My twin brother

My twin brother Ron is not directly tied to charity but he does have his causes which he supports wholeheartedly. Here is one.

Dear Mayor and Council Members:

As you know spring is well past us now and the birds and cats still continue to have babies in Austin. Baby birds (fledglings) learn to fly from the ground up. Being that they don't have their flight feathers yet they are "sitting ducks" for cats that continue to stalk them. I wanted to bring to your attention a few things:

1.)In the May 2001 issue of Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine, Executive Director Andrew Sansom says:

Cats are one of the most serious threats to biodiversity in the US. The toll they take on American Birds could be as high as 4-5 MILLION birds a day or an astonishing 1.5 BILLION per year. He also mentions the toll cat predation takes on the lower reaches of the food chain-small mammals, reptiles and the like deprives food from more natural predators in the system including birds of prey (owls, hawks), foxes and our NATIVE FELINES, such as ocelots and bobcats. In Austin it is estimated that 1 million birds, bunnies, squirrels etc are being killed by free roaming cats. We can do something about it by limiting our pets time outdoors, never abandoning cats to the wild and frankly he supports removal of feral cats from the landscape whenever possible.

I have copies of this issue to send to each of you which also features a 3 page story on how cats are killing birds throughout the US.

2)Birders World magazine just did a similar story. My response to the editor can be read in the current issue. Austin is mentioned of course.

3)You will be able to read about this problem soon is the Austin American Statesman.

4)You can watch the story on our local NBC station hopefully this Thursday evening at 6pm

5)You will also be able to educate yourselves further on a national story that will be done on one of the 3 major stations and broadcast throughout the US. Of course Austin will be featured again.

6)Texas is one the 3 top birding spot in the United States. We generate a lot of revenue from folks coming here to see our beautiful birds.

7)Travis Audubon Society has asked it's members to support a leash law and has asked members to contact you.

(8)Lastly, the reporter for the Austin Am. Statesmen was fortunate to watch a cat kill a blue jay yesterday morning outside the window of his home. He shared with me how it made him feel sick!

Its so simple to stop this insanity, implement a feline leash law in Austin. This cycle will go round and round and our wildlife will be less and less. How sad it is that our beautiful wildlife has no voice in this city and none of our elected official have the courage to take a stand! Everywhere I turn in this city I watch the habitat destruction that is going on. The city dosent even monitor all the HUGE old growth trees that are being cut everyday so that the developers can SAVE MONEY by not having to build around the trees but instead cut them down to squeeze more homes the site. Those old growth trees are where our cavity nesting birds live. The woodpeckers, Tufted Titmouse, owls, squirrels etc. I've shared with Dorinda Pullian lots of leash laws that exist throughout the US and how they work so you have something to model our law from. It's better and safer for wildlife, the cats will live a happier, healthier life, and there won't continue to be the double standard of dogs being leashed (not able to roam freely) but not cats.

As always, I look forward to your thoughts but more important... why don't we show how progressive Austin still is and how willing we are to be a leader?

Susan

PS: I've received emails from around the US responding to my letter in Birders World, the same exists everywhere, people are concerned, very concerned, why aren't you?

This is an article some of which I lost but you get the gist of it