat-cooking fest that will put Wisconsin on the culinary map. \nTaxidermy is another option. Keep a feline forever. \nThe Humane Society of the United States called the proposal cruel and archaic. And it is. Cats are pets, even if the cat that you happen to have a barrel of a rifle against doesn't belong to you. \nI guess hunters are tired of killing the same old deer, skunk, opossum, etc., so they're just looking for something new. Like when married couples get tired of each other and start trying new things in bed. \nWhat I want to know is where state officials got those statistics about songbird deaths at the paws of cats because 47 to 139 million cat-killed birds is a pretty big number. Also, how could there be enough evidence on songbird cadavers to prove that they were killed by cats? \nAnd what about rice? We all know that rice is a major killer of birds, especially on Fridays in June.\nIf this proposal is passed into law, it'll give hunters the power to kill any cat that's outside, so long as it's without a collar. But any hunter could remove the collar of a cat and call it a legal killing. \nA local Wisconsin newspaper recently had one of its stories picked up by The Associated Press on people already starting to hunt domestic cats. A Sheboygan couple's gray tabby cat, Junior, was missing for two weeks until his body was found Monday in a wooded area. The body was found along with the carcasses of other cats. Upon closer examination, the sheriff discovered that Junior and the others were shot in the head, execution style. \nIn all seriousness, there are already laws in place that prohibit the abuse of domestic animals. But for some reason, this rule wouldn't apply to stray cats, even though most of them have "strayed" from their humans. It's a prejudice, a cat prejudice. Everyone knows that cats have been discriminated against for years. \nThe cats of Wisconsin should rise up and fight their oppressors and demand some sort of reparations. Imagine all of the Wisconsin cat refugee camps that would result if hunters got their way. \nCats are not vermin. It's a dumb and inhumane idea that hunters use to legalize the hunting of domesticated felines. Maybe next time they'll try to add squirrels to the list since they're eating up the supply of acorns and stopping new trees from growing. \nAnd songbirds need trees.