What's that you say? Why are they hunting cats in Wisconsin? I don't know really, too many cats over there, I guess. But people are getting all bent out of shape about it, since most people haven't heard of hunting season for cats. People like cats a lot. And I have nothing against them, but I guess you do reach a point where there are too many and you need to hunt them down and shoot them.

Check this out:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=662272&page=1

Just like the fact that they are killing deer in Pt. Reyes National Park, where they are eradicating the population which has grown out of control due to the lack of natural predators, only it seems extra cruel because they are sending in the army and using machine guns. Not as cruel, one might argue, as letting them starve or get brain wasting disease or what have you, but still pretty cruel.

Read this:

http://ga0.org/alert-description.tcl?alert_id=3517043

In any case, shooting dear is definitely not quite as cruel as the wild horses, mustangs I believe, that they are running to death by chasing them with helicopters until they have heart attacks. That's the army too, or the air force. That has something to do with a new policy to get federal land to use for ranchers, and for some reason they need to kill the horses. Did you know the U.S. exports fifty tons a year of horse meat for consumption? Check this out:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0302/p03s01-ussc.html

And none of that is related to the killing of civet cats, which are actully foxes. The civets are getting eaten on the bbq in southeast asia, though China is out to stop them, because they think it might be vector for SARS transmission.

http://foodmuseum.typepad.com/food_museum_blog/2004/01/civet_cat_on_th.html

Also in the animal news is that occasionally seals turn bad as rogue seals, and eat up to 100 seagulls a day. Normal good seals don't eat seagulls ever. This last fact is relevant to me because today I went, for the very first time, in for a swim in the bay. Let me tell you, a seal might be out there and ready to eat me, but the water was like an ice bath, so seals never had a chance. I went in, swam about twenty feet and then headed back in for shore. It was like ice, or it felt that way to me.

That was actually my second visit to the club in one day. The first was at sun up, when I took Bill, who was in town for a visit, out to Alcatraz for a row. It's been quite a full week socially, what with Bill visiting, and a few dinners and various other social obligations each night. It's exhausting, really.