Cats, not poison
Re: “County sends rodents packing,” news, Nov. 26
In addressing the rat infestation in Westchester, I hope the county did not use rat poisons. Those spread throughout the food chain, as has been found with the famous Griffith Park mountain lion.
The best way to deal with rodents is to feed feral cats. A feral cat had a litter next to my house, and when the kittens were two months old I got traps from local rescue groups and trapped them along with mama and three males (the kittens were all female) and had them all fixed. They also had the tips of an ear clipped to identify them as fixed feral cats in accordance with city regulations. Then I let them out and continued feeding them. No more rodents.
This is something that was successfully done at food marts and downtown police stations. They brought in feral cats that were going to be euthanized at shelters. Please fix and feed feral cats. Contrary to some, when the cats are fed they do not hunt birds. I have sparrows eating cat food with cats sleeping close by. This is a humane way to deal with cats and it’s a win-win for both cats and people.
In medieval times, people thought that cats were the devil’s animals and killed them. This, of course, was followed by a plague brought on by over-population of rats.
George E. Turski
Venice
Century City by the Sea?
Re: “Ecological Missteps in Marina del Rey,” letters, Dec. 4
In response to the letter by William Hicks about the indiscriminate cutting down of our beautiful trees, it hurts to see how that’s happening with all the amazing trees we have on Via Marina and Admiralty Way, to mention but a few streets in Marina del Rey.
Our trees give shade and beauty to the walkways of the marina as well as help to clean the already disgusting air we breathe in L.A. When I drive through other affluent areas, such as Beverly Hills and Brentwood, I am aware that those trees are “pruned” and not hacked at in the way that they are here in the marina.
How can we make our voices heard so that cutting down our beautiful trees can be stopped and our marina doesn’t become Century City by the Sea?
Elaine Haber
Marina del Rey
Living next door to a colossus
Re: “Trust in the People,” power to speak, Nov. 20
Kudos to DeDe Audet for her column responding to Laurette Healey’s “Anarchy in Paradise.”
I agree that the Venice Neighborhood Council’s Land Use and Planning Committee plays an important role in keeping our community informed of pending building projects.
As mentioned in the article, the handling of development issues is directly related to the protection of private property rights of the individual. In my experience, Venice needs an active body like the VNC, especially when the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety turns a blind eye and even appears to encourage building abuses (generating more revenue for the city with these mammoth structures).
I have witnessed firsthand a McMansion being erected next door to my home here in the Oxford triangle. McMansions are not built by homeowners who want to expand or remodel their homes. They are built by speculators who buy smaller houses, bulldoze them, and pass off the new colossus as a remodel/addition. These builders’ sole objective is to build the maximum house they can sell for maximum profit.
In my case, no public notice was posted and our side yard setback was reduced. (After my refusal to give a side yard variance, the builder just took it!) LADBS was made aware of each of these violations, and all of it was ignored.
To read the remarks of Ms. Healey stating that the VNC has an indifference toward fundamental responsibilities … which will leave the Venice community feeling demoralized is preposterous. A community will quickly feel demoralized dealing with our current City LADBS. I know I have an ally in VNC. When the city fails us, VNC is there to provide support and advice. What a fantastic resource for our community! It is a safe haven composed of committed members all striving to protect the uniqueness of Venice.
Katherine Conway
Venice
Bring back our sidewalk
Re: “Bring Back the Bar Harbor Walking Path,” letters, Aug. 7
I heartily agree with Mr. Abe Rosenberg’s letter, wherein he argues for an open pedestrian passage through the construction zone at Bar Harbor Apartments. The blue fence along Via Marina has encroached into the sidewalk and narrowed it to where bicycles, tricycles, baby carriages, skateboarders, hand-in-hand lovers and leashed dogs often force us into the street to allow passage.
I think it is reasonable to require that the owners/builders create a fenced corridor along the end of “C” Bay and close it off only when necessary for security or safety.
A worker putting up the blue eyesore fence told me it might be there for three years. That’s what I was told about the building of Esprit Apartments a few years ago. Will it be that half of Marquesas Way’s sidewalks are totally blocked for six years?
Paul Hopkins
Marina del Rey
Tie down that Christmas tree
While driving home at night last year in heavy traffic along Lincoln Boulevard in Marina del Rey I was suddenly confronted by a Christmas tree that had fallen off the roof of a car in front of me. With nowhere to turn to avoid it I was forced to drive over it, sustaining severe and costly damage to my car.
I strongly suggest that if you are going to transport a tree on the roof of your car this season, take the time to tie it down securely!
A. Tunis
Marina del Rey
The myth about cats being good rodent control has been disproved on every island where cats were imported to take care of the imported rodents. Hundreds of years later and there’s nothing but a thriving population of cats and rodents — all the native wildlife on those islands now either extinct or on the brink of extinction — even those native species which are better rodent predators than cats (such as many reptiles and shrews which destroy rodents right in their nests), the cats having destroyed them directly or indirectly.
The rodents reproduce in burrows and holes out of the reach of cats, where they are happy to reproduce forever to entertain cats the rest of their lives, and make your own lives miserable, on into infinity. On top of that, when cats infect rodents with cat’s Toxoplasma gondii parasite, this hijacks the minds of rodents to make the rodents attracted to where cats urinate. http://scitizen.com/neuroscience/parasite-hijacks-the-mind-of-its-host_a-23-509.html
Cats actually attract disease-carrying rodents to where cats are. The cats then contract these diseases on contact with, or being in proximity to, these rodents. Like “The Black Death”, the plague, that is now being transmitted to humans in N. America directly from cats that have contracted it from rodents. Yes, “The Black Death” (the plague) is alive and well today and being spread by people’s cats this time around. Many people have already died from cat-transmitted plague in the USA; all three forms of it transmitted by CATS — septicemic, bubonic, and pneumonic. For a fun read, one of hundreds of cases, Cat-Transmitted Fatal Pneumonic Plague — http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8059908
http://www.abcd-vets.org/Guidelines/Pages/EN-Other-Zoonoses-Feline-Plague.aspx
“Recommendations to avoid zoonotic transmission: Cats are considered the most important domestic animal involved in plague transmission to humans, and in endemic areas, outdoor cats may transmit the infection to their owners or to persons caring for sick cats (veterinarians and veterinary nurses).”
Cats attracting these adult rodents right to them further increasing the cat/rodent/disease density of this happy predator/prey balance. It has been documented many many times. The more cats you have the more rodents and diseases you get. I even proved this to myself when having to rid my lands of hundreds of these vermin cats by shooting and burying every last one of them. A rodent problem started to appear about the same time the cats started to show up, 15 years of it. Then all rodent problems disappeared after every last cat was shot-dead and safely disposed of. All the better NATIVE rodent predators moved back into the area after the cats were dead and gone. Not seen one cat anywhere nor had even one rodent in the house in five years now. (So much for their manipulative, deceptive, and outright lie of the mythical “vacuum effect” too.)
Cats DO NOT get rid of rodents. I don’t care how many centuries that fools will claim that cats keep rodents in-check, they’ll still be wrong all these centuries. Civilizations of humans have come and gone in great cities like Egypt, yet their cats and rodents remain in even greater pestilent numbers.
No cat population anywhere has ever been able to control rodents effectively. But native predators can — easily.
But they just keep deceiving their astoundingly ignorant selves.
You are incorrect! Anyone can quote incorrect information from various sources.
Obviously you have a closed mind, so I won’t waste my time on you.
To those “rescuers” who feel it’s right to let so many cats roam neighborhoods. What about all of the cat poop that these cats leave on lawns and property? There are so many cats in various neighborhoods around here that “owners” let run free, and then you have feral cats running around pooping everywhere. These cats have to go poop somewhere. There are many people who do not have cats. BUT, we have to pick up their really smelly poop on a regular basis. We have children and dogs who do not appreciate this daily inconvenience. Would you like to have to pick up dog poop on your property that is not from YOUR dog everyday? And what about the senior citizens that choose not to have a pet because they cannot take care of them? They have to pick up feces everyday from their yards. This is not just about rodents. It’s about the ridiculous cat population that is getting worse everyday in most neighborhoods. It’s invasive and more than annoying and unfair to those who choose not to have a cat for a pet.