When, through villainous bounty laws, the existence of one of the
most useful animals in Pennsylvania is threatened, it seems high time
for a voice of protest to be raised. Immediately the question will be
asked, what is the use of the wild cat? Its values are manifold. In the
mountainous districts, where hunters are few and far between, rabbits,
unless kept in check by wild cats, would become so numerous that they
would destroy vast numbers of growing trees by eating off their bark.
As it is the aim of all good Pennsylvanians to aid in the reforestation
of the desolated areas in the State--after the forest fire menace
has been checked, the wild cat should be preserved to help along the
arboreal millennium. In the settled neighborhoods, where farmer boys
and city hunters keep rabbits killed off, there is little need for
wild cats. And the cats have the common sense to stay away from such
localities, though they have on rare occasions come near barnyards or
hen-houses. Such cats are renegades to their race and should be killed.
But the vast majority of wild cats follow out their lives hunting
rabbits, rats, mice, shrews and other vermin. They prey on the rats
and mice which destroy the eggs of game birds. They eat much carrion,
and as such are invaluable forest scavengers. They are performing
faithfully the duties for which the same God who created us made them
to do. If rabbits become scarce, wild cats decrease, just as does the
Canada Lynx of the North; bounty laws are unnecessary, wasteful and
cruel, a sop thrown by crafty politicians to keep the mountaineer vote
in line. If there were no rabbits in the mountains there would be no
wild cats. Note carefully the sections of the State where cats are
rare, all for the same cause--lack of food supply, when not wiped out
by the mercenary bounty hunters. Those who slaughter wild cats wantonly
are false to posterity, unacquainted with natural history, ignorant of
the scheme of nature. There is some excuse to hunt wild cats for the
sport, if no attempt is made to annihilate the species. It provides a
grand chase for men and dogs, gives city men a love of the open, and
when the cat escapes, furnishes fun for the cat. The wild cat is fairly
valuable as a fur-bearer; its relative, the Canada Lynx, was much more
so, but it is now totally extinct in Pennsylvania, at least the pure
race. Therefore, as an aid to sylviculture, as a means of sport, and
for its fur, the wild cat deserves protection. Its meat is considered
very good. Such men as Dr. C. Hart Merriam and Prof. E. Emmons
pronounce it most excellent. It was a favorite relish for the old
pioneers in the Pennsylvania mountains and the Indians. Another cause
for the protection of _Lynx Rufus_. And then there is the sentimental
side, which side appeals only to the few. But it is real; animals have
rights; they add to the sum total of the beauty and picturesqueness
of this world of ours. We have no right to condemn a species to
extermination that a Wise Power saw fit to create. It is presumption on
our part. Who gave us such authority?