Stray cats ate my family fish dinner... this means WAR!

[goodsamaritan]

We've been having problems with stray cats the past few months.  Recently I resorted to shooting them with a pellet rifle, the ones you use in airsoft.  I'm a good shot so I hit them all the time.  But they keep coming back.  Pellets probably aren't painful enough.

This evening was my boiling point.  Saturday morning 3am I left for the fish port at Paranaque to buy fresh fish for my family, and this dinner we were serving 1/2 of a 2 kilo "talakitok" fish I had bought and we were going to grill it for the family. 

The maid was suddenly apologizing in droves to me,  she said the stray cats had eaten the fish!  She had let down the plate of 1/2 of the fish while answering her cell phone, after her call, the fish had disappeared.

That does it.  My other kids ate baked chicken, but my 2nd son has a moratorium on chicken so he had left over goat instead of the fresh fish.

Grrrr.... no creature takes food away from my family.

Kid gloves are off.  No more pellet gun.  This time I got a bunch of fly paper and set traps in the usual places the stray cats go and put bait in them... fish entrails / organs... so far after 1 hour of baiting, 2 cats have been fly papered.  They are smart animals, I've seen one test the fly paper... but eventually the fly paper got him.

Let's wait through the night.

Maybe tomorrow and the next days I will get cage traps.  This should be a job for the city pound.  Maybe I should call them up as well.

Any other ideas to get rid of stray cats?

[TylerDurden]

Well, if it was me, I would keep them as pets, but then I'm just a big old softie.

[feral]

Any other ideas to get rid of stray cats?

Well, this is a RAF forum.   

Also, if eating them doesn't work, you could try planting some catnip a few houses down

On a more serious note, if it is reasonably available, some sort of motion detector with a high frequency (i.e. too high for you to hear) siren might work.  Part of the problem with cats is that they are damn smart, and if they know it is you that is causing them the discomfort, they'll either ignore it, or wait till you're gone.  Something that scares the crap out of them every time they wander over for fresh fish, not just when people are around, should do the trick.  I haven't personally used it; I like cats, and keep my fresh meat in the fridge or garage (so it can absorb all those healthy fumes...).

[primaD]

Have you ever heard of "Smith & Wesson"?  I'm pretty sure that will send a strong message.  Otherwise, yeah you could just eat the darn things also.    my gf's family eats dogs and even in my culture (Korean) we eat dogs although I will NEVER ever eat a dog unless it's a matter of life or death. (or cat for that matter)  I love dogs too much!  cats, well not so much as you can see..

[Dan]

I don't necessarily like anyone species, I just like individuals.  As much as I hate doing it, we have had problems with stray dogs and cats, and there is usually only one way to fix it.  If they are truly feral cats, then shooting them is about the only option.