You can shoot the people feeding the foxes? Not sure how I feel about that.
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Like Jesus would do, only for people. You know how it is. How was it they fixed His wagon?
Recidivists, the lot of them.
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So to be clear, she is not being jailed for feeding cats. She is being jailed for violating the conditions of her probation stemming from animal hoarding. Seems like social services would be the way to go here, rather than incarceration. I agree with other posters that TNR is a better control for strays.
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Thanks for at least keeping an open mind.
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In our neighborhood cats do all of that in spades, foxes might be an improvement! 
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Criminalizing kindness is a publicity stunt to bring acceptance for an upcoming fascist coup.
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If I was your neighbor and I set up feeding stations for raccoons, or migrating geese, or rats, or starlings, would that be an OK act of “kindness”?
No, I do not think this woman should go to jail. But what she is doing is not something her neighbors should be required to put up with.
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So, bottom line, don’t feed stray cats. They should kill and eat wild birds like nature intended. Right? Right bird people?
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The poor neighbors! Oh the humanity!
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They tend to eat the food and kill the birds anyway.
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ikr gonna b lotsofcatsandjailtime
How the municipality correct events will remain to be seen
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That and Rabies. Don’t forget the rabies!
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Maybe not:
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I don’t know. Is it really ok to support an invasive predator? Don’t we do enough damage already? Is it helping the cats or creating more suffering? When I was a kid there was a cat lady on my street who fed the strays. The old, collapsed barn they lived in was a horror show of deformed, inbred cats. After her death the Humane Society was called in. A few years after the cleanup a new home was built on the site. The family that moved in was plagued with unexplained illnesses. They weren’t aware of the former cat problem. My sister told them and they moved out. I suspect there was a lawsuit but I didn’t pry. They’re doing well now. The property has been the source of much controversy.
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They also eat those Canada geese, which I’m not allowed to do (even though they look delicious). The golfers are MOST appreciative.
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I’m pretty sure that “feeding stray cats” is not “illegal”. If someone tries to arrest you for that, you’re completely justified in telling them to fuck off.
True that.
Perhaps the most ethical path is to catch, neuter and release strays, don’t feed the strays, be sure to put bells on housecats that go outside so they can’t catch birds, and donate to shelters.
I like it when birds thrive in my garden. An overabundance of strays cuts down in a bad way on birdsong.
But I sure as hell like to be contrary too.
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Why can’t we eat them!? Oakland parks and rec will cull the population that resides at lake Merritt every fall. I say that’s missed opportunities for Christmas dinners.
Also, keep in mind that feral cats are a local ecological/wildlife nightmare.
I’d say let her feed them if she keeps the number below a certain amount (in consideration of her neighbors), and only feeds sterilized cats. She can work with a rescue group to trap and sterilize cats. Otherwise she’s just contributing nutrients to what will be a exponentially growing problem.
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Non-expert cat lover here.
First off I agree putting an elderly woman in jail for feeding cats is terrible. Secondly we should acknowledge that humans are the ultimate cause of the trouble with feral cats.
But this is a tricky topic and the fact remains we need to address feral cat populations worldwide from an ecological standpoint as well as an animal welfare one.
We estimate that free-ranging domestic cats kill 1.3–4.0 billion birds and 6.3–22.3 billion mammals annually. Un-owned cats, as opposed to owned pets, cause the majority of this mortality. Our findings suggest that free-ranging cats cause substantially greater wildlife mortality than previously thought and are likely the single greatest source of anthropogenic mortality for US birds and mammals.
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2380
There also seems to be some contention around whether the science supports some of these claims:
Advocates promoting trap-neuter-return (TNR) often claim that feral cats harm wildlife only on islands and not on continents; fill a natural or realized niche; do not contribute to the decline of native species; and are insignificant vectors or reservoirs of disease. Advocates also frequently make claims about the effectiveness of TNR, including claims that colonies of feral cats are eventually eliminated by TNR and that managed colonies resist invasion by other cats. The scientific literature contradicts each of these claims.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19245489 via Feral Cats Kill Billions of Small Critters Each Year | Science| Smithsonian Magazine
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