I found Donna Ching’s hostility toward free-roaming cats and her call to exterminate them absurd and cruel (“Keep cats indoors and eliminate feral colonies,” Star-Advertiser, Letters Feb. 23). I’ve heard this diatribe many times and I’m always amazed that these humans have no sense of the irony in placing the blame for habitat destruction and harm to the environment on every invasive species but their own.

I’ve heard a man at a community meeting blame a colony of a dozen cats for discouraging the nesting of owls, while just steps away lay our subdivision of hundreds of houses and thousands of people. Is it possible that we might be the greatest “eco-terrorists” to ever walk the planet?

Most of these so-called invasive species were brought here by humans. They’re useful to us until they have the gall to become successful and thrive, at which time we start calling for a culling.

Trap, neuter, release is slow, but it works. And maybe more importantly, it’s the compassionate solution to deal with animals who are the victims of our own human folly.

Marcy Wilhelm

Waipahu

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