the cat takes the cheese

dear readers, you do know that it's actually the rat that takes the cheese (after the farmer takes a wife, the wife takes a child, the child a nurse, the nurse a cow, the cow a dog, the dog a cat and so on and so forth until the cheese stands alone, seriously check it out on am i right - misheard lyrics, and that's derry-o, not a dairy-o)? well, a similar game of telephone has been playing out in the media this week.

everyone is up in arms about how wisconsinites want to shoot cats. while i'll not begrudge the animal activists using this as a springboard to raise awareness on the issues, can we please take a moment to remember what the news (as opposed to the numerous op/ed pieces it spawned) story actually says. notably:

Outdoor enthusiasts approved the proposal 6,830 to 5,201 at Monday's spring hearings of the Wisconsin Conservation Congress, a citizens' advisory group. The results, released Tuesday by the state, get forwarded to the Natural Resources Board for its consideration. Ultimately, though, any measure would have to be passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Jim Doyle.

Two state senators -- Scott Fitzgerald and Neil Kedzie -- are promising they'll do everything they can to keep the plan from becoming law. Kedzie, who chairs the Natural Resources and Transportation Committee, called the issue "a distraction from the main tasks we have at hand."

"I don't see a whole lot of momentum for it," Kedzie said. "It's not the responsibility of the DNR to regulate cats." Fitzgerald, co-chairman of the Legislature's powerful Joint Finance Committee, said he will "work against any proposed legislation to legalize the shooting of feral cats."

At least two other upper Midwestern states, South Dakota and Minnesota, allow wild cats to be shot -- and have for decades.

futilely, the original AP release even included a quote by Gov. Jim Doyle:

"I don't think Wisconsin should become known as a state where we shoot cats," said Doyle, a Democrat who neither hunts nor owns a cat. "What it does is sort of hold us up as a state that everybody is kind of laughing at right now."

thanks to Mikey Ivey for reporting on the coverage of this story in the national media, and to Tom Still for his efforts. even if he isn't a famous art director and set designer, i appreciate his attempts to set the stage:

Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, recently bemoaned the state's national reputation for weirdness.

"Once again, Wisconsin is being portrayed in the national news as the Land of the Odd," he said, bringing up recent stories about the mass killings in a Brookfield motel doubling as a church and the confused kangaroo found huddling in a dairy barn in the dead of winter.

Still said he dreams of the day when the national press will focus on the state's SAT scores, its recent job creation success or the beauty of the Wisconsin outdoors - rather than "the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field" and over-served Packer fans sporting plastic cheeseheads.

amen. now for something really juicy! be sure to check out the video footage.