URGENT - East Bay Parks killing cats in Oakland, California. If you are a resident of Alameda/Contra Costa Counties, please sign this petition

[roguethecat]

Last year, tax money was used to shoot feral cats in California Regional Parks. Alley Cat Alleys has a petition out to stop them from killing more cats, but it can only be signed by nearby residents.
For anyone else, please contact East Bay Regional Parks by e-mail, mail, phone, or by visiting the Contact Us Form page.
The direct emails for the 7 responsible board members are found here: board members




Please let your friends, family and neighbors know. Let's flood them with emails.

 

[Mr. Meow]

Signed.
Random question - can I take a baseball bat to the people shooting cats? Asking for a friend...

 

[Kat0121]

From the petition:

For residents of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, CA only.

 

[roguethecat]

ok, if people can't sign it, maybe you can email them directly here:
You can contact us by e-mail, mail, phone, or by visiting our Contact Us Form page.

 

[roguethecat]

​

From the petition:

For residents of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, CA only.

thank you for pointing this out - I've edited the original post accordingly!

 

[Mr. Meow]

I'll send an email or make a call

Edit: I'm writing a very lengthy, sometimes non-friendly email which I will post here, in it's entirety, as soon as I'm done.

 

[roguethecat]

Thank you for that. I'm all for the baseball bat option, although strangling seems more satisfactory.

 

[Mr. Meow]

Here is my email to all 7 board members, along with the interm General Manager, in its entirety, along with the 4 photos I sent of Captain Jack:

"Good afternoon board members, I hope this email finds you well.
My name is Adam and I am from Cincinnati Ohio. I frequent an online forum that promotes the wellness and safety of ALL cats, both those with homes and those without. I understand that there is already a proposal in place to allow staff to shoot feral cats in the middle of the night. I also understand that there is another proposal coming up that you'll be voting on, that also includes lethal harm to ferals. I'm here to ask that you reject ALL proposals that include any killing of any cats.
Most of you seem well educated, so please allow me to inform you of what hangs in the balance because of your votes.
First and most importantly, what's most threatened by your vote is a bunch of LIVES. Feral cats are living, breathing, intelligent animals who can feel pain. Just because they don't have a home, doesn't make them any different from the pets you have at home. They didn't ask to be born. They didn't ask to not have a home. They didn't ask to struggle for survival and not have someone love them. But because you see them as "different", you believe it's ok to end their lives. Can you guarantee that not a single cat will suffer, even for a second, because of your votes? Are you going to go out every night and make sure that these staff members aren't enjoying it? Are you going to go out every night and make sure this is done as "humanely" as uninformed people think it is? I doubt it.
Second, I'm not sure if any of you are aware, but there's something called TNR which stands for Trap, Neuter, Return, and it is widely accepted and successful all over the country. Tax dollars could easily be used for that, slowing down the feral population in a more humane and compassionate way. As a bonus, some ferals could even be fostered and placed into forever homes, getting love and attention that they never knew was possible. Your parks could be seen as places of love and second chances, rather than parks of shootings and death.
Finally, I know words do little to sway people who hold positions that can actually make a difference, so let me SHOW you. In this email I've included a picture of one of my 5 special needs cats. His name is Captain Jack. Jack was a stray when he was younger. Just like your policy, someone thought it'd be ok to kill Jack and all of his kitten siblings by crushing them. They succeeded, except...Jack, while motionless, was still alive. Because of this, Jack had to have an eye removed, he's missing whiskers, he's missing teeth on that side of his head and he has permanent brain damage which causes him to walk and run like he's drunk. Every single day I have to clean him off, whether it's from him trying to eat and falling into his food, or because he peed and pooped on himself. He has trouble playing. He has trouble climbing. He falls and hurts himself all the time. All of this, and for what? Because he was born? Because someone decided he wasn't fit to live? Because someone was too lazy, heartless or stupid to take them to a proper shelter?
This is what this policy amounts to. Death because of life. It's cruel and unfair.
I am here, with thousands of other cat lovers behind me, to ask you to find a different way, a more humane way, a way that respects ALL life. Please do not approve any policy that ends innocent cat lives. Find a better way.

Sincerely,

Adam"

 

[catsknowme]

Excellent letter, Mr. Meow! Our wrath is very much warranted especially after realizing how atrocious the park employees acted.
From this article: I-TEAM: East Bay Regional Park Dist. staff admit to shooting cats, policy sparks controversy
"Dunn says her staff at Oakland Animal Services would have helped trap the cats, and that the shelter would have had space for the entire colony until they find homes or placements as working cats."

 

[roguethecat]

update:
From 2018 through 2020 alone, a total of 34 cats were killed, including by gunshot, by the EBRPD and a little-known agency within the United States Department of Agriculture. These cats were killed in multiple regional parks along the San Francisco Bay.

A Fact Finding Report details the work of a “Park District wildlife biologist” on the dates the 13 cats were shot and killed – the first being October 28, and three subsequent nights each roughly a week apart.

On each night, the biologist set traps for the cats on marshland at Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline, purportedly to remove them. On every occasion, he left the traps for only a single day. There is no indication that he communicated with the cats’ caregivers about his activity or that he had any expertise in effective trapping protocols for cats.

When there were, unsurprisingly, no cats in the traps within a day, the biologist pulled out a gun to hunt and kill them in the middle of the night. Four cats on the first night, three on the second, three on the third, and three on the fourth. The killing of cats was of so little consequence to the biologist that he didn’t even record the dates of his second, third, and fourth nights of cat hunting.

Based on the information that was shared, it is clear that the attempt to trap cats by the biologist was half-hearted at best. The biologist would set traps one day, return the next, gun and wading boots in hand, confirm that the traps were empty, and head into the marsh with his loaded 12-gauge shotgun to shoot cats.

The biologist, displaying a shocking lack of understanding about cats and cat behavior, said that there was no reason cats would be in the park other than to hunt. Cat experts can list a dozen reasons other than hunting that might bring a cat to walk and run through a small park found between office buildings and a boat launch area, complete with trash cans and other interesting remnants left by human.

Even if he had been right that the cats were there to hunt, killing should never be a part of any process or approach concerning cats.(Also, what is wrong when cats are hunting rats around trash bins?)

The biologist noted that he placed the bodies of the cats in a plastic bag which he tossed in a trash can. That’s it. No checking to see if the cats were microchipped, no showing of the bodies to colleagues for their review, no colleague with him during trapping or hunting and body disposal.

Just one person out firing a 12-gauge shotgun in the deep of night killing cats and throwing their bodies out. Zero accountability.

 

[catsknowme]

This is absolutely sickening....do you have any links to the information? It is time to get more social media attention on this. There MUST be strict accountability, especially by agents of the government.

 

[roguethecat]

Alley Cat Allies is on it but did not manage any policy change:
East Bay Regional Park District Still Advancing Cat Killing Policy
Take A Closer Look: The Horrifying Number of Cats Killed by EBRPD
Please watch Alley Cat Allies’ new video

any social media attention can help!