I won't be able to make the meeting but I have biked this route countless times. A dedicated bike lane especially north of Conway st is very much needed. It would also allow bike lane connections to the cathedral street two-way bike lane

No, Wilhelm Park. But it might be worth checking with them if they'll accept a "city" cat. Maybe my boss will be flexible for short notice. We call him KitKat...at least that's what he answers to.

are you in middle river? we have one we call midnight. so vocal, seems like someone may have abandoned him.

I want to get my own trap, so i can catch when possible; there are more slots on a day to day basis in the baldwin md TNR place.

I'm so glad I rescued the two males in my area, each about a year apart.... there would have been SOOOOO many more kittens....

If you miss the January slots, email them on the first of January. I managed an appt for my little girl. Unfortunately, it is very hard to get appts when you really need. There's a feral young tom I took over feeding but I can't rely on catching him in a trap a month or so from now to get him neutered. He's sweet and sociable, but no touch. He'd probably be a sweetiepie if someone took him in. But 8mo old black toms without house manners aren't popular.

Cats don't do much but cause rats to hide better (so we perceive them as being "gone"), but the rats they do kill may be infected with toxo as toxo causes rats to lose their fear of cats (they become attracted to cat urine).
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/cats-are-surprisingly-ineffective-keeping-urban-rat-populations-check-180970428/

I’ve biked and scootered along this street many times and have felt threatened for my life by cars countless times. When are we going to protect vulnerable road users instead of catering to single occupancy automobile users?

Seriously?

What's really messed up is that the vast majority of people don't know this information.

Their focus is supposedly that it's bad for the cat to stay indoors and that they should be out to freely roam.

When you are dealing with people's emotions reasoning now takes a backseat

Wow! I didn't know that their feces make rats more aggressive. That's really something!

This is also why "working cats" on farms, as encouraged by this article, are a fucking terrible idea. Not only do they attract toxo-infected rodents, the cats then poop toxoplasmosis cysts into the soil. This is why they tell pregnant people to not change litter boxes or eat undercooked meat - cows, goats, etc can pick up toxoplasmosis from the soil and pass it to you, where it will forever live in your brain and potentially deform your newborn. The only vector for toxoplasmosis reproduction is outdoor cats.

Sharp Street along that stretch is a speedway right now as people use otterbein as a shortcut to bypass the harbor. I’m all for this but they need to bring in some speed control along here. I’ve also been told in the past that they were t able to do much on that street (stop signs , speed bumps, etc) because of the federal reserve and the need for the armored cars to have easy access in and out. Not sure if that would impact a bike lane either. Seems like obstacles that can be overcome to make this link.

This article is super disappointing in that, despite the headline, they didn't manage to talk to a single person who isn't pro-TNR, or an ecologist, or anyone who has studied TNR scientifically.

TNR is becoming more popular not because it actually solves the problem with feral cats, but because it is easy and cheap for local governments and looks good to voters. Euthanasia programs are political suicide. But now with TNR, if you've got feral cats on your property, pooping toxoplasmosis into your vegetables, they are officially now your problem. SPCA/BARCS won't take them, they will only spay/neuter/vacc them and dump them back outside. And that's if you trap them and bring them in yourself.

TNR relies on volunteer labor, so of course it's going to fail, but even in studies of managed colonies it didn't result in population decline because there are too many cats roaming around and getting dumped. Allowing and tacitly encouraging feral cat colonies encourages shitheads to dump their cats because they can assume it will survive like all of the other ferals.

Euthanasia is more humane than TNR. TNR is catch->anaesthetize->neuter->dump immediately back into the world with minimal or no post-surgical care->die horribly (generally very young). Euthanasia is just trap->anaesthetize->euthanize. Less stress for the animal and much less stress on wildlife populations whose lives also need to be considered.

This isn’t a Sun article

I think it depends where in the city you are. I'm in Upper Fells and until a year or so ago there was a colony of feral cats in the neighborhood. I still see the occasional stray but I think they moved on.

I watched a stray cat and a rat share a bowl of kibble left out for the strays in Remmington last summer

There are definitely some big rats around that are almost as big as a small cat.

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I definitely don't look at the rats I see around Mt Vernon and think "yeah, my cat could take that"

Cats suck at killing rats. All cats do is obliterate the local bird population which in effect messes with the rest of the ecosystem.

I get people wanting to be nice to animals but they are legit an invasive species. Spaying/Neutering feral cats is a nice sentiment but removal is the most humane option if overall wildlife conservation is your concern.

Thanks!

Yeah, I couldn’t really tell the scale from the image. I could see it being fairly easy if it’s the height you’re saying, or a lot more difficult if it was taller.

Already done.

Can you provide a link in the chat here? Can't copy off the poster easily. This is a long overdue missing link in the bike lane from Hopkins Pl down to the Stadium area.

We’ll be talking about connections to the Gwynns Falls Trail and crossing conditions.

Access the WebEx meeting: https://buff.ly/3FslW1P

Or call: 408.418.9388

passcode: 2340 732 9898

See the full project area here: https://buff.ly/3Uz80Y9

I will try. And I get it.

People bringing their feral cats in to TNR while they have covid and getting staff sick doesn't help trying to get all these cats fixed!

I think I read we need to catch about 75% of the population to be able to keep population under control.