How UWI's Biotechnology Department, JSPCA and Zoological Society of London can track Feral Cats and Dogs

“We estimate that free-ranging domestic Cats kill 1.4 to 3.7 billion birds and 6.9 to 20.7 billion mammals annually. We estimate that “Un-owned” Cats, as opposed to owned pets, cause the majority of this mortality......Scientifically sound conservation and policy intervention [are] needed to reduce this impact”

Dr. Scott Loss and his team from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Washington in the Journal Nature Communications on Tuesday January 29^th 2013

I’m sure you’ve seen out maps detailing the Undersea Fiber Optics links that connect Jamaica to the world as stated in Kelroy’s Geezam blog article entitled “Undersea Cables keep the Caribbean connected to the World Wide Web” and thus make Telecommunications possible.

I personally did an article on an Interactive Investment Map developed by MonaGIS as reported in Geezam blog article entitled “JAMPRO, MonaGIS and the Interactive Investment Map – Consider.Evaluate.Act” that shows the resources in Jamaica that are pertinent to any FDI (Foreign Direct Investor) investing in Jamaica.

Now for Feline and LOLCat loves in Jamaica, brace yourselves.

Meow! #KeepCalm

The Zoological Society of London, as part of its launch of a Tiger Sanctuary, has launched a Google Map-lookalike that oddly enough, tracks Cat as reported in “Cat Map: Like Google Maps, but for felines”, published March 6, 2013 9:13 AM PST by Michelle Starr, CNET News and “London zoo to create map of city's cats”, Feb. 28 7:11 PM EST By RAPHAEL SATTER, Associated Press!

In a bid to raise awareness of the need to protect the Big Cats in the Wild, the Zoological Society of London has, oddly, created a map that allows feline owners to post the location of their Cat and what type of Cat they have.

Obviously, from visiting the Zoological Society of London Cat Map (that’s what I’m calling it!) it’s nowhere near complete, as I expected waaaaaay more Cats in Africa and East Asia. Also the Caribbean appears to be under-represented, as Jamaica is bare of Cats!

Despite its apparent silliness, it has a practical edge.

The Department of Biotechnology at the University of the West Indies and the JSPCA (Jamaica Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) and the Zoological Society of London can collaborate on the Study of Migratory Patterns of Cats with assistance from Telecom Providers all over the World

This is by using the map to investigate the degree to which local Jamaica Domestic Cats aka 4 foot “puss” as well as Cats the World over are decimating wildlife, mainly birds. This as it has come to light that Domestic Cats are responsible for decimating Local Birdlife as noted in the article  Cats in US kill billions of birds, mammals, study finds, published January 29, 2013, PhysOrg and “Hello Kitty! Please Don’t Kill Me!”, Published January 29, 2013 by Katia Andreassi, National Geographic.

Dr. Scott Loss and his team from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Washington dug up old research papers on Cat killings (or murders) and broke it down like this in the Journal Nature Communications:

1.      84 million Cats with owners in the United States.

2.      30 and 80 million Feral Cats (Felis Catus) in the United States.

3.      The average Feral Cat (Felis Catus) kills 30-47 birds each and 177-299 mammals in both the United States and Eastern Europe

4.      Feral Cats (Felis Catus) kill 1.4 to 3.7 billion birds and 6.9 to 20.7 billion mammals each year in the United States

I’m sure you do similar mathematical computations for Feral Cats (Felis Catus) and Feral Dogs (Canis Jamaicanus Domesticus) in Jamaica, once armed with the right statistical information.

In the case of Feral Dogs (Canis Jamaicanus Domesticus), it’s to combat incidence of Dog bites among children by locating them and having them neutered and spayed as suggested in my blog article entitled “MRSI and Stray Dogs - Dr. Dolittle and The Golden Child”. The project can be undertaken, this time including BOTH Cats and Dogs with the SAME recommendations:

1.      Animal Registry where Mongrel Dogs are registered to owners using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) as is the case in England as stated in the article “Crackdown on Dangerous Dogs to make microchips compulsory for all”, published Tuesday 9 March 2010, The Guardian

2.      GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) tracking collars for the Dogs in much the same way prisoners are currently being tracked by the Department of Correctional Services with the help of Dilieu Technology as stated in the article “Electronic tracking device for prison parolees, persons on bail”, published Sunday, November 13, 2005 BY LUKE DOUGLAS Sunday Observer writer, The Jamaica Observer.

3.      Recapture the Mongrel [feral] Dogs and Cats in the wild and have the Government of Jamaica use taxpayer’s dollars to spay and neuter these wild Dogs to prevent them from breeding.

4.      Laws must be enforced to have Dogs registered so as to treat all such dog bite incidents as cases of manslaughter, as the Dogs, be they Pedigree or Mongrel, have owners.

I smell a PhD in Biology coming out of this long term study, which would require mobilizing a team of Biology students (Postgraduate and Undergraduate) to capture, tag and actively track Feral Cats (Felis Catus) and Feral Dogs (Canis Jamaicanus Domesticus) in the Wild.

The idea is somewhat similar to my suggestion to track Feral Dogs (Canis Jamaicanus Domesticus)as stated in my blog article entitled “KSA Public Health Department vs Corporate Area Dogs – 101 Dalmatians Kill and Kill Again”; using of Rechargeable Battery powered SIM Card enabled Collars to track the Migratory patterns of Local Jamaican Domestic Animals.

Curiously, Telecom Providers can benefit, the main reason for doing this article.

Really? Yes, Really!

I don’t like Biology but I can smell a Telecom related opportunity when I see one. Telecom Provider Digicel especially should like this; it’ll create more customers, expand their company business into Tracking Services.  

Ironically, too, it’ll create more revenue via advertising in a manner similar to the explanation for Brown Dawg Mobile Social Network and making money from advertising via Voicemail and SMS in my blog article entitled “LIME and Digicel Networks routing Callers to Voice Mail - Hit and Run Advertising while Test out Free Voice Calling”.

Currently Jamaica has to demonstrate that it’s using the 8 million phone numbers it got back in 2000 efficiently in order to get the new number range via a new Area Code requested by the OUR (Office of Utilities Regulation) as noted in my blog article entitled “OUR applies for new Area Code for Jamaica - Competition in Telecoms in the coming Hunger Game Catching Fire of Mobile Computing”.

As such, MNP and MRSI is a part of the plan to make more efficient use of the Number ranges given to Telecom Providers. This in a bid to make way for a Third Telecom Provider to utilize the as-yet-to-be-implemented 700MHz Spectrum Licenses and Fiber Optic Licenses for the provisioning of Data Networks as explained in my blog article entitled “Phillip Paulwell allocates 700Mhz and Fiber Optic License for LTE - Broadcasters effectively on notice for Digital Switch Over”.

Both Telecom Provider Digicel and Telecom Provider LIME have a lot of spare phone numbers that are effectively inactive or actively registered as described in my blog article entitled “How to Register your SIM Card and get the PUK1 and access Digicel’s Phone Calling Records”.

These unused numbers can be used to track these Feral Cats (Felis Catus) and Feral Dogs (Canis Jamaicanus Domesticus), as my estimate is that they number almost 2-4 times the number of humans in Jamaica, easily eight million (8,000,000) numbers.

These spare phone numbers can be assigned to SIM Cards used to track these Feral Cats (Felis Catus) and Feral Dogs (Canis Jamaicanus Domesticus)  once captured, spayed and neutered by the JSPCA. Once tagged, they’d be registered to either the Department of Biotechnology at the University of the West Indies and the JSPCA, who’d share administration of this Mobile Number Database.

They be tracked via their Rechargeable Battery powered SIM Card enabled Collars with the entire cost of the tracking being paid for via advertising and funding secured by the Biochemistry Department of the University of the West Indies and The JSPCA (Jamaica Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), effectively making them a MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator).

Biochemistry Department of the University of the West Indies, the JSPCA and The Zoological Society of London can then allocate numbers to Advertisers who’d sponsor a set of phone numbers assigned to track these Cats and Dogs.

They’d use the numbers strictly for advertising to do the following as described in my blog article entitled “LIME and Digicel Networks routing Callers to Voice Mail - Hit and Run Advertising while Test out Free Voice Calling”:

1.      Voicemail with advertisements – Customers calling the number get treated to a Sponsored Ad and leave a message, which the sponsoring company can retrieve later as part of a Promotion

2.      SMS (Short Messaging Service) or Text with advertisements – Sponsoring companies can use the numbers to launch SMS Ad campaigns. They can also do real-time Text Campaigns using Technology similar

3.      Tracking Games with Advertising – The Feral Cats (Felis Catus) (sorry no Dog Map exists as yet!) could be tracked on the Zoological Society of London in real-time, again with Hyperlink Mouse-Over Ads assigned to each Cat

4.      A Tracking App for your Cat – This would allow you and other Cat lovers to track your Cat as well as other Cats, both Wild and Domestic. Subscribers who register their Cats would make revenue via Hyperlink Mouse-Over Ads assigned to each Cat

5.      Cat Audio and Video – using a wearable Raspberry Pi Computer and Camera as described in my blog article entitled “The Evolution of the Raspberry Pi Computer into a Mainstream Wearable Computer - How to teach Computer Programming using Flying Sword of Dragon Gate”

Ditto the above for Dogs and a possibly soon-to-be-launched Dog Map, which I suspect may be in the works. So in a bid to get the ball rolling, I’d like everyone in Jamaica visiting this article to represent Jamaica by posting their Cat on the Zoological Society of London Cat Map and let time do the rest.

Hopefully, such a local study here in Jamaica, in conjunction with the Zoological Society of London, will help to sway the Public away from the idea of killing these Feral Cats (Felis Catus) and Feral Dogs (Canis Jamaicanus Domesticus) as some are wont to conclude from this study as being the next course of action “Cats Are Ruthless Killers. Should They Be Killed?”, published January 29, 2013 By Hannah Waters, Scientific American

These are God’s creatures too; spay and neuter, adoption and domestication or use Birth Control are the best non-lethal solutions to reduce their numbers. Putting them to work to reduce the Rat Population in New Kingston and other parts of the Corporate Area is an even better idea.

This is it’s my prediction that after Rats have gotten immune to the poisons that killed off his current generation as reported in “Rats booted - Rodent eradication programme works in New Kingston”, Published Sunday September 30, 2012, The Jamaica News, their offspring’ll make a roaring comeback.

Currently the Feral Cats (Felis Catus) and Feral Dogs (Canis Jamaicanus Domesticus) population may be doing more than biting people and children. They may be slowly killing off out indigenous wildlife as well in a growing problem that soon to gain major publicity in Jamaica.

Hopefully the Zoological Society of London will also expand the idea to include active tracking of Wild and Feral Cats (Felis Catus) globally via partnerships with Telecom Providers, making it possible to Kick Ass 2 (2013) reduce the impact of these domestic Predators on Wildlife.

Here’s the Link

Zoological Society of London Cat Map