Hawaii built a wall…for cats https://t.co/cQzRVHI7DO
— Garance Franke-Ruta (@thegarance) November 4, 2016
So it looks like the Los Angeles Times finally found a border wall it can endorse … to protect birds, from cats, on a volcano:
There's now a 5-mi long fence on the world's largest volcano to keep cats from preying on endangered birds in Hawaii thttp://lat.ms/2fkni3j pic.twitter.com/fonwk2sx31
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) November 4, 2016
According to the Times, the fence is “cat-proof” and will protect the endangered seabirds called Hawaiian petrels when they land on the island to prepare their nests and hatch their young:
It took three years to build the five-mile fence in a remote part of the park. Working at elevations of up to 10,000 feet, crews drilled posts into the hardened lava on the slopes of the volcano before attaching a 6-foot-high fence. Its curved top is designed to keep cats from crawling over and leaping into the birds’ nesting grounds.
However, there’s a different program that seeks to deport the cats from the only home they’ve ever known:
On Lanai, a colony of cats was faced with extermination after they were found preying on rare endemic birds. Thanks to the efforts of some local residents, hundreds of cats were captured and given a new home at the Lanai Cat Sanctuary. The nonprofit shelter is now a major tourist attraction and provides an effective way of keeping the cats away from birds.
Exit question: Did the cats pay for it?
And they're going to get the cats to pay for it, too! https://t.co/gldvYWTavS
— Dan Hanzus (@DanHanzus) November 4, 2016
Of course, the Los Angeles Times mocked Donald Trump over his “ignorance of the issues” — issues like securing the border and deporting illegal immigrants — when the paper endorsed Hillary Clinton in September:
Trump’s ignorance of the issues is manifest. He has called climate change “a hoax” and vowed to renegotiate the Paris climate accord. Obamacare would be repealed and replaced with “something great.” His signature proposal is to construct a wall along the southern border of the United States — and have Mexico pay the billions of dollars involved. Mexico, unsurprisingly, insists it will not. As for the 11 million immigrants already in the country illegally, they will either be rounded up and deported (though experts say that will cost billions of dollars, disrupt the economy, divide families and require massive violations of civil liberties) or perhaps some will be allowed to remain, living in the shadows.
Summary: Fences along the border between the United States and Mexico are bad; Fences on a volcano to protect birds from cats are good.
***
Join the conversation as a VIP Member