PEST CONTROL? Cat shooting gets bird watcher in trouble

Jun. 23—TRAVERSE CITY — Tuesday morning found Martin Gasiewicz standing outside the Sgt. Dennis W. Finch Law Enforcement Center on Woodmere Avenue, preparing to turn himself in.

On May 1, Grand Traverse County Sheriff's deputy Matt Karczewski was called to the rural Blair Township residence where Gasiewicz lives.

The deputy, court records show, was investigating a complaint from a neighbor who said Gasiewicz had shot and injured a cat, that then ran to the neighbor's property and later died.

On June 5, Devin Roberts, an assistant prosecuting attorney with the county prosecutor's office, authorized a warrant for Gasiewicz's arrest on two charges: killing or torturing an animal, which is a felony, and reckless use of a firearm, a misdemeanor.

If found guilty, Gasiewicz faces a $5,000 fine and up to four years in jail.

"I'm being persecuted by laws that don't exist," said Gasiewicz, 66, after describing himself as a retiree and bird-and-wildlife watcher.

Gasiewicz was referring to Michigan's animal cruelty laws, first passed in 1931, which address the care and treatment of farm animals, exotic animals such as reptiles, and companion animals such as dogs and cats, but do not mention feral cats or feral dogs.

Gasiewicz says that's what he shot, a feral cat.

The arrest warrant, however, identifies the cat as belonging to an unidentified neighbor — and Gasiewicz is disputing that.

"That was not a pet cat," he said. "You can tell the ferals. They act wild. And have a thick coat of fur to get through the winter."

Cats vs. birds

Animal rights organizations define feral cats as outdoor-only cats, often born in the wild, that are unsocialized, cannot be domesticated and hunt to survive. Stray cats were once someone's pet, until they were dumped, abandoned, got lost or ran away. Strays can become feral if enough time elapses without human contact, experts say.

Feral, stray and "free-ranging" cats — pets allowed outside unrestrained — are known to kill birds and wildlife at an alarming rate, which even leaders of local and national organizations advocating for cats, agree is a problem.

"I feed birds at my house, too, so I truly understand his frustration," said Kelly Lemcool, when told of the charges against Gasiewicz.

Lemcool is founder of Kelly's Kritters, a rescue organization for cats and kittens based in Blair Township.

"But it still makes me feel disappointed and sick to hear of someone shooting a cat, including a feral cat," she said. "There are other options."

These include adjusting the location of bird feeders so cats cannot access them, Lemcool suggested.

Nature lovers also can pressure the state Legislature to pass laws requiring cat owners to keep their cats in their yard, she said, better incentivize spay-and-neuter efforts, support live-trapping of feral cats so they can be spayed and neutered, and urge veterinarians to offer free spay-and-neuter clinics a few times a year.

Lemcool said she'd help organize such an effort by veterinarians and invited those interested to send her a private message on social media.

Tree Chitwood, manager of Wild Birds Unlimited on Front Street in Traverse City, said the store offers an aerial bird feeder on a winch manufactured in Indiana that's intended to keep bears away from bird food. The adjustable apparatus works just as well to keep cats away from birds, she said.

"If you care about the environment, if you care about other critters besides your cat, keep your cat indoors," Chitwood said. "It's better for birds, but it's also safer for the cat."

Outdoor cats face a range of dangers, from cars and other larger predators, such as foxes and coyotes, to disease and unintended poisoning by eating mice or rats that have ingested the substance left out by homeowners trying to solve a rodent problem.

Cats kill billions of birds annually

Before his arraignment Tuesday, Gasiewicz acknowledged shooting at the cat, after watching it try to kill "Junior," a baby rabbit he said frequents his back yard.

The same big white cat, he said, had wiped out the rest of the rabbits that once also visited. Gasiewicz then described how he'd previously watched the cat snatch baby skunks and kill a rare red-headed woodpecker, a colorful bird the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has listed as endangered.

Researching what homeowners can do about feral cats led Gasiewicz to the American Veterinary Medical Association's website, he said, and scholarly articles about animal euthanasia, then to scientific studies about the number of birds and mammals feral and free-ranging cats kill annually — 2.4 billion and 12.3 billion, respectively, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — and finally, he said, to his .22 rifle.

This, he said, was a last resort.

Live-trapping, licensing, other pressures

"Using a slingshot to scare it away didn't work and you usually can't trap a feral cat — they're too smart for that," Gasiewicz said. "Those programs that say they will trap them, spay and neuter, then let them back out into the wild? Well, that doesn't solve the problem of killing wildlife and killing endangered birds."

Lemcool said she actively supports such live-trapping programs, though she acknowledged that, even if successful, these efforts wouldn't immediately help protect wildlife.

"But it could make for a lot fewer feral cats in the future," Lemcool said.

She shared data showing how one unspayed female cat, with two litters of kittens a year, and its offspring, if they're not spayed or neutered, in eight years can produce more than 2 million kittens.

A couple of other factors that Lemcool said make this cat vs. wildlife math even worse are climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic.

"With climate change — or whatever you want to call the warmer temperatures — cats stay in heat longer now and can have three litters a year instead of two," Lemcool said.

"And everyone was bored during COVID," she added, "so they got pets. Then times got hard and they couldn't afford the vet care. Both those add up to more cats that aren't spayed or neutered."

Kelly's Kritters is now in its third year of operation, with cat-loving volunteers helping Lemcool find homes for cats and kittens.

In 2021, Lemcool said they placed 167 felines; in 2021, that number climbed to 173 and, so far this year, she and her staff of volunteers have already found homes for about 100.

Last week, she turned 25 people away who'd sought to relinquish their cats or kittens to her.

"I just can't house them all," Lemcool said. "And because of that, I'm sure many of them are being dumped."

Lemcool and Gasiewicz don't know each other, but both said that Blair Township, with its farms, open land and forests — habitat that is also home to plenty of wildlife — is a prime dumping ground for people abandoning their cats.

And that, according to the 1931 state law, is actually illegal.

Legal loopholes for felines

"I wish somebody would pay attention to what's going on," Gasiewicz said. "The federal government leaves it up to the county, the county says, 'That's a city thing.'

"It goes right down the drain after that, and nobody takes care of the problem."

Grand Traverse County does not require cats to be licensed or vaccinated against rabies the way dogs are required to be treated.

The county's animal control ordinance mostly governs the responsibilities of animal control officers, as one of capturing and confining stray dogs or dogs in danger, returning them to their owners or otherwise re-homing them. But it doesn't say anything about cats — feral or otherwise.

On Tuesday afternoon, after spending several hours in the county jail, Gasiewicz was arraigned in 86th District Court on the two charges.

Magistrate Tammi Rogers released Gasiewicz on a $5,000 personal recognizance bond and scheduled his pre-trial conference for July 6.

During those proceedings, Gasiewicz said he plans to call the court's attention to a provision in the 1931 law, 750.50b, paragraph 15©, which states animal cruelty penalties do not apply if someone is involved in pest control.

Gasiewicz had previously emailed the National Audubon Society, to get their take on what to do about feral cats and, when he got home from court, a reply from the organization was waiting.

"Cats — particularly feral cats — are a leading cause of bird deaths," an unnamed staffer with the society's supporter care office said. The reply also stated the Smithsonian Institution' scientists assisted U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in confirming the estimate that cats kill 2.4 billion birds a year.

Then the reply referred Gasiewicz to another national nonprofit organization, the American Bird Conservancy, and its "Cats Indoors!" campaign.

Like Gasiewicz, the American Bird Conservancy opposes trap, neuter, release programs for feral cats, citing how spayed and neutered cats individually can kill as many birds as unspayed or unneutered cats can.

The "Cats Indoors!" campaign advocates instead for cat-safe fences on residential property, "catios" and other freestanding enclosures that offer cats a safe way to enjoy the outdoors, as well as harnesses, strollers and backpacks for pet owners to take walks outside with their cats.

Chitwood, at the local Wild Birds Unlimited franchise, said customers frequently express frustration with free-ranging cats, and pointed to the national office's "Save the Song Birds" campaign, with seven actions bird lovers can take. No. 2: Keep cats indoors.

"Provide your cat hours of entertainment by setting up a bird-feeding station outside with a comfortable indoor viewing area," the campaign advises.

On Wednesday morning, Gasiewicz said he watched the birds at his backyard feeder, a couple of chipmunks showed up to take care of any seeds that fell to the ground, then "Bandit," a "teenage" raccoon Gasiewicz said he thinks was born this spring, wandered in.

"Our wildlife is part of our family," Gasiewicz said. "This is their natural home."