My morning Firefox routine is to "Open in Tabs" several directories of news sites, weblogs, music industry forums, tech and geek chatter and other daily sources of information whilst sipping the day's first, and thus best, cup of green tea.

One of my opening news tabs is MSNBC. It's not deep and it's not factually reliable, but as an indicator of spin and America's general mindset it's usually spot-on. The first story which caught my eye this morning was Should hunters be allowed to shoot cats? and I must admit, my cup of tea was no longer as wonderful as it might have been.

Wisconsin is holding a public advisory vote on whether "wild" cats should be unlisted as protected, headed up by a fellow named Mark La Crosse. The results of the vote are considered by the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board and if they agree, this would allow hunters to kill cats all year long like other unprotected species, such as gophers and skunks.

"Wild" is defined as any cat without a collar that does not show "friendly" behavior. One of my two cats is a socialized feral. He's often more friendly than the other, but both will duck for immediate cover when someone they don't know comes tramping along in boots with a gun. So what, exactly, would the signs of "friendly" behavior be? Sticking around to be shot?

The MSNBC article's stated reason for allowing cat hunting: Every year in Wisconsin alone, an estimated 2 million wild cats kill 47 million to 139 million songbirds, according to state officials.

So let's put this in perspective: hunters want to kill cats, whose flesh they do not eat and whose skins they do not use, because the cats kill songbirds? You're really reaching, boys.

The greatest threat to all wildlife, songbirds included, is habitat encroachment and destruction by homo sapiens. There are 6 billion plus of us, and far less of all of them every day.

Come clean, Mr. La Crosse. You don't give a damn about songbirds. If you did, you'd be working on population control and extolling the benefits of adoption and planned parenthood. Instead of shooting cats, you'd be promoting sustainable agriculture, ending urban sprawl and calling for the creation rather than destruction of wetlands and forests.

You just like to kill creatures which are smaller than yourself.