Hmmm...do you have to shoot each cat nine times?

Goodbye, Kitty?

If a firefighter from La Crosse gets his way, stray cats in Wisconsin could legally be blown from here to feline eternity. Not surprisingly, the proposal to allow the shooting of free-roaming cats has horrified cat lovers nationwide.

"This really crosses the line in human and cat relations," said Ted O'Donnell, owner of a pet supply store in Madison. He has set up a website called dontshootthecat.com. "I remember when firefighters used to rescue cats -- not shoot them."

This particular firefighter, 48-year-old Mark Smith, doesn't quite see what all the fuss is about.

"I get up in the morning and if there's new snow, there's cat tracks under my bird feeder," Smith told the Associated Press "I look at them as an invasive species, plain and simple."

Using that logic, he has asked Wisconsin officials to designate free-roaming domesticated cats as members of an "unprotected species" that could be shot on sight by anyone holding a small-game license.