Stray and feral cats are a serious problem in California. Due to the high impact of stray and feral cats in California, that even prompted the mass cull (slaughter) on San Nicholas Island to shoot, poison and use steel jaw traps on these cats, prompts me to address the need for a law that requires a LICENSE TO BREED any cat in the State of California.  **This is to apply TO CATS ONLY** because of the feral/stray impact on the ecology and wildlife, and massive feral cat colonies in California.  In other words, if you wish to have a cat intact - you must pay *VERY* high license fees to help offset the enormous expense of animal control in California (which will produce State revenue)--shall henceforth be called the LICENSE REQUIRED TO BREED CATS PROPOSAL. All other cats must be sterilized. Neighbors will often turn in people who allow cats to breed as they often are a nusance to their neighborhood.

--reason is CATS BREED FASTER THAN ANIMAL CONTROL CAN KILL THEM
--reason: California spends a quarter of a billion dollars on animal control killing a half million companion pets yearly-most of them being CATS-EVERY YEAR!

So serious was this problem, San Nicholas Island's plague of feral/stray cats prompted officials to institute a MASS CULL or SLAUGHTER of cats. This  Petition is also to remind authorities of California that shooting, using steel jaw traps, and poisoning on cats-the San Nicholas Island feral and stray cat slaughter project-violates State animal cruelty laws-not only is it animal cruelty it includes mutilation and torture; being caught in a steel trap involves horrendous pain and suffering that cuts into the cat's flesh and it is stuck there-impaled. Poisoning cats-they die slowly and in agony.  IF A SINGLE CAT WAS SHOT,  MUTILATED OR POISONED,  I INVOKE CALIFORNIA LAW TO PROSECUTE EACH AND EVERY INDIVIDUAL AND LET THEM BE CHARGED WITH ANIMAL CRUELTY AND ANIMAL MUTILATION during the San Nicolas Island's cat eradication (slaughter) project.

I invoke California's penal code:

§597. Cruelty to animals.

(a) Except as provided in subdivision (c) of this section or Section 599c, every person who maliciously and intentionally maims, mutilates, tortures or wounds a living animal or maliciously and intentionally kills an animal, is guilty of an offense punishable by imprisonment in the state prison or by a fine of not more than twenty thousand dollars ($20,000), or by both the fine and imprisonment, or, alternatively, by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than one year, or by a fine of not more than twenty thousand dollars ($20,000), or by both the fine and imprisonment.

(b) Except as otherwise provided in subdivision (a) or (c), every person who overdrives, overloads, drives when overloaded, overworks, tortures, torments, deprives of necessary sustenance, drink, or shelter, cruelly beats, mutilates, or cruelly kills any animal, or causes or procures any animal to be so overdriven, overloaded, driven when overloaded, overworked, tortured, tormented, deprived of necessary sustenance, drink, or shelter, or to be cruelly beaten, mutilated, or cruelly killed; and whoever, having the charge or custody of any animal, either as owner or otherwise, subjects any animal to needless suffering, or inflicts unnecessary cruelty upon the animal, or in any manner abuses any animal, or fails to provide the animal with proper food, drink, or shelter or protection from the weather, or who drives, rides, or otherwise uses the animal when unfit for labor, is for every such offense, guilty of a crime punishable as a misdemeanor or as a felony or alternatively punishable as a misdemeanor or a felony and by a fine of not more than twenty thousand dollars ($20,000).

According to this Official US Fish & Wildlife Service document

http://www.darrp.noaa.gov/southwest/montrose/pdf/San_Nic_EA.pdf

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) plans to eradicate the feral cat population on San Nicolas Island either by hunting the cats with dogs or by catching the cats in cruel padded steel-jaw traps and then shooting them. These proposed measures are apparently attempts to reduce the feral cats' impact on native wildlife species.

This cull has too many problems to count. Killing cats by shooting them is not humane, especially considering that some cats will be mobile as the "hunter" is taking aim, and the cats may be wounded rather than immediately killed. Chasing down feral cats with dogs is extremely terrifying for the cats and unimaginably cruel. Using padded steel-jaw traps is also very cruel—the thin strip of rubber on padded steel-jaw traps does little to protect panicked cats from painful injuries. Numerous studies have shown that animals caught in padded steel-jaw traps experienced injuries including swelling, cuts, broken bones, severed tendons, and broken teeth caused by chewing on the trap. Worst of all, the aforementioned report admits that cats may be left in these painful traps for up to 15 hours! Furthermore, there is no guarantee that local wild animals such as foxes won't also fall victim to these traps.

Your Honor-I realize the word "mandatory" sterilization brings controversy, but applied ONLY TO CATS due to an obvious need in California - I feel is a common sense intervention due to environmental reasons. This is a more humane alternative than shooting, poisoning and using steel traps on these cats.