President — John Clark, 907 Holmes Flat Rd., Redcrest, CA 95569; phone: 707-722-4259
Vice President — James C. Schmerker Jr., P.O. Box 1166, Bethel Island, CA 94511; phone: 925-684-3855; e-mail: animaldamagecontrol@netzero.com
Membership Secretary — Rita Clark, 907 Holmes Flat Rd. Redcrest, CA 95569; phone: 707-722-4259
Secretary — Leona Hencratt; phone: 530-547-3240
Treasurer — Walter Hawering, 900 Hillgate Rd., Arbuckle, CA 95912
Membership Options:
• Family membership including subscription to Trapper & Predator Caller — $20
• Junior membership with subscription — $15
• Lifetime membership — $300
• Subscription cost for life members — $10
Complete membership application on first page of association section and send dues to:
CTA, Membership Secretary Rita Clark 907 Holmes Flat Rd. Redcrest, CA 95569 707-722-4259
VICE PRESIDENT’S REPORT
Hello to all. I hope everyone had a safe and productive season. Spring has sprung, and denning critters are at it again. Haven’t got much in the way of news from hereabouts.
Kinda funny, our newspaper just ran a big front page article about how mountain lions are rare and how strange it is that we are not having more attacks and conflicts with them. From my own anecdotal evidence, that’s B. S.; I’m still pulling kills out of people’s suburban backyards. I get calls about cats about as often as ever, which is pretty often, considering I’m just a little private wildlife controller, not a police or government agency.
They are concerned that their numbers are dropping. I kinda wonder about that. If they are, that would squish any hope of undoing our stupid voter-induced protected status—which would be great, if we did have a decline, and their numbers would not be appropriate to control—but my suspicion is that they have really poor data. By accident, or on purpose. From the pest-control side of my work, I learned that they are going to severely restrict the consumer access to second-generation anticoagulants, because it has worked its way into apex predators like mountain lions; necropsies show internal damage from exposure to the over-the-counter, hardware-store type poisons. The article didn’t mention any of this. I wonder if any of you have noticed a decline yourselves in the cats, or any cats, for that matter; I know we see trends faster than the rest of the populace, and we kind of outnumber the biologist population.
Anyway, hope you all have a great summer.
Talk to you soon.
— James C. Schmerker Jr.
