http://www.livemint.com/Articles/2008/02/06211228/In-Vietnam-the-Year-of-the-Ra.html?atype=tp

Rats have been a delicacy in Vietnam’s rural areas for centuries, with recipes dating back 150 years.

For a long time, however, this country’s big city folk were generally less enthusiastic, often associating the animals more with garbage-digging vermin than mouth-watering entrees.

But in 2004, flare-ups of bird flu claimed scores of lives here and prompted many diners to search for alternative sources of protein. Demand went up, but paradoxically supply did too. That’s because rats’ natural predators—snakes and cats—are increasingly finding themselves on the menus of posh restaurants frequented by wealthy Vietnamese.

In the Le Mat district of Hanoi, dozens of restaurants specialize in snakes either farmed for the table or caught by hunters. Other snakes are shipped to China, where they are also considered a delicacy. A booming economy has caused snake prices to double in the past year in some places to roughly $18 a pound.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1052757.stm

Roast with spices

While the farmers may be pleased, some Vietnamese people may regret the difficulties being faced by the rat.

When roast with spices, rat meat is a favoured wedding dish.

The fact that so many people eat rat meat has made the authorities reluctant to use poisons in their eradication campaign.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1052757.stm

Vietnam’s clouds have silver lining

By Owen Bennett-Jones in Hanoi
Vietnamese officials say the recent floods in the Mekong delta have helped contain the rat population, resulting in far less damage than usual to crops.

This year, farmers have killed an estimated 53 million rats.

The damage rats cause to crops is reckoned to cost the country an average $6m each year.

Vietnam’s rat population started increasing when the communist leadership introduced economic reforms in the early 1990s.

I know many are opposed to hunting cats, so here is another solution.

Vietnam has a Cat Shortage and a Rapidly Growing Rat Population!

Hmmmm……..

We can export our surplus USA Cats to Vietnam!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/61141.stm

Cool for cats as rats run wild

New measures to combat a plague of rats which are eating their way through Vietnam’s rice fields have been ordered by the authorities: cats are off the menu.

The Prime Minister, Phan Van Khai, has ordered restaurants which specialise in cooking cat meat to close. He also called for the punishment of those found smuggling cats to China for use as meat or medicine.

Rice farmers say that the country’s rat population has grown out of control. In many places they estimate that the rodents will eat between 30 and 50% of their crops and cause millions of dollars worth of lost income.

They say that all the traditional methods of reducing rat numbers, such as poisoning and trapping, no longer work.

In one central province farmers say they kill at least 3,500,000 rats a week but the population just keeps growing.

http://www.upc-online.org/poultry_diseases/51906flu.html

Already the death of a non-human mammal is on record … a cat has died from H5NI avian influenza on the German island of Rugen.

There has been no person-to-person transmission in the U.S. since 1924. Victims of plague in the U.S. become infected through rodents, and can become infected by skinning an infected animal. Plague exists in the fleas of rock squirrels, California ground squirrels, prairie dogs, wood rats, chipmunks, and wild rabbits, among others. Highest risk groups in the U.S. are Native Americans (especially Navajos), hunters, veterinarians, campers, hikers, and pet owners who may become infected through an infected cat.

http://dpalm.med.uth.tmc.edu/courses/BT2003/BTstudents2003_files%5CPlague2003.htm

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9900E3D91231E233A2575BC2A9649D946096D6CF&oref=slogin

AN AUTOMATIC CAT FARM

Rats will feed Cats, Cats will feed Rats, and Fur Skin Will Be Sold

We are starting a cat ranch and taking one hundred thousand cats
Each cat will have twelve kittens a year
The catskins will sell for thirty cents each
One hundred men could skin five thousand cats a day
We could be dealing a profit of over ten thousand dollars
But what should we feed the cats?
We will start a rat ranch next door with a million rats
The rats will be twelve times faster than the cats
So we can have more rats to feed each day for each cat
But what should we feed the rats?
We will feed the ratsThe carcases of the cats
After they have been skinned
Now get this!
We feed the rats to the cats and the cats to the rats
And get the catskins for nothing
We feed the rats to the cats and the cats to the rats
And get the catskins for nothing
We feed the rats to the cats and the cats to the rats
And get the catskins for nothing
We feed the rats the carcases of the cats
After they have been skinned
We feed the rats to the cats and the cats to the rats
And get the catskins for nothing
Rats to the cats and the cats to the rats
And get the catskins for nothing!

What gives you the right for YOUR cat to roam my property? To dig in my trash? To destroy the cardinal nest and babies in the bush under MY window?

Don’t tell me it’s “unnatural” for a cat to be on a leash. It’s unnatural for your cat to wind up in my yard, where it becomes fresh bait for my dogs!

Instead, you are the one who is logically challenged.

I say that tax breaks, if given at all, should go to those who do things that the government wants them to do, (incentives) for those who already PAY taxes!

The “tax breaks” given to the oil industry really do not reduce the taxes paid by that industry, over the long run. The drilling cost deductions can be taken in the first year, rather than spreading the cost over several years. This makes sense, as it keeps the oil industry productive, and dose not tie up capital on wells that do not produce. This encourages more production.

However, the law on drilling costs does NOT increase the legal amount of the total deduction, it is only excellerated!

On the other hand, the “tax breaks” you mention, as far as the Jimmy Carter years are concerned, were direct hand outs, tax credits that were never recovered by the IRS in any form.

Irresponsible pet owners. That’s right, you who crack the door to let “kitty” out to wander the neighborhood at night. You who are too tight to pay the price to have “kitty” neutered. You who take a cardboard box of new kittens to the county and god-knows-how, but you justify dumping them in some farmers yard. (the farmer already has half a dozen, thank-you very much)

Cat lovers are really, for the most part, secretly cat haters. How else do you explain it?

This might provide a source of income for local butchers, but I think it would be difficult to get cats to the slaughterhouse or meat processing plants.

Not sure if there is a market in cat fur, but I do believe in using the “whole” animal and not letting any parts of the cats go to waste.

There really needs to be an open season on cats. They carry infectious disease, documented destruction of endangered and migratory bird species, changing natures balance in the field, and transmission of disease to man. They also contribute to loss in the farming industry.

Estimates do range to upwards of 25 million wild feral cats in America.

This could be a very profitable situation, in addition to restoring “Mother Earth” to proper balance.

1. States/cities could sell Cat License/Cat Stamps.

2. For urban areas, a lottery could be set up, with hunters purchasing lottery tickets in competition for the right to hunt in town. This would bring in local revenue.

3. Taxidermists could make money mounting cat heads.

4. Local and state street and highway departments would save money not having to scrape dead cats up off the streets.

5. People with allergies would not be exposed randomly to wild cat hair.

This program, beneficial to nature and to the economy, would go a long way to resolving the wild cat problem.

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=6132086&version=5&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

Minneapolis Looks to Increase Cat Licensing

The Minneapolis City Council will consider new ways to make sure money is spent to license your dog or cat on Wednesday.
This also means the Council will consider tougher penalties for people who do not pay the license fee.

Only about 5 percent of pets in Minneapolis are licensed.

The numbers are especially low for cats.
Out of 115,000 cats in the city, only 124 are licensed.

Amway, you have any solutions to this problem?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351571,00.html

Expert: America About to Be Overrun by Feral Cats

U.S. streets could soon be overrun with cats if communities fail to get a handle on growing feline populations, a veterinary medicine researcher says.

The problem is growing numbers of not just strays, but also other free-roaming pet cats. The strays are likely to go unneutered or unspayed, and therefore to reproduce like mad.

On top of that, though, more than 38 million households own an estimated 88 million cats — that’s about one cat for every 3.5 Americans.

Those that aren’t “fixed” often can and do still wander freely outdoors or get lost and make kittens.

The oil companies pay a lot in taxes because they are extremely profitable. That’s common sense. The oil companies receive a lot more in subsidies than they pay in taxes so there is no sense in having them pay fewer taxes.

Let’s take a look at the state of Wisconsin (since that’s one of the few, if only state, that releases tax information to find this out). In that state for 2006, 60% of corporations that made over $100 million paid no income taxes (in Illinois 48% paid no income tax). Of the tax revenue collected by the state only 3% came from corporations. Guess who made up the rest? Property, sales and individual income taxes. So you are arguing that everyone should pay higher taxes so corporations don’t have to pay anything. That’s fascism buddy but it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve called you a fascist.

Why do we need taxes from oil companies? First we pay a lot in military expenses to protect oil company markets. We pay a huge transportation infrastructure to provide them a market. We pay huge cleanup costs to deal with their environmental destruction. We pay health care costs related to their pollution. And the oil they drill is part of the commons owned by the American people and we deserve some compensation for their taking of our property.

To the contrary wind and solar do not pollute so no asthma or environmental destruction will result. Nothing is taken from the commons and landowners rent out their land for a profit to these companies (oil companies legally can come onto your land and set up shop and you can’t do a damn thing about it). The power is generated in America so we don’t have to increase our trade deficits by a trillion dollars a year. And contrary to what you like to think the sun will continue to shine and the wind will continue to blow.

So give it a rest Paul, you still have no idea what you are talking about.

Again, you do not know what in the hell you are talking about, and it reallys shows!

Many people in the USA are stock holders of oil companies, even if they don’t realize it. For instance, are you enrolled in a 401K plan or have an IRA well guess what, some of your money in those mutual funds are invested in the oil companies. So are you willing to diverse your holdings and investments, want to give up your nest egg or at least part of what interest you are making for retirement? I think many would say my part isn’t that great anyway. Guess again, combine all those little parts and you have what, oh yeah, retirement plans, investing for the future, your children’s education, etc. We unwittingly contribute to those oil companies that we consider the evil robber barons because they make us money too. So it seems we can point our fingers in contempt but hold our hand out behind us so as to take some of the money the bad guys make for us.

We created most every mess we have today in the world be it world hunger, energy shortages, political corruption, I could go on and on but you get the point. The old comic strip Pogo said it best “We have met the enemy and he is us.” The answer to our world problems is easy except for one little thing, God and nature haven’t been able to, or want to, create that perfect human being, again. We can start to get ourselves out of many of the problems by voting for individuals that really want to make a difference and help. But alas, God and nature seem to only give us a few each generation, and those few have come to the realization that they can’t get anything done constructively in D.C. because that city is a different world than what they envisioned and it is too overwhelming a task for so few to accomplish.