Animal lovers have expressed outrage after an official at the Swiss environment ministry said all stray cats should be killed.

Read the full article: Kill stray cats: Swiss environment official

This is the end of Switzerland global good reputation (if still any)!

Where is the groan button for that idiot?

That has always happened in rural areas when there are too many around I'm afraid. And when I was a kid many people ate them- especially the groups of Italian season workers. Around farms there are always plenty- and tolerated so they kill mice, etc- but when too numerous, they get culled.
Mind you, it was the same in rural UK too.

Cats sadly are responsible for a huge proportion of bird deaths every year.
I do dot condone, but it's always been the way in rural areas.

I'm not sure that it was the same in rural England Odile - when are you thinking about? And they were certainly never eaten

I love cats, not eat them. though. If you kill a wild one for its meat because this is the only thing you can eat, ok. But to kill it for sport??? No way!

Where I lived they were fed to the hounds of the local Hunt (quite recently - we lived in an area with many famous Hunts).

Totally agree Nil - I am a cat lover and I find it disgusting too. I don't know anybody who would eat cat by choice now, but it was very different in the 50s. However, I do wonder if it is not 'preferable' to having 10000s of stray cats in terrible condition, skinny ans starving, diseased and maimed, as in many Med countries (sorry, but like Spain Nil).

Problem is, most stray cats are too skinny to eat, very little meat on them.

What? I have never heard of that happening and I lived in hunting areas too.

What's the difference between a cat and a rabbit?

In Australia feral cat's are decimating the small indigenous creatures. The problem is made by humans and the problem must be solved by humans. There is a difference between someones pet and over population by one creature.

There's a Korean man who lives above me. One day I was in the hallway, looking for my cat, and I saw my neighbor walking down the stairs. So I said to him: "If you see my cat, will you please let me know? She may have sneaked out."

His reply:

"I eat it!"

(and then laughed)

I was giggling over that one for days. I had no idea this guy had such a great sense of humor.

Anyways... he told me that eating cat was not uncommon once here in CH. But maybe that shouldn't surprise me, since they also eat horse.

Hopefully they won't someday start rounding up the foreigners and donating us to the Metzger.

So what is the solution?

A rabbit is in a cage or in the wild while a cat can be n a home of free to go around. So how do you know if the cat is wild or domestic?

If one accept this, where to draw the line? What are the protection for abuse?

She's speaking of Switzerland, where they were/are eaten!

Tom

Collar = domestic, no collar = wild, as was explained to me when I moved to Ticino 22 years ago. Not that the locals who eat them care that it a pet, but rather pets are presumed to eat industrial food, which ruins the taste!

Tom

At 200 meters, I don't think one will look for a collar.

Is Kilchberg rural?

Why stop at just stray ones?

As for eating cats ...... what a load of pussies you are.

Outside of any city, it was common practice, only a generation ago here.

My wife's maiden aunt, who still lives in the 250yr. old family farm house has a couple of cat pelts on her hard wooden dining chairs to keep bums warm in winter, can even remember "their" names ...... and as for what was inside the skins, she just smiles and rubs her belly.

If stray cats are such a problem, why not introduce mandatory microchipping, database registration, and tax as has been done with dogs?

Especially since it is the norm for cats to roam free. If all pet cats were chipped, there would at least be a way to distinguish between strays and ferals.

When mandatory microchipping was first introduced there was much moaning and groaning and predictions of 'it will never work, people will just ignore the law..." but 6 years on, it is estimated that there is a 95% complicance rate. Mandatory chipping has all but solved the stray dog problem. (Note I said stray, not homeless.)

The scheme is self-financed via the dog tax and registration fees.

So cat owners - what do you think about - would mandatory microchipping of cats help in a similar way?

I blame Coop and Migros. We are just too soft, emotional and well fed these days.