I. INTRODUCTION.
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?
GIVE THE WILD CATS A CHANCE.