Re: Protecting birds should be a priority (Letters, Feb. 6)
I have difficulty extolling values through ignorance, following blindly, not thinking, amidst the ballyhoo of the group. My opinion? Unenlightened conjecture is suspect.
For the past 10 years in Sooke there has’t been a killer frost. Flocks of all varieties of birds have increased their population from some 10-20 to, in some sightings, well over 100. Rats, mice, and deer have proliferated.
This enjoyment comes with a price: lymphocytic choriomeningitis, leptospirosis, hantavirus, pulmonary syndrome, rat-bite fever, and salmonellosis. That’s all available from the rats.
Mice, large flocks of birds, and deer carry their own Latin-named equivalents. They chow down on garden and field crops and the birds snack on most pollinating insects.
In this modern world, too-busy-to-do-anything people seem to experience nature proliferating on the tube, perhaps a short few days in a provincial park. My experience of nature over 60 years meant working in the woods, fishing on the ocean and farming on the farm.
And I can almost weep joyfully when one of my unlicensed indoor/outdoor feline friends brings home a dead rat or several little feathered critters. Seems to me that is the nature of things.
I suppose I could buy a ton or many gallons of a really toxic poison; wouldn’t that be lovely, eh. Just a greenie at heart, I guess.
Please note my unlicensed well-fed and behaved cats are available for rent or lease to anyone who finds just too much bird or rat fecal matter around their bird-feeder, on the paint of their shiny automobile, in their barn, or on their backyard barbecue.
The cats may be reached directly at 1-800-DYRODENT, extension 6369.
There is a disclaimer: be careful, the cats will watch you. Most find that disquieting.
Peter Wilhelm
Sooke
