Part I November 14, 2007
Every autumn in Portland, Oregon, hundreds of people flock in the evening to the Chapman Elementary School, a beautiful small campus in a quaint neighborhood. They come with their floor mats and their wine and their picnic dinners, all to stare at the school's big chimney.
Not just the chimney, but the congregation of Vaux's swifts, which come to Oregon from Central America and Venezuala in the spring to breed and rear their young. Now, in the fall, up to 45,000 of them congregate around the chimney, preparing for their migration back to Latin America. That so many of them can fit into this chimney is spectacular, but the antics of thousands of these tiny birds in sync each evening in unbelievable. They circle in increasing numbers around the chimney. The crowd - tonight is the highest attendance ever - about 3,500 people - claps in anticipation of the first swifts diving into the chimney.
The swift's entry into the chimney continues to amaze people as they start to create funneling - tornado shapes in the sky - more ooohs and ahhhs. But the audience doesn't quite know what to think when a peregrine falcon appears in the sky, bulleting towards the funneling birds.
Peregrine falcons have their own history in Portland. The species fell into decline worldwide after the widespread use of DDT as a pesticide. Peregrines became almost completely extirpated from the 48 states - but the endangered species act, and the banning of DDT started to give them a chance. Cities like Portland poured over efforts to rehabilitate the urban populations of the species. Now, they thrive here, to the city's delight.
But now, in this moment of drama, there are sighs of horror, a few shrill screams. The peregrine dives - they say peregrine's are the fastest animal in the world, attacking by dive bombing at over 200 miles per hour. He pours through thousands of birds - and misses. The crowd cheers in a roar, even though, maybe, they like peregrine falcons more than vaux's swifts. Again, the peregrine dives, and again he misses. The crowd cheers.
But then something unusual happens. About a thousand of the swifts regroup and start chasing after the peregrine. The follow him for several miles, until, finally, he outruns them and fades into the cityscape.
The crowd continues to delight in the swifts. Evening turns to night and only a few thousand remain in the sky. Surprising thousands in the audience, the peregrine returns, almost falling from the sky. He efficiently grabs a swift, and leaves. The crowd boos in awe.
Seeing this all for the first time is rewarding - is there something wrong with watching animals killing animals? Is there something wrong with saving the Peregrine falcon, which kills swifts? The questions seem silly, but they are certainly on my mind as we watch the swifts.
These questions are very much on my mind, because of the man from Galveston.
The man from Galveston is Jim Stevenson, who is being called a murderer. He is receiving death threats in emails. People are talking about him all across the country. Hundreds are expressing an interest in his demise. Many talk of shooting him in the head with a rifle and letting him suffer a horrible death.
I was shocked to read all of this, perhaps even horrified, because to me, Jim Stevenson is an American patriot.
In the same month as the swifts whir above the Chapman chimney, Stevenson aimed his rifle at a feral cat near Galveston's coastal sand dunes and shot it. He shot the cat - which he was allowed to do under Texas law. He did so, because the coastal dunes are home to the endangered Piping Plover, a shorebird whose numbers have been declining since the early 20th century.
Galveston is an island just south of Houston, Texas. Because of its position along the Gulf Coast - its unique geography, it is attractive to a number of North America's birds. In fact, Stevenson, founder and President of the Galveston Ornithological Society, also owns North America's curent record holding property for the 'yard list'; a hobby practiced by millions in the country. The yard list is a list of bird species seen on one's yard. 306 birds have been counted in his yard - that is almost half the total number of species in North America; making his locale extremely important for the country's biodiversity.
Stevenson teaches life sciences, conducts birding tours on the island, and consults on environmental issues. He had spent years trying to train cat owners and island residents about the importance of keeping their cats indoors, spaying and neutering them, and so forth. Feral house cats, which are efficient predators of birds and small mammals, are one of the most dangerous threats to avian biodiversity. In America, they kill millions of birds each year. That may sound innocent enough, until you look at the numbers. Some birds, like the piping plover, exist only in the thousands, in decreasingly isolated populations.
By attempting to keep feral cats off the beaches, Stevenson may have been contributing significantly to the species' survival. This may hard to believe, but a few weeks ago, my wife and I were at Corn Creek Station of the Desert National Wildlife Range, north of Las Vegas. We walked on a trail and found a small building in the wooded riparian area there.
This building was a sort of aquarium, with windows. If you looked carefully enough through the windows, you could see a handful of them, swimming among towers of algae and weeds.
If I wanted to end a species' existence on Earth, I could nearly do it right now. An axe would do it. I would take out most of the species' population, bringing its likelihood for survival that much more compromised.
At the same time, I could do a lot as an individual to make its survival more likely. I could donate a few thousand dollars, or volunteer in recovery efforts. Federal budgets for such species is minimal - Sometimes, a species is propped up by a handful of good samaritans.
A few details in Mr. Stevenson's shooting meant a very big trial for Galveston. A bridge toll booth operator claimed he had been feeding the cat. And the cat, which the toll booth operator had given a name, was not killed immediately by the bullet. She died on the way to the vet.
Part III November 27, 2007
It's a strange component of our animal rights laws that laws against harming an animal only apply if that animal is owned. The court case - which would put Stevenson in jail for two years if convicted - centers around whether 'Mamma Cat' was indeed 'owned' by the toll booth operator.
As the case drew near, 'cat's rights activists' increased their belligerance towards Mr. Stevenson, many calling for him to be rifled down for his crimes against the world, others imagining his death. Others advocated shooting down birds in retribution. The whole thing seemed silly, but it was also scary, because the jury on this case was leaning towards condemning Stevenson to two years in jail.
Of course, in America, killing feral animals is important for maintaining the animal's own welfare. We are even considering allowing hunting of the reintroduced wolf populations in our northern states - to help the population.
But the cat people in this case - advocating violence towards both humans and birds, seem to have little on their mind but the poor cat, which suffered. But cats suffer more when they go feral, and for this cat rights advocates might be more to blame than anyone else. This is especially so since so much of the millions spent annually on their welfare goes towards the frivolous side of 'cat's rights.' - shouldn't cat's rights people be focusing on the feral cats problem? It is of tantamount importance not only to the cats, but to ecology in general - to the survival of species.
A mistrial at the Stevenson case came. The jurors seemed to think the whole thing was silly. They couldn't decide his fate. The prosecutors announced they would not retry the case. Stevenson went free.
On the internet, cat's rights activists lamented the fact that Stevenson was being hailed as responsible for bringing attention to the country's feral cat problem.
And the Piping Plovers, they persist, in their ever decreasing numbers.
The Vaux's swift event at the Chapman School, Portland
