Posted 11/16/2006 05:43:00 PM by Douglas

Ironic headline of the week:

Accused cat killer says he likes the animals

Just not cats, right?

Ornithologist Jim Stevenson won't say how many feral cats he has shot since he moved to Galveston a decade ago but acknowledges "it's a lot fewer than the number of birds I've saved."

Stevenson doesn't admit to that offense but has stated in a posting on an Internet birders' Web site that he shot as many as 24 cats with a .22-caliber rifle on his property in the first year he lived on the island.

Although he admits shooting some feral cats in the past, Stevenson, who founded the Galveston Ornithological Society and publishes the group's quarterly newspaper, "Gulls 'n Herons," denies being a cat-hater.

"It has come across in articles that I hate cats and that's just not true," Stevenson said in an interview at his home today. "I actually like cats in the house. I have friends I visit and I play with their cats in my lap."

I guess he's too much of a pussy to pull out the .22 and shoot a cat sitting on his own nards, eh?

Birds fly. Cats eat birds. No amount of rimfire .22 ammunition is going to change that fact of nature. But nice try. Maybe the majestic animals with a brain the size of a cashew you're trying to protect can devour the corpses of all your shot cats for sustenance. Ah, the circle of life. . . .