Please don't take HN threads further into flamewar. A topic this is emotional enough as it is, with people hating other people's favorite animals and other people hating back. If you post something cheap and nasty like this, you're dropping a lit match into a petrol tank. We need better than that.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

I apologize for starting a stirring the pot, that was not my intent. It's more serious issue than people give it credit. Anyone who spent significant time in the Hawaiian islands may be able to speak to large herds of domestic cats roaming the islands.

The comment is not designed to take a thread into a flamewar, it's a legitimate grievance based on living in habitats destroyed by released domestic cats. I don't hate cats, I own an indoor cat. Removing them from a habitat they do not belong to is no different than government agencies encouraging the removal of snakehead fish from U.S. waterways. They're both destructive, predatory species hurting native species, the only underlying difference is that cats garner the irrational support of humans to exist in a feral/outdoor state and destroy with impunity (cuteness bias?).

As often happens, your later comment contains material that would have made for a more substantive comment originally.

This is one reason the guidelines include: "Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive." Cats are one hell of a divisive topic. (So are dogs, but I think less so.) It maybe doesn't quite sink to the pit with bicyclists vs. drivers but it's close.

I'll keep this in mind when engaging in emotionally divisive topics in the future. Thanks.

You surely don't mean other people's properly identifiable pets, do you?

I've had to deal with wild rodents in my garbage using violent (but less than lethal) means, but known house pets with collars or tags that belong to your neighbors? I mean, how much damage could a 7 pound cat possibly do to your property?

There is a cat that comes into our house through our cat flap and sprays. It also does this on our door step and all over our garden.

Eliminate all of the wildlife in the yard? Some people actually prefer a diverse array of wildlife over a neighbor's pet.

Seems passive aggressive to eliminate your neighbors pet. I'm not a social person, and I typically let me neighbors do as they please (as I want them to do with me) but if I have a problem with an animal I'll approach the owner.

If my neighbor kills my cat and makes my kids cry without talking to me about it first, I'm probably going to create problems for that neighbor that involve the local police department.

Probably not much. However if it was aggressive toward us or pissing on our patio furniture seats and did not appear to belong to anyone, that might be a different story. I'd actually probably just call animal control or trap it and release it somewhere far away.